Chapter 1 of the text - Perspective

I forgot to blog about chapter one prior to class on Tuesday, however, we discussed many elements of the chapter in class which I'm interested in blogging about now! Perspective has always been intriguing to me. There are so many different ways to talk about perspective. When regarding film, perspective can be the view from the camera, whether it is tilted, zoomed in or out, focusing on an object, first person, or omnipotent, but it can also be the character's outlook on situations in the plot. In art, perspective is the angles of the objects to create the illusion of depth and the view from which the drawing or painting is created.

In the real world, perspective is the point of view of people. Not one creature in the entire universe (currently and historically) will ever have the same perspective as another creature. I love the idea of each person's perspective is completely original and unique. The eyes that you view the world from are different from everyone else. No one has had the exact same experiences and therefore each person's viewpoint and out look on life is different. You can try to understand where a person is coming from and "see it from their perspective," but you will never truly know their perspective.

I had an idea for a horror movie a few years ago, which played on the idea of perspective. The movie was about 5 college students living off campus in a house on a creek woods, and spans over a 2 day period. The murderer is on the run and hiding out in the woods behind the house. On Friday night, the students go out to a bar while the killer goes into the house, eats food, tries on clothes, looks through their pictures and other personal belongings in order to get to know his targets. On Saturday night, the students decide to take magic mushrooms. The movie would play on the perspective of the tripping students (with distorted and colorful special effects) and the sober killer. I also wanted to include the view of each student as they died and explore the idea of the very last image a person sees before they slip over to the other side. The camera cannot see the depth and colors like the eye can, so special effects would be extremely important to distinguish between each person's viewpoint, because not everyone sees colors and the world in the same way. Perspective is a vital point of film, art, and life. It shapes the way people think about the work and the world. Perspective is key to film because it tells the viewer exactly what is going on and what and who are important.