What is a Dutch angle?
Dutch angles raise the tension and add visual flair to your content. Learn what they are, how to compose them, and more.
We’ll cover:
- What is a Dutch angle?
- Why do people use Dutch angles?
- Where does the Dutch angle come from?
- Who invented the Dutch angle?
- Are Dutch angles overused?
- How to use a Dutch angle: 8 top tips
- Best examples of Dutch angles
What is a Dutch angle?
A Dutch angle is a type of shot that tilts the camera off its x-axis, moving the horizon line away from the bottom of the frame. Instead, the horizon line is positioned at an unnatural, diagonal slant. Try cocking your head to the side — that’s a Dutch angle.
The Dutch angle is also known as a Dutch tilt, canted angle, German angle, and an oblique angle. While “Dutch angle” is the most common term, it’s helpful to know its other names.
Dutch angles are mostly found in horror and thriller movies, as they’re closely linked to the emotions found throughout those genres. While generally static, Dutch angles can be combined with dynamic, moving photography to create impactful zooms, dolly shots, and more.
Why do people use Dutch angles?
Filmmakers often use Dutch angles because they’re strange. Let’s take a look at some of the thinking behind it.
Strong emotions
Dutch angles help convey negative emotions like confusion and unease. This is because the shot is presented in a stressful manner, which you’d not often see in everyday life.
Dutch angles aren’t exclusively linked to negative emotions, though. Sometimes, they can spur feelings of excitement or tension.
States of mind
If a character is overtired, sick, or abusing substances, their state of mind may not be great. Dutch angles amplify this.
Power dynamics
A Dutch angle can tilt to give one character power over another. For example, a Dutch angle shot from the floor-up can make a villain seem even more dominant and unbeatable.
Subjectivity
Linking to the previous point, raised and lowered Dutch angles can immerse the viewer within the scene. A Dutch angle looking down from a bungee-jumping spot tells the viewer that the character is terrified of jumping.
Overwhelming the viewer
A Dutch angle doesn’t always come from within. Sometimes, it can be used to show something physical, something literal. An earthquake, a battle, an airplane taking off — these are all explosive events viewers wouldn’t usually see at close quarters.
Most people spend every day seeing the horizon as a straight line. When that promise is broken, it’s startling. The Dutch angle telegraphs bad vibes by just being visually off — deployed sparingly, it’s a powerful tool.
Where does the Dutch angle come from?
The Dutch angle can be traced back to the early days of cinema, before the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was widely used during the 1920s’ German Expressionist movement, which often dealt with existential, psychological themes. In a nutshell, it’s nightmarish.
A film like Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, released in 1920, is the ideal home for Dutch angles. Telling the tale of a murderous hypnotist, it uses dramatic techniques like chiaroscuro, alongside hand-painted sets tilted at an angle, to create dread. Plus, it still looks amazing today.
German Expressionism’s fondness for the Dutch angle is thought to be where the “Dutch” part of the name comes from. Many speculate that the “Dutch” actually means “Deutsch,” and that something was lost in translation.
Regardless of how the name evolved over the years, the technique itself was popularized in post-WWI German cinema. From there, it was adopted by Hollywood, favored by everyone from auteurs like Alfred Hitchcock and Spike Lee to superhero blockbusters.
Who invented the Dutch angle?
While the Dutch angle came to prominence in the 1920s, its first known use goes even further back. Edwin S. Porter’s Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, released in 1906, was an experimental “trick” film, created to display Porter’s technical ability. The film is based on a surreal comic strip of the same name.
The titular character eats way too much food, stumbling out of a restaurant. He starts to hallucinate, and that’s where the Dutch angles kick in. He stumbles around, struggling to secure himself to a monument. Behind him, the background swings left and right on its axis at severe, dizzying Dutch angles.
It’s a raw, unfinished Dutch angle example, but it still confuses, disorientates, and delights.
Are Dutch angles overused?
Like any stylistic technique, there can always be too much of a good thing. It comes down to taste, but for many viewers, Kenneth Branagh’s Thor went too far. They felt that the sheer amount of Dutch angles made the 2011 film look dizzy and strange, rather than just adding an extra slice of comic-book flair.
However, the gold-medal champion of Dutch angles is Battlefield Earth. Roger Christian’s 2000 science-fiction epic has a troubled history, and its status as one of the worst films ever is perhaps a little harsh.
What you can’t argue with, though, is its overuse of Dutch angles. Check out the scene below for a flavor.
Dutch angle overuse is only a problem if you don’t know how and when to use them. When planned as part of a varied shot list, Dutch angles can give your scenes the extra spice, the drama that you’re looking for.
