The Power of Perspectives - The Rear View Shot

Photo: Porter The Art Hotel Rome

A shot taken directly behind a person is a rear view shot, and has been called the third persona shot of a scene. All movies are made up of visual perspectives, or POV's - points of view. The first person POV is the view that the character has, in this photo what the porter is seeing, the second person POV would be the view from what he sees, (from the end of the hallway) normally in dialogue this would be the view from the person he is talking to. The third persona POV when it is used, becomes we the viewer, seeing him from behind as he is looking. In this static shot we are left wondering what he is seeing, we don't know, and this is often the mystery of the third persona rear view shot.

Photo: The Big Man, Street in Rome

I shot this on the move following a big guy in the street. As a cinematic shot it might be used to introduce a hit man. With the camera following him from behind we get a sense of his forbidding presence. Without seeing his face we build up an image of this character as someone who means business, an imposing figure not to be messed with, and yet we are following him. There is a subtle tension in this as he might turn around and confront us. We don't know what is on his mind or what he is about to do, and so our imagination will begin to fabricate a story.

Usually a camera gives us an objective view of a scene but when third persona shots are employed in movies, either statically or in motion they emphasis the power that the audience has as subjective voyeur. By shifting the POV from what the protagonist sees (the subjective view of the character) to a POV that sees the protagonist in the act of seeing, we as audience feel a sense of being in the scene, at a safe distance from the action but still part of it. In classical theatre this amounts to breaking the 4th wall and crossing the proscenium arch. In a theatre this would mean leaving your seat in the audience, climbing up on stage and standing directly behind Hamlet as he delivers his soliloquy. In a film because of the illusion of cinematic proximity, we begin to intensify our intrigue and curiosity. Being directly behind the protagonist we can't know what he or she is thinking or seeing (unless a new POV is shown) and so we begin to use our imagination. This is the emotional power of cinema to engage and immerse an audience in the character's journey.

There is a great site dedicated to this intriguing camera angle used in cinema called The Third Persona check it out, and begin to take some third persona shots yourself.