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March 2004, Week 3

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From:
Rene Albert <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 16 Mar 2004 06:18:24 +0000
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re: every POV is an eyeline match ....

I think we need to be very careful making such generalizations in the form
of a definition or even worse a rule. It's nice way to transmit concepts to
students in a succint manner, but hardly informative in terms of the actual
practice of filmmaking.

Although many POV shots are eyeline matches, I think that there are some
occasions where it arguably isn't. A long uninterupted POV shot is not an
eyeline match. By definition, there needs to be a preceding shot to match
to ... and this means that we are dealing with a certain form of memory of
the shot that precedes the POV (be it perceptual or cognitive). The match
is at the transition ... but after a take lasts for a certain duration, that
POV shot becomes something else. Also, there are cases where we are not
privy to a preceding shot ... and the world of the POV shot is all that we
have.

I think it's safer to say that a POV shot is a view presented to the
audience as being from the perspective of a given character. The
relationship of the shot to the character's viewpoint can be established by
an eyeline match, but it does not necessarily need to be. This relationship
could also be estabilshed by interactions of the characters within the frame
towards the camera (or the center of the frame) or by a monologue commenting
the scene in voice-over as internal thoughts and in a variety of other
manners. Whether the eyeline match is the most effective way of
establishing this relationship is another question altogether.

- Rene


>From: James Monaco <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: POV/eyeline match
>Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 15:11:21 -0500
>
>Here's a more useful definition from The Dictionary of New Media:
>
>Eyeline Match
>An editing rule: the alternation of two shots, the first showing a
>character looking off-screen, the second showing what he’s looking at.
>A rough sense of scale and distance is kept, but not necessarily
>perspective—that is, every Point-of-View Shot is an eyeline match, but
>every eyeline match is not necessarily a POV shot.
>
>
>On Mar 14, 2004, at 9:25 PM, gloria monti wrote:
>
>> *Film Art* 7th edition states:
>>
>>*eyeline match*: shot A presents someone looking at something
>>offscreen, shot B shows us what is being looked at.
>>*POV shot*: a cut from a person looking to what he sees.
>>
>> Where is the difference, here? My understanding was always
>>that in a POV shot, the spectator "becomes" the character looking and
>>sees what s/he sees and the character looking is never onscreen.
>>Whereas the eyeline match shows the character looking and what s/he
>>is looking. However, FA also states that in the case of the eyeline
>>match, "in neither (A and B) shot are both looker and object present.
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Gloria Monti
>>______________________________
>>gloria monti, PH.D.
>>cinema studies program
>>oberlin college
>>10 n. professor st.
>>oberlin, OH 44074
>>phone: 440-775-6015
>>fax: 440-775-8684
>>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>>________________________
>>"What's your impression of Los Angeles?"
>>"It's a big garage."
>>Jean-Luc Godard
>>
>>----
>>Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
>>University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
>>
>
>----
>Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
>http://www.ScreenSite.org

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