Observing Camera Angles From "The Office"
For this assignment, I chose one of my favorite shows, "The Office." The style of this show is completely in a hand-held style, meaning a camera crew is following the actors instead of using a tripod. This show includes many different camera angles, but the three that I will be addressing today, are the High-Angle shot, Over-The-Shoulder shot, and the Reaction shot.
The High-Angle shot is used to show a scene where something happened or is happening over a large space, and where many things are going on at once. In my example, Dwight (The employee the office likes to mess with) is sent on a fake scavenger hunt, that eventually, the entire office is fooled by and helps to look. They have just been given a clue that led them to the warehouse. They work in a paper company, so their warehouse has thousands of pieces of paper, so the people in the office felt the need to check them all.
As you can see, the entire warehouse has been torn to pieces. This shot let me know how far these workers would go to find the next clue, and how invested they all are in their fake scavenger hunt.
The next shot that is used a ton in this series, is the Over-The-Shoulder shot. Since this show is supposed to be following these workers on their day-to-day life, they have a lot of conversation. These conversations are mostly shot from the Over-The-Shoulder angle and switches from one subject to another depending on who is speaking.
This is a shot of office couple Pam and Jim just having a simple conversation. This is just one example of the many over the shoulder conversations that are being filmed in this show. However, a conversation isn't the only way an Over-The-Shoulder shot can be used.
For example, this is a shot that shows pam watching a video on her laptop. These shots help me as a viewer feel more connected to a conversation because it feels like I am actually standing behind them listening in myself.
The final shot I chose to talk about is the reaction shot. This shot can make a viewer learn or gain information on what is happening off the screen without seeing it actually happen.
When I saw this shot take place, I as a viewer knew exactly what had happened. The current setting is Dwight's wedding. Jim had just told Dwight that he would not be able to be his best man because of a fake rule that he had made up because he knew that Dwight would much rather have his former boss/ best friend Michael be his best man. Dwight is shown here reaction to seeing Michael for the first time in years.
The High-Angle shot is used to show a scene where something happened or is happening over a large space, and where many things are going on at once. In my example, Dwight (The employee the office likes to mess with) is sent on a fake scavenger hunt, that eventually, the entire office is fooled by and helps to look. They have just been given a clue that led them to the warehouse. They work in a paper company, so their warehouse has thousands of pieces of paper, so the people in the office felt the need to check them all.
As you can see, the entire warehouse has been torn to pieces. This shot let me know how far these workers would go to find the next clue, and how invested they all are in their fake scavenger hunt.
The next shot that is used a ton in this series, is the Over-The-Shoulder shot. Since this show is supposed to be following these workers on their day-to-day life, they have a lot of conversation. These conversations are mostly shot from the Over-The-Shoulder angle and switches from one subject to another depending on who is speaking.
This is a shot of office couple Pam and Jim just having a simple conversation. This is just one example of the many over the shoulder conversations that are being filmed in this show. However, a conversation isn't the only way an Over-The-Shoulder shot can be used.
For example, this is a shot that shows pam watching a video on her laptop. These shots help me as a viewer feel more connected to a conversation because it feels like I am actually standing behind them listening in myself.
The final shot I chose to talk about is the reaction shot. This shot can make a viewer learn or gain information on what is happening off the screen without seeing it actually happen.
When I saw this shot take place, I as a viewer knew exactly what had happened. The current setting is Dwight's wedding. Jim had just told Dwight that he would not be able to be his best man because of a fake rule that he had made up because he knew that Dwight would much rather have his former boss/ best friend Michael be his best man. Dwight is shown here reaction to seeing Michael for the first time in years.
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