Wonky Terms

I was teased this weekend by my crew. Why? Because I was using a term that they swore didn't exist: canted angle.

The thing is I knew this term existed. It's a shot at roughly 45 degrees of a tilt, meant to convey distress or something else being other wise "wrong" in the situation. Watch a film noir, you'll see it.

Regardless of my insistence Shannon and Beth were sure I was using a bad term to refer to what they called a "dutch angle" and had somehow made it up.

I know that a canted angle and a dutch angle are the same thing - I just hate the term "dutch angle" - what did the Dutch do to us?

So I googled the term today and here's my results:

A Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle or Batman Angle is a cinematic tactic often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed.

HA!!!

Now the only question is this: who uses the term "Batman Angle"???