Rachel Wintemberg

Sheyla F., Valentineʼs Day, grade eleven.

My design students start the year taking photos and end the year creating their own hand-drawn comic books or animatics (animated storyboards). If you want your students to create art that communicates, my advice is to have them take lots of photos with their cellphones (both in and out of the classroom) and read comic books. This is a quick and fun way to improve an artist’s sense of visual composition.

Discussing Camera Angles
I start the year by teaching my visual design students the following camera angles: rule of thirds, over-the-shoulder shot, full shot, close-up, medium close-up, extreme close-up, wide angle shot, leading lines (or one-point perspective), up shot (or worm’s-eye view), two shot, down shot (or bird’s-eye view), reaction shot, and Dutch angle tilt.

Itʼs possible to understand a story without reading the words, relying solely on visual cues.

We look at examples of each camera angle and discuss how it furthers a story narrative. For example, a Dutch angle tilt might be used to convey speed, motion, action, falling, or disorientation. An over-the-shoulder shot might be used to convey an interaction between two characters, or even between a character and a book. Instead of telling my students how to use each shot in a story, we look at examples and start with the question, “What is happening in this picture?” This engages students by asking them to both look at pictures and make up stories about them.

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