Again, I'll try not to get too technical, but I do want to go over a few things up front so that we're more or less on the same page.
With all these shot breakdowns I've been doing, I've essentially been analyzing the game's editing, the assembly of all these various shots into sequences/scenes. More specifically, I've been looking at the types of shots that are being used and when the game chooses to cut from one shot to the next.
Two of the main goals of editing are:
1)
Coherence - you want to make sure that the story makes sense visually. This is making sure you establish the geographic proximity of characters and also cut the shots in such a way that you know who is talking to whom and what they are taking about.
2)
Invisibility - good editing should not draw attention to itself. Unless you are a weirdo like me who has trained herself to look for these cuts, you shouldn't notice when the shot changes. This is why these cuts often happen on movement, and why you rarely see a cut from a close up to a wideshot. When something breaks these rules, it's quite jarring and takes the audience out of the experience by making them aware that they are watching something that someone else has assembled. Of course, sometimes this happens because the intent
is to be jarring - think of a jump scare in a horror film.
(I would say rhythm/pacing is the third goal. The difference between good and bad editing is why some three hour films breeze by while some 90-minute films feel like they will never end, but this one isn't really relevant to what I'm doing here.)
All of that is to say that when I point out that a particular shot is simulating the perspective of one character or another, I am by no means trying to argue that the subject of the shot is who they're in love with. The vast majority of the time, it's just the game trying make clear who is talking to whom.
With that out of the way, I would also like divide the shots into three categories. Now, this isn't technical at all, but a way to approximate "closeness" you are meant to to feel towards the character whose perspective you are seeing.
[Objective] - These are the shots that couldn't be from the perspective from any of the characters in the scene. It's as if the camera is a character itself, and wandering around the room to get the best view of the action. We see what's going on, it's not meant to give us an particular insight into how another character is feeling about what's going on. In general, these are used to establish the spatial relationship between objects/characters, as well as to draw attention to specific objects and characters.
[Subjective] - These are the shots where we are more or less seeing what one particular character is seeing. These include the "over the shoulder shots" where we can see the back of the character whose perspective we are seeing, but I am also going to include close-ups where based on the preceding/following shot, we can tell it is more or less from the angle at which the perspective character would be standing. We're more or less seeing the scene from the perspective of a specific character, but there is still some distance there. These are used to show where/what a character is looking at, and very often in dialogue sequences so you know who the characters are talking to.
[First-person] - These are the POV shots, where you are literally seeing the world through a particular character's eyes. This as close as we can get to the POV character. We are seeing exactly what they are seeing and feeling exactly what they are feeling. These generally serve the same purpose as a
[Subjective] shot, but with the added benefit of giving you a window into that character's psyche at that particular moment. These are used more sparingly. When you're looking at something, you are not applying the rule of thirds. The object of your focus is usually centered, thus audiences will notice something is a bit off, which will take them out of the scene.
Phew, now let's finally get into the scene itself:
(2) (3) (4) Barret gets Cloud to agree to go on the mission. These are all more or less approximate the angle of the person being spoken to. These are are all
[subjective] shots from either Cloud or Barret's POV.
(5) is initially unclear - but with the cut to
(6), we can tell it's a
[subjective] shot from Jessie's POV.
(6) itself is a
[subjective] shot as well, but it splits the difference between Cloud and Barret's POV.
Similarly
(7) is a
[subjective] shot of Cloud from Jessie's POV as he agrees to raise some hell for her.
(8) (9) (10) Barret asks Wedge to stay back. They're not quite approximating Barret and Wedge's perspective, but it's close so I'll call these
[subjective] as well
(11) Cloud nods as Wedge gives him a thumbs up. A
[subjective] shot of Cloud from Wedge's POV.
(12) (13) (14) (15) (16) - Barret decides they're all agreed. Tifa nods. Barret crossed back to Cloud to pay him. These all feel like they're shot from someone standing in the middle of these characters so I would categorize all these as
[objective]
(18) This is one I'm not 100% sure of. It's a shot of Cloud and Barret's chest after Cloud is paid.
This cuts to
(19), where we see the back of Tifa's head. This one is clearly a
[subjective] shot of Cloud and Barret from Tifa's POV. Based on the height difference between the Tifa and Barret and the distance between them, I'm inclined to say
(18) is a
[first-person] shot from Tifa's POV.
(19) cuts at the moment Cloud and Tifa turn towards each other into:
(20) - where Tifa is looking directly at the camera. This is definitely a
[first-person] of Tifa from Cloud's POV.
(20b) makes this clear, as the camera follows Tifa's movement and Tifa is still looking at the camera. Cloud/the camera watches as Tifa leaves and we finally cut to
(21), an
[objective] shot as Cloud's head turns, which makes it even more clear that
(20) was from Cloud's POV.
I hadn't paid much attention to this scene on all my various playthroughs, but this is a really lovely moment, and a nice bookend to the chapter as a whole. After being a jerk during the first mission and being left out of the Avalanche celebration earlier, Cloud is now part of the team. Another major subplot of this chapter is Cloud remembering his promise to Tifa and later verbalizing to her that he plans on keeping it. This moment allows him to reaffirm that verbal commitment with action.
While he has nice one-on-one moments with each of Barret, Jessie and Wedge, and the game takes the time to highlight each one, there is something about his interaction with Tifa that feels so much more intimate.
Note that the two of them don't exchange a single line of dialogue through the entire scene. Instead they just share a look. I wouldn't even say Tifa's look in
(20) is particularly charged, but there is something about seeing her through Cloud's eyes that just made me go - woof, I too would leave everything behind and try to join SOLDIER for this girl. Also the fact that
(20) stays on Tifa even after she's turned away leaves us with just a hint of longing. And in
(21) we see that he still hasn't turned away. Words aren't the only way indeed.
Here's a horrendous quality gif that illustrates that effect in motion:
The game could have easily used a
[subjective] shot for
(20) or turned any of the other various
[subjective] shots of the other Avalanche members into a
[first-person] shot from Cloud's POV without changing our understanding of the scene...unless, of course, the fact that Cloud's relationship with Tifa
is special (and thus receives special treatment) is meant to be part of our understanding of the scene.
Now, not all of Cloud's POV shots in FF7R are of Tifa, nor are all of Tifa's of Cloud, but there are
quite a lot of them. I've compiled a few examples below (though this is by no means an exhaustive list):
What visual media is able to convey so effectively about love is the act of looking, where you choose to place your gaze. This is one of the things that FF7R has done so well in developing Cloud and Tifa's relationship and why so many people believe it. Outside of words and actions (and we have plenty of that as well), because we are seeing Tifa through Cloud's eyes, and Cloud through Tifa's eyes, we understand that they are falling in love even if we can't quite explain why.
