Camera Height_Level Angle

While camera height is as important as camera distance and subject angle, It is often disregarded. Theatrical cameramen are very careful about lens height in relation to subject matter. Many non-theatrical cameramen completely overlook the subject's special requirements!

Artistic, dramatic and psychological overtones may be contributed to the story-telling by adjusting the height of the camera to the subject. Audience involvement and reaction to the event depicted may be influenced by whether the scene is viewed from eye-level, or above or below subject.

Level Angle

A level camera films from the eye-level of an observer of average height, or from the subject's eye-level. A level camera views a setting or an object so that vertical lines do not converge.

Shorts filmed with a level camera are generally less interesting than those filmed from an upward or downward angle. A level camera is required, however, whenever eye-level views are filmed, or vertical lines must remain vertical and parallel to each other. A level camera does not distort verticals, so walls and sides of buildings, or objects, will remain true.

Objective shots, which present the view as seen by an observer, should be filmed from the eye-level of an average person- about five and one-half feet high. It is important, however, that close-ups of a person be filmed from the subject's eye-level, whether standing or sitting, so that the audience sees the person on an eye-to-eye basis. It is necessary, therefore, when moving in from a long or medium shot to a close-up, to adjust the camera height to the particular subject being filmed.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Point-of-view close-ups are filmed from the subject's eye-level when the players who are relating with each other are approximately the same height. They are filmed from the opposing player's height when a difference in height exists, or when one player is seated and the other standing, or when an adult relates with a child. Such angling need not be precisely from the opposing person's head position.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Subjective close-ups, in which the subject looks directly into the lens, are always filmed from the eye-level of the person photographed. A higher or lower camera will cause the person to look up or down in order to look into the lens- and thus create an awkward relationship with the viewer. The person presented subjectively should always be seen on a level eye-to-eye basis.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Reference:

Mascelli, J. V. (1965). The Five C's of  Cinematography. The United States: radstone publications.

The pictures are from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004.