And so can music. Epidemic Sound’s catalog is bursting with more than 50,000 world-class tracks and 200,000 Hollywood-grade sound effects. Explore the range below, then keep reading for some Dutch angle tips and elite-tier examples.
How to use a Dutch angle: 8 top tips
Now that you know what a Dutch angle is, let’s run through some best-practice tips.
1. Match the frame to the feeling
Not every shot needs a Dutch angle. While reading your script, highlight any moments of tension, unease, or fear — the bad stuff, essentially. This is home turf for Dutch angles.
2. Add Dutch angles to your shot list
Once you’ve noted possible moments for Dutch angles, you can add them to your shot list. This will help you understand how they work in concert with your other footage, ensuring that it feels dynamic and visually interesting.
3. Consider the actual angle
The Dutch angle is always off-axis…but how off-axis?
- Minor tilts: Pitched between 5 and 15 degrees, minor tilts build a small, bubbling level of tension. The viewer should be able to tell that something’s not quite right, but it’s not overbearing. Minor tilts can help you build to larger, showier Dutch angles.
- Medium tilts: Anything between 15 and 45 degrees is considered a medium tilt. At this point, your viewer explicitly knows that something’s wrong.
- Extreme tilts: Once you tip over 45 degrees, the Dutch angle becomes steep. This helps explore those strong feelings like confusion, hopelessness, and evil.
4. Pair the Dutch angle with a perspective
This isn’t always necessary, but Dutch angles can help viewers empathize with your characters.
- Low Dutch angles: This is shot up at a character from below, framing them as powerful, merciless, or in control. This would create an effective, upsetting shot of a child being bullied in the schoolyard, for example.
- Eye-level Dutch angles: Used during conversations, eye-level Dutch angles can give verbal exchanges a heated, untrustworthy atmosphere.
- High Dutch angles: Looking down on a character with a Dutch angle suggests that they’re weak, powerless, and in trouble.
5. Experiment with lenses
Dutch angles do different things when paired with different lenses. A fisheye Dutch angle will look dreamlike and unreal, while a wide-angle Dutch shot may make the viewer feel lost.
6. Play with the depth of field
Whether it’s shallow or deep, a Dutch angle’s depth of field changes how it’s received.
- Shallow depth of field: This brings the subject into sharp, immediate focus, blurring everything around it. Doing this creates a more intimate, stressful Dutch angle, focusing on the subject’s unease.
- Deep depth of field: Sharpening everything in the shot, a deep depth of field applies the Dutch angle to the entire frame. This means the surroundings also feel the impact.
7. Vary your Dutch angles
Cutting to the same Dutch angle may feel repetitive. Try the above tricks to build a varied catalog of Dutch angles that’ll complement the rest of your content.
8. Use Dutch angles sparingly
Dutch angles stand out because they’re different. Consult the shot list, plan them carefully, and use them as part of a healthy diet of shots and angles — they pop way harder when paired with standard compositions.
Best examples of Dutch angles
Before we wrap up, let’s look at some first-class Dutch angle examples.
1. Man With a Movie Camera (1929)
Man with a Movie Camera is an all-you-can-eat buffet of technique. Dziga Vertov’s experimental, silent documentary is a landmark piece of continuity editing, following the lives of workers in the then-Soviet Union. Shot nearly 100 years ago, its Dutch angles still feel relevant, frenetic, and exciting.
2. The Third Man (1949)
Carol Reed’s The Third Man is considered one of the greatest films of all time. It shares actors with another of the greatest films of all time — Citizen Kane’s Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten — but that’s just one element.
The Dutch angle had already been used in American films like Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon, but The Third Man established the technique in this very British take on film noir. Winning an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Reed’s lopsided, post-WWII vision of Vienna hammers home the screenplay’s paranoia.
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s groundbreaking book of the same name, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was always going to be bizarre. Directed by Terry Gilliam, the film uses Dutch angles to portray the two protagonists’ actions under the influence of drugs. It’s stylish, comical, and deeply uncomfortable.
4. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
If you’re a fan, there’s a very slim chance you’ve not seen David Yates’ final entry in the main Harry Potter series. But just in case you haven’t caught up, we won’t spoil it. The below Dutch-angled scene is up there with the best of them, though, emotionally devastating the viewer and changing their opinion on a certain character.
5. Last Night in Soho (2021)
Last Night in Soho is super stylish, given it’s directed by Edgar Wright. Billed as a psychological horror with flashbacks to the 1960s, its warm, nostalgic tones only last so long. As soon as the protagonist starts dreaming and things go wrong, those Dutch angles come thick and fast.
Wrapping up Dutch angles
Dutch angles are theoretically simple to grasp, but take years of practice to perfect. Look at how your favorite filmmakers and content creators use them, figure out how they’ll fit best into your work, and get busy.
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