Filmmaking and Perspective

As with many other modern artistic fields, filmmaking has very few perspective materials written for it, in spite of its heavy dependence on its understanding.

Since perspective was first developed for drawing and painting, centuries before anyone heard of anything as routine today as filmmaking, it should be no surprise to us that nobody had developed this deeply established subject to include the many new art forms which have arisen over the past century.

Furthermore, the fact that a camera can faithfully reproduce imagery would seem to render perspective learning materials unnecessary.

Yet, there is a vital factor for the filmmaker which previous books on perspective have failed to consider. Today's technology requires instruction that focuses less on memorizing drawing methods and more on understanding what it means to see things from different perspectives. Oddly, this is something that perspective books rarely, if ever, touch upon.

Here, we define perspective as, "Creating viewpoints that best communicate a subject to an audience." This is about establishing "an eye" in your art through which your audience sees. So even though perspective has been thought of as the most difficult subject in all of art, its concept is rather simple in the end.

So regardless of your art form, if understanding how your audience sees it and participates in it is important to you, then you must grasp how perspective works. This is something which all professionals in the visual arts must deal with, from film directors to bridge builders or anyone else who presents imagery to audiences, customers or clients.

Perspective, therefore, is still a critically important subject in need of study, even where its imagery is captured by a lens instead of a pencil.

The following articles introduce the filmmaker to what this entails.

Check back regularly for additional articles that are currently in production.

Stand-Alone Perspective Tutorials

These perspective tutorials can be viewed in any sequence.

What Perspective Really Means In Art
The Ingredients of Perspective
Foreshortening

Perspective Tutorial Series

These perspective tutorials must be read in sequence. Grasping later tutorials depends upon understanding terminology and principles covered in earlier ones. Any individual group topic, though, may be read without having to read the others.

The True Basics of Depth and "3D"

3D and Depth Perception
3D Drawing, 3D Graphics or Photos
Photographing Or Drawing 3D
Light and Dark and "Artistic Depth Cues"

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