Also known as point of view · P.O.V. · POV shot
On the page, POV usually marks a shot through a character's eyes (or a device standing in for them). In craft talk, point of view also means whose experience the scene privileges.
On the page
POV
MAYA'S POV — THROUGH BLINDS
Format POV is a camera instruction: MAYA'S POV or POV - THROUGH BINOCULARS tells production we are looking as that person or tool. Use it when the subjