This is the type of shot that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). The audience can therefore have more empathy with the character on sharing what they are seeing. The incorporation of the point of view shot, also known as "subjective camera", is one of the most important advances in the history of the search for way to help the audience identify with the audio-visual story, and it has been behind most of the developments in screenplays, direction and editing.
The HAL 9000 computer sees the astronauts of the spaceship which travels to Jupiter in 2001. A Space Odyssey, of Stanley Kubrick with a subjective shot
Perhaps the first use of this language resource took place in the shorts As seen through a telescope (1900) and Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900) by George Albert Smith, in which a character looks with the aid of a magnifying glass or telescope and in the next shot we are shown what they see. The film noir feature film Lady in the Lake (1947) directed by Robert Montgomery, adapted from a novel by Raymond Chandler, is shot exclusively using point of view shots. In the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick, the computer HAL 9000 sees the astronauts in the ship travelling to Jupiter in point of view shot. The video clip Smack my bitch up (1998), by The Prodigy and directed by Jonas Akerlund, is filmed using point of view shots to hide the identity of the protagonist, who is not revealed until the end, when he is seen reflected in a mirror.
Cloverfield
Cloverfield | Matt Reeves, 2008, EEUU
Cloverfield is formal and apparently a fantasy film in which a gigantic monster, which may be an alien or a creature from the depths of the sea, sets out to attack New York. As a fantasy film, it is line with other classic films from the same genre, such as Gordon Douglas’s Them, 1954, King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, (Eugène Lourié, 1953) or Gojira (Godzilla, Ishiro Honda, 1954). A group of friends in their thirties get together in Rob's apartment, to give him a surprise farewell party, as he is moving to Japan to work. Rob’s ex-girlfriend Beth also attends the party and, despite a pleasant welcome, little by little signs of resentment start appearing between them during the reunion, prompting her to unexpectedly leave early. Suddenly there is an explosion, which causes the monster to appear. This is when Rob and his friends go in search of Beth, overcoming all sorts of risks and dangers caused by the monster and other teratological creatures. Cloverfield, depicting New York post 9/11, is fully narrated from a subjective point of view, since what we see at all times as a film, is them filming themselves with a domestic digital camera. In other words, Cloverfield is narrated almost entirely with subjective shots.
