For my scene I chose to analyse this comedic dialogue scene from Gran Torino the 2008 film directed by Clint Eastwood.
After writing down the various shots it would seem that this scene was covered from 7 different perspectives.each of these perspectives have utilised pans, tilts and variations on the framing to achieve new compositions within the scene. These camera motions however rarely occur within the take as they are instead masked by the cuts as Eastwood tweaks the setup to create a new composition from an existing perspective.
Here is my not so good attempt at mapping the scene and perspectives
Key
W = Walt – played by Clint Eastwood
T = Thao played by Bee veng
B = the Barber played by John Carroll Lynch
the V shapes roughly outline the positioning of each perspective and the dotted lines mark character movement.
We can see from the setup 1, 3 covers multiple shots from a very similar perspective framing the characters to direct the audience through their conversation by isolating the different interactions between the chracters.
Eastwood also moves his character (Walt) around the frame to create a new composition
similar method is used for the setup 4
These are the perspectives 1,3 and 4 are the main setups from which we view the scene by cutting in-between their variants. As the scene intensifies the angles become tighter as we go to three close up perspectives.
We can also notice that in Thao’s CU changes as he starts speaking to the barber the negative space shifts from Eastwood to the barber again, indicating and directing the eye lines and conversation.
As the focus of this scene is upon Thao we can also see that many of the setups/perspectives are almost from his point of view which places him at the center of attention spatially.