Camera placement

A comment from Gil on one of last month's contributions:

Gil: I wanted to remark on the style of Courtney's video. For me, one of the things that made it successful was the single camera placement and the eschewing of any editing.

If this video had been shot in the traditional fashion of long shots, medium shots, and closeups, I don't think it would have worked nearly as well. The video operates on the premise of an overheard conversation, and if the video had been cut into individual shots, the unity of time and space would have been broken. And because it functions to a large extent (for me at any rate) as an interior monologue externalized, if you were to cut to a close-up of Courtney, and we were thus made much more aware of her speaking the words, it would have required a different kind of willing suspension of disbelief. Performing primarily with her back to the camera also enhanced the illusion of overhearing something.

The camera was placed at a slightly higher angle, looking down on the scene. If it had been a ground-level shot, that could have implied that we were another character observing this (a roommate, a daughter) from another room. But placing the camera above eye level created the anonymous "fly on the wall" perspective.

Nonetheless, if you were to announce to someone they were going to look at an eight minute video shot from a single stationary camera angle, you ordinarily might expect to hear murmuring of some sort. But here, it was a case of the camera being in the right place at the right time.