Over-the-shoulder shot

[4] The over-the-shoulder shot is then utilised in a shot-reverse-shot sequence where both subject's OTS perspectives are edited consecutively to create a back and forth interplay, capturing dialogue and reactions.

[5] In film and television, the filmmaker or cinematographer’s choice of an OTS shot’s camera height, the use of focus and lenses affect the way audiences interpret subjects and their relationships to others and space.

[7] The OTS perspective captured in the artwork was common amongst Fredrich’s works and allowed audiences to identify with the figures in the painting, as they participated in the same visual experience as the subjects in frame.

[8] In the early years of silent film making, cameras were kept stationary and distant from the action, mirroring the position an audience would be viewing a stage production.

[11] James Williamson’s Attack on a China Mission Station, made in 1900, used the first reverse angle cut in film history.

[8] The technological improvements in cameras also meant they were smaller, lighter, could be moved far closer to subjects and have a greater range in controlling light, exposure and focus.

[14] An OTS is composed, when used to capture dialogue, to make the subject facing the camera the shot’s focal point.

For these shots to ‘match’, filmmakers may take into consideration the 180-degree rule, which dictates that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters.

This increase in a player’s field of vision allows for clearer close combat and interaction with physical objects in the game space.

[27] Within an SVM learning machine, human presence detectors and context saliency mapping technologies have been combined to analyse all the visual data presented in a shot in order to identify its set-up.

[30] The continued improvement of this computer technology aims to increase the ‘visual saliency’ of the presence of actors on screen even when they are shown only partially and from behind, as in an OTS shot.

[3][34] It has also been suggested that the OTS shot had been used to depict homosexual kissing in order to surpass production codes of the time.

[37] The production code also referred to the depiction of homosexual intimacy on screen specifying "sex perversion or any inference of it is forbidden".

[38] This use of the OTS shot in television especially, combined with quick editing cuts, works to minimise the impact of same sex intimacy.

[39] This film making technique presents a "blink-and-you-missed-it peck in the corner of the screen, unassuming and un-obstructive"[40] in order to maintain a broad viewership and network support.

[35] An example of the use of an OTS for dramatic effect is throughout Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future (1985) to show the dynamic between Marty McFly (the film's main character) and Biff (a bully).

Sitting across a table from him and signing the agreement is Thatcher, Kane's banker, who is made to appear much smaller in the shot.