Distance and Position of camera

[Marco Morcos]

Hello Roger,

Your films have a recognizable look to them, especially how you place the camera in relation to the subject. I know you’ve previously mentioned that there’s no specific strategy for how you achieve that, and that it comes naturally to the trained eye.

But I wondered if you take notes of some of those details like the distance between the camera and the subject, the angle and height of the camera, etc. I also noticed that you position the camera more to the middle, almost 90 degrees in front of the subject, unlike other cinematographers who angle it more laterally.

I used to think that focal length played the biggest role in how a certain look is achieved. I realized that distance and positioning (camera as well as blocking) play a much bigger role.

Do you measure a specific distance when you’re about to shoot a medium close-up, for instance? Or do you just move the camera around till it looks right?

 

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