First Person POV

DRthunderMD

DRthunderMD

I have a character study/thriller short in the works and as director I am trying to figure out exactly how this should look. I am trying to decide whether or not to shoot it 100% first person pov of the main character or just his scenes in first peson pov. I'd like to shoot the entire thing in first person pov as I feel this is an untouched area for the most part in indie films. If done correctly I can see this being incredibly innovative and original.

On the other hand I feel as though shooting 100% in first person pov can result in the loss of set details and camera movement options. Basically I would like to know if pulled off correctly, would a short about 30 minutes long work in the style of first person pov?

Quick details about the project. A week in the life of a college student. He is writing an essay on good and evil, which is the substance and base of the story. His views. I'd like to have if not 100% his perspective a good majority of it. His essay will be read through voice over spread out in parts over the length of the movie. At the end he discovers he has a brain tumor. The tumor pressing against a point in his brain causes him to act irrationally and go on a massacre in the last scene. College student's essay is summed up as follows from his words.

Good and evil are complete opposites, but at the same time one cannot exist without the other. Good and evil is simply a perspective. Something that can mean one thing to one person, and a completely different thing to another person. Good people can do bad and bad people can do good. Then there is this grey area. Evil can come in unsuspecting forms. An evil act can be carried out, but the forces and motivation behind the act can be slurred and unpredictable.

I'd love to make this a character study. Any input is helpful.
 
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I'm not sure how I would feel watching 30 minutes of first person POV. Maybe a three or four minute film but it really would be something new. If you pulled it off I'm sure it would be amazing, but why exactly does the story call for it to be in first person? It is possible to tell a story from someone's point of you without it just being literal point of view shots ( I assume POV shots are the main characters vision?)
You can tell a story through the opinions, beliefs and innocence of a character without it being their specific vision ..
 
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Oh I know it's possible to tell a story from someone's p.o.v without it just being litereal pov shots, but why I wanted to do it is because nobody else does. I'm heavily leaning on filming a good majority of shots through the first person view (yes it would be the main character's vision) and the rest other types of shots.
 
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There are pros and cons to doing a full film POV. Check out Enter The Void (though that goes pretty surreal compared to what you are trying to do). The first 15 minutes or so might give you some ideas about what could work, and what doesn't for what you're trying to tell. Oh, and it's an awesome movie, very much worth watching as well!
 
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I did a 20 minute First Person POV corporate video. It turned out okay but looking back it was not the best way to go. I think people view it as awkward. It can work for a short sequence or maybe a short film but I don't believe it will ever become popular.

If you are making this for a class or just to explore your skill set and learn then I say go for it.
 
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AnywhereButHollywood said:
I haven't seen it, but the 1947 film noir The Lady in the Lake is famous primarily for being shot in first person POV.
Click to expand...

Here's a clip from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzdl-js_mQ4

I can't say I like first person POV/Optical POV but the shot in the mirror is really cool. She is still looking directly into the lens but you can see the person who's POV the audience is looking through.

It would be hard to do a love scene from POV ;)
 
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You'd have to be brilliant to make this work. Are you brilliant? Maybe. But I just want to be clear that monotony will start to be a factor after the first five minutes or so. That means the key is how well do you break things up.

1) Are there interesting new characters coming in and out of this guy's life?
2) Does he look in the mirror (and via trick photography see himself sans camera)?
3) Does he have sex?
4) Does he equip an Energy Sword?
5) Does he ride a motorcycle?
6) Does his vision go blurry?
7) Does he surf for porn?

You get what I'm getting at? Are there are enough visual gags to compensate for the monotony? If you have a compelling reason to stay in first person, then your movie will be watchable. But if you don't have a compelling reason, then your movie will seem like an experimental film or an academic exercise. In other words, unwatchable. Nothing wrong with being "unwatchable" if your goal is to simply express yourself.

The final point I wanna state is that if you're new, you should just do it! Just go for it! It might suck, but so what! You will learn a ton!

Shanked
 
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Interesting question. I would say, "no." Found footage isn't necessarily the same. If you drew a Venn diagram you'd see a lot of overlap, but here's where the two styles are different...

In a "found footage" movie you can have scenes shot from many different cameras: security cameras, other people's cameras, native cameras mounted on the front of your space probe, etc. Moreover, the main camera operator in the story often sets the camera down and sometimes another character picks the camera up. This a definitive shift in POV.

In a "first-person POV" movie, you are strictly staying in one character's POV. And, actually, that particular POV isn't necessarily the POV of someone's CAMERA. It could simply be his/her human eyesight.
 
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I have experimented with first person POV. It works for porn. For use in narrative work, my strongest recommendation is to pan slowly. If you think that you're panning too slow, you are probably still going a little too fast. Panning at normal speed (the speed that your head moves) in POV will read like a whip pan, and those get old really quickly. You will also get quite a bit of shakiness in the image and I am not a fan of shakycam.
 
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