�Dutch angles�

Gillian · July 11, 2005

Quick question, does anyone know what the actual name of the Dutch movie that we got the term ?Dutch Angles? from?

Thanks!!!

Gillian

David Mullen ASC · July 11, 2005

It wasn't a specific movie. The term may be a corruption of "Deutch" (German) since tilted angles have their origins in German Expressionism.

Bob Hayes · July 11, 2005

I heard that because many of the buildings in Amsterdam tilt still photographers needed to angle the camera so the buildings would look strait. It became known as a ?Dutch Angle?.

David Mullen ASC · July 11, 2005

I heard that because many of the buildings in Amsterdam tilt still photographers needed to angle the camera so the buildings would look strait. It became known as a ?Dutch Angle?.

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But if they looked straight, how would you know it was a tilted angle???

Bob Hayes · July 11, 2005

I believe it actually wasn?t based on the image appearing tilted. The camera itself was ?Dutched? to create a none tilted image.

Stuart Brereton · July 11, 2005

In the UK, dutch angles are referred to (colloquially) as 'on the piss'. 'On the Piss' is a slang term for being drunk and therefore uneven, just like a Dutch Angle.

In recent years, with the over usage of dutch angles on MTV etc, the term 'on the piss' has come to be derogatory, implying a lack of imagination.

Adam Frisch FSF · July 11, 2005

Dutch angles is very, well, ...Battlefield Earth. In so many words: not a very good idea. You can add dutch angles to my list of "most hated camera tricks".

Dominik Muench · July 11, 2005

bob: have you ever been in amsterdam ? the houses are so tilted you relly need to dutch titl your camera to fix this :)

my fav. dutch tilt shot is still form fear and loathign in las vegas, when jhonny depp is running along that hotel hallway.

Stuart Brereton · July 11, 2005

a lack of imagination.

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.Battlefield Earth.
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Strange how these fit together......

Gillian · July 11, 2005

Thanks for all your informative and evocative answers! No one could remember if it was a single film that spawned the ?Dutch Angle? such as Hitchcock?s ?Vertigo Zoom? from the film Vertigo, or it like ?Film Noir? a name for a genre.

I tend to like the use of the Dutch angles, but then I like pretty much everything but the repeated use of the ?doc style? so there you have it, <grin> no accounting for taste! :)

Thanks again,

Gillian

Bob Hayes · July 12, 2005

If you are looking for a single film that inspired the use of Dutch angles I would start my search with German expressionist films of the 1920?s. ?The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? for example.

Frank DiBugnara · July 12, 2005

A great use of the technique is when the audience can't really identify the shot as being tilted, but yet experiences the psychological impact of a slight Dutch.

Gillian · July 12, 2005

FrankDiBugnara wrote:

"A great use of the technique is when the audience can't really identify the shot as being tilted, but yet experiences the psychological impact of a slight Dutch".

Yes, I totally agree, something I?ve noticed with very subtle angles, vertigo zooms, and other ?effects? camera work. Film really is about emotion, isn?t it? Filmmakers are like the great painters of the past, but now were ?painting? with movement and sound as well as images. Can you name any films or television where you felt this effect was used particularly well?

bob1dp wrote:

"If you are looking for a single film that inspired the use of Dutch angles I would start my search with German expressionist films of the 1920?s. ?The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? for example".

Thanks! I really am working on filling in my HUGE enormous gap in film knowledge, so any films that you really feel made an impact on style, or where a big technological advancement was made, anything that you can recommend, I?d certainly appreciate it!

Gillian

David Mullen ASC · July 12, 2005

Thanks! I really am working on filling in my HUGE enormous gap in film knowledge, so any films that you really feel made an impact on style, or where a big technological advancement was made, anything that you can recommend, I?d certainly appreciate it!

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Read "Film Style & Technology: History & Analysis" by Barry Salt. It covers technical and stylistic inventions for film production decade by decade.

Mark Allen · July 12, 2005

I tend to use the word "canted," however, here was an interesting postulation provided for the etymology of "Dutch Tilt/Angle"

"I've been led to believe it comes from when coastal barges were commonly used in trade around and across the English channel. The Dutch barges had keels and the English ones didn't. When moored at low tide, the Dutch barges would lean over."

reference: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/29/messages/22.html

(For the curious a "cant" is a deviation from a horizontal or vertical plane.)

July 12, 2005

While by no means one of the first examples of the artform, the mainstream Hollywood proliferation of the dutch angle owes considerable debt to Howie Schwartz ASC's infamous work on the 1966 Batman TV show. It was from here onwards that it nolonger held the eerie, exotic connotations of Expressionism, and instead became something to cringe and smirk at as instant cliche parody.