Dutch Angle
A deliberately tilted camera, so the horizon runs at an angle across the frame.
Measured in
degrees
In depth
Borrowed from expressionist cinema, the tilt creates unease by removing the stable horizontal the eye expects. It only works when it is unmistakably deliberate — a five-degree tilt reads as carelessness, while twenty degrees reads as intent. It is heavily overused, and its effect is diluted by any repetition within a set of images.
Examples in practice
A twenty-degree tilt on a crowded stairwell makes an ordinary scene feel disorienting and urgent.