Point of View

A point of view (POV) shot in film is a view from a character’s physical location in the scene. But film has its own version of literary point of view: a set of more diffuse and empathic impressions experienced by an audience sharing a character’s feelings. The effect is easy to describe, but it is harder to say how it came about. Harder still is to write, direct, and control it. This is because, unlike literature, the screen communicates in multiple ways. The printed page at least stands still as you analyze it, while film language is a complex interplay of moving images accompanied by the infinite modifiers of words, symbols, sounds, color, movement, and music. How all this interacts in our minds is simply beyond verbal analysis and formulation, as semiotic analysts found out.