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Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
pov

The point of view shot is extremely common in classical narrative and is where a character looks at something, and then we are shown what they are looking at, more or less from their point of view. It usually is not, strictly, from the character's point of view (all those shots where we see the shoulder of the character from behind as they talk to someone are known as point of view shots for instance), but the shot is understood to be motivated, and justified, by the character having looked.

What is apparent in the use of the point of view shot is not so much the experience of subjectivity that it may produce but much more importantly that the cut to the point of view first is understood to need to be motivated within the narrative by having a character look. It is clear from this that one of the purposes of this is to maintain the invisibility of the edit (in classical film narrative the edit is to be made as unobtrusive as possible), and to rationalise its result (the point of view shot) within the narrative.

Written on the Wind contains an excellent example of an point of view shot as Rock Hudson enters the office and notice's Lauren Bacall's legs appearing under the office divider. We see him looking and then see what he sees. Point of view is also utilised during the famous breakfast table sequence from Citizen Kane, however this sequence is also interesting because of the transition from its ostensible narrator (Joseph Cotton) to the narrated sequence. Here a fade is combined with a dissolve, which is repeated at the end of the sequence, in the first instance it suggests flashback, in the second a return to the present time.

Adrian Miles: Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
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