From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Leading the eye

Leading the eye

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Leading the eye

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- As we talked about in detail in the previous course on directing, an important part of the shot is guiding the eye of the audience. In that course we looked at how the eye is guided by brightness, contrast, and shapes in the frame. In this movie, we're going to look at how movement can lead the eye and give motivation for the camera to move. In this shot from The Last Emperor, there's so much chaos. There are so many people and there's a very limited color palette. Even as a still frame, it's very busy and there's not really any focal point. But the camera starts following the prisoners and then just this one prisoner, then the prisoners in general which leads us to the prison guard. This is a really elegant way of getting us to this point. It allowed us to see the world and feel what it might be like to get shoveled through the system like this. In Saving Private Ryan, this shot started with soldiers moving from right to left in the background and in the foreground. The jeep is…

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