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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"When you’re above a character looking down, they feel smaller," Ruckus Skye adds. "They’re maybe not as confident or powerful. And if you look at any superhero, you’re always looking up at them. That’s a cliche, but you can do that on smaller levels and it’s more subconscious."''
|[https://www.adobe.com/ca/creativecloud/video/discover/types-of-shots-in-films.html An introduction to camera shot types]}}
Refers to the practice of shooting a solitary figure from a slightly lower angle
The inverse of the
A more [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]] synonym is "[[subordinated viewpoint]]". [[Sub-Trope]] to [[Dutch Angle]], which can be at any angle (aside from head on) and can be of more than one figure.
When shot all the way from ''the floor'', this is known as a [[
{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'' was not the first use of this technique, but it was the first famous use of it.
* ''October: Ten Days that Shook the World'', is a 1927 pro-Soviet propaganda film that pioneered the technique in its demonizing of the representative of the Provisional Government. The man even sports a Hitler 'stache twenty years before it became ''chic'' for dictators to do so, hilariously enough.
* Used and subverted, both to great effect, in ''[[
* Speaking of Welles, the film adaptation of [[Franz Kafka|Kafka's]] ''[[The Trial]]'' used this shot for almost every scene in the movie.
* ''[[Shrek]]'': Evil dictator Lord Farquaad is introduced with dramatic music and a
* Referenced in the movie version of ''[[High Fidelity]]'', where one of Rob's ex-girlfriends is talking at a school cafeteria, apparently about Gene Simmons and his use of this trick.
* Used on Darth Vader in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' after his reconstruction, since Hayden Christensen is shorter than David Prowse.
* Appears in ''[[Surf Ninjas]]''.
* The trope-naming [[General Ripper]] in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' is shot from this angle from time to time, especially when outlining his agenda.
* Clu in ''[[Tron
* Used in ''[[The Good Son]]'' to make Henry seem more intimidating
* Used on [http://www.blog.ngorbachov.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/katya.jpg Katya]{{Dead link}} in ''[[Stilyagi]]'' when she denounces Mel and throws him out of the Komsomol.
* ''[[M]]'' includes a sequence where a man bumps into a very large, scary man on the street. The tall man is shot very low to emphasize his height, and the normal man is shot very high to seem much shorter than he is.
* In ''[[The Super]]'', Joe Pesci's character comes face to face with a very tall basketball player, "the Milkman." From Pesci's perspective, the Milkman is shot using a
* Used in ''[[Battlefield Earth (
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
* The various Japanese [[Super Sentai]] shows that form the basis of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' use the
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Spoofed in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]''. When [[Kamen Rider Den
▲* The various Japanese [[Super Sentai]] shows that form the basis of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' use the [[Hitler Cam]] on the [[People in Rubber Suits|rubber-suited actor]] as he stands to show the [[Monster of the Week]] growing to skyscraper size.
▲* Spoofed in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]''. When [[Kamen Rider Den O|Momotaros]] gets his body back, it's initially shot like a standard monster-growing-giant scene (even though Kamen Rider doesn't normally use giant monsters). Then we cut to show Decade standing right next to him, showing that he was just being his usual hammy self.
* On ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', any time this shot was used in a film that Joel and the 'bots watched, Tom Servo would [[Lampshade]] it by shouting, "I'm huge!"
* [[Stephen Colbert]]'s old opening had a
* Visually lampshaded on ''[[Mad Men]]'' during a long conversation about new FCC guidelines on smoking in television advertising. They included the prohibition of shots of smokers from this angle, while [[Irony|the entire conversation was shot from such angles as Don Draper smokes a cigarette]]. For additional irony, the character reading out the guidelines is Roger Sterling, played by John Slattery, who [[Directed
* The eponymous [[Iron Chef
== [[Music Videos]] ==
* This technique was often used in music videos of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly of the heavy metal variety, to emphasize the musicians' status as larger-than-life "rock gods".
* Done in [[Visual Kei]] or Japanese rock videos for a similar reason. Yes, that vocalist
** Glenn Danzig is about 5'4" as well; you wouldn't know from watching any of his videos.
* We get this shot in [[Ayumi Hamasaki]]'s music video for
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Used in ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Like a Dragon]]'' series is fond of this trope for introducing a bunch of enemy reinforcements, typically to make their entrance look imposing, but the final shot makes clear it was more done to posture than anything else.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Phaeton, who is obviously Hitler's [[Expy]] in ''[[
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
* Used in-universe in one episode of ''[[
* Used in ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Josef Stalin]], another vertically-challenged dictator of the '30s, used this technique as well to disguise his true height.
* David Miscavige, the leader of [[Church of Happyology|a different kind of army]], seems quite fond of this. Other tactics to not make him look like a midget include wearing very high shoes, posing in group shots with the shortest members of the church surrounding him and the tallest members standing ''way'' in the back, and standing next to [[Tom Cruise]] a lot.
* [[Benito Mussolini]] would always be photographed from a slightly low angle, as visible in [http://maximus.pl/pliki/grafika//historia/mussolini.jpg the photo he used for his autobiography]{{Dead link}}. He was only 5' 6"...although he still dwarfed the diminutive, 5' 0" Vittorio Emmanuel III.
* Portraits of Napoleon, as you might expect, were usually flattering, and often made him look taller than he was. Painters sometimes shortened objects near him or cut off his legs while increasing the size of his coat. In reality, Napoleon was of average size for his time. His reputation for shortness originated from a confluence of misconceptions and perpetuated enthusiastically by his archnemesis, Britain.
* Kim Jong Il tended to do this. He also gave the illusion of height using platform shoes, vertically striped clothing, and bouffant hair.
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Camera Tricks]]
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