The Dutch angle is one of the photography/cinematography techniques in which all you have to do is tilt the camera for a different angle while clicking a picture.
The term can be defined as – a shot where the horizontal line of the object is not parallel with the bottom of the frame, whereas the vertical lines form an angle with the sides of the frame. This technique has many interesting stories about the names it has got. It is called a Dutch tilt, canted angle, oblique angle, or a German angle.
Why a German angle if it’s Dutch, you ask? In German, the German language is called “Deutsch”, and this was the original name. As years passed, the name was misspelled and ‘Deutsch’ became ‘Dutch’. So, this angle comes from Germany and it has been used since 1920.
The German directors used this technique when the Expressionist movement came in. As years passed, it came into Hollywood and was used in horror films. Many directors like Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Billy Wilder, etc., have used this technique and we all see the great outcome of it.
With this short history, let’s move on to how and why it is done. You can have a look at the photo gallery below and move on to understand the concept better.
