For filmmakers to fully cement themselves in the history, scholarship, and culture of cinema, they must bring something distinct and unfamiliar to the table. The skill should be used so prominently that it becomes synonymous with them and their work. It can be a thematic value, a color pattern, a plane, or a method of camera movement. Wes Anderson has his pastel color palette symmetry, and Agnes Varda embodied the exploration of personal relationships through symbolism. film genius Stanley Kubrick revolutionized cinematic visuals with its iconic trademarks including “The Kubrick Stare” and one-point perspective – careful and effective shot composition that translates cinematic language to the audience.

A complex explanation of one-point perspective shooting mentions the importance of horizontal lines in the frame and how the front plane of an object is directly in front of the figure and parallel to the horizon line. The shot also relies on the vanishing point, which is the center of the frame where the lines would disappear if extended to infinity. Think of the hallway scene in the brilliant where Danny sits on the floor with the camera placed behind him to encapsulate him and the rest of the hallway in front of him.

As Kubrick was an artist who had a method for every little spark of madness, one-point perspective is valuable, practical, and intentional. Using symmetry in horizontal lines, Kubrick magnifies his visual material for the public eye and designs it to play with his mind. The shot can present an uneventful image of nothing happening, directing the audience’s attention to a particular point as the climax of the shot. As a result, they anticipate if or when something will happen to break up the restful nature of the scene that the composition orchestrates.

New York Film Academy film professor Miguel Parga further explains Kubrick’s intentions for one-point perspective: “Kubrick and his one-point shots force you to look at the world differently. When you squat, you look at the world from the perspective of someone that size – a child perhaps.

He adds: “In this way, the director forces not only a change of perspective but also a psychological change. He wants you to see the world through the eyes of a child.

This highlights the power of film and visual language as a whole; filmmakers can direct their shots to infiltrate and alter the viewer’s gaze. This is the influence of Kubrick’s one-point perspective, present in most of his works such as the brilliant, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket. These features are studied and praised in movies decades after their release for their use of shot composition and camera movement to convey meaning and audience engagement, showing an alliance between cinematography and cognition. This successful exploration of the relationship between filmmaker/film and audience plays a vital role in Kubrick’s legendary status in cinema, as it shows not only his creative passion for visual storieselling but also its intellectual illumination of its properties.

Watch a supercut of each Kubrick film that uses one-point perspective below.