You Won't Notice These 3 Techniques While Watching The Terminator

I recently watched James Cameron's masterclass, where he gave an excellent explanation of how camera lens choices and shooting angles work according to storytelling logic.

Using the example of The Terminator, specifically the club scene:

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Long-focus lens at 2:21

Sarah notices Kyle following her. It's not enough to simply show a close-up of Kyle. We need to show that Sarah detects Kyle's gaze through a lot of visual noise (bar bottles, other dancers) and focuses her attention on him. The long-focus lens helps achieve this.

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POV shot at 2:47

Until this moment, the Terminator couldn't find Sarah in the club. As the film approaches the moment when the Terminator and Sarah meet, the tension needs to build progressively.

This was accomplished by adding the Terminator's theme to the main soundtrack, applying echo effects to the club music, and switching the camera angle to the Terminator's point of view. All these elements combined to maximize the tension.

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18mm lens and low-angle shot from the floor at 3:41

In the story, just seconds before this shot, the Terminator appeared defeated, lying on the floor after being hit by a shotgun. But he rises again. In this shot, it was necessary to show (visually emphasize) his power and strength, that he had regained the initiative. The choice of lens and angle visually reinforced this perfectly.

All these techniques allow storytelling without unnecessary words and scenes, solely through the right camera angles. This works not only in films but also in advertising