The Points of View

In productions of media, there is always a message to be conveyed, some bit of information to be communicated. It may be theoretical, ideological, moral, instructional. Part of the producer's job is to figure out how to most effectively present their message. Each message is a story, and it is vital for the producer to decide from which point of view to communicate the narrative. All sorts of elements factor into creating a point of view--audio, video, language. However, when it comes to the film element of the message, the point of view is very limited. Videos are, by nature, shot in the third person. Even if the narration of the production is delievered in the first person, video records and relays the action in the third person.

To potray this idea, I attached a scene from one of my favorite movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the scene, Matthew Broderick is addressing the audience in the second person, talking directly to them as if it's a conversation. But although Broderick is looking directly at the camera, addressing the viewer, the video itself is still very limited in it's point of view. The monologue is second person, but the video is undeniably third.