Investigating the Relationship Between Anthropomorphism and Point of View by Analyzing the Visual Structure of Film in “Hunters and Hunted” (2009)

This paper examines the creation of anthropomorphism through a point of view focusing on visual structure in the "Hunters and Hunted"(2009) documentary. One of the criticisms of wildlife films is the anthropomorphism of animal behavior and relationships in ecosystems in these documentaries, as it can lead to distortions of animal behavior in ecosystems. One of the aims of this article is to indicate the part of anthropomorphism that is created through the point of view and through the visual form of the work, so in order to avoid anthropomorphism in films, more attention should be paid to the form of aesthetic. Point-of-view analysis shows that subjective point of view (P.O.V) shots leads to anthropomorphism from the perspective of non-human beings. With this in mind, the different perspectives were explored in "Hunters and Hunted" from the “life” (2009) series. Surveys show that from 475 shots of this documentary, 14 shots are from the first person's point of view from an animal perspective to advance the narrative. The structure of the P.O.V created in these shots shows that the shot / reverse angle shot pattern was used to create the subjective point of view and the image composition and also editing played a key role in creating the P.O.V shots in this documentary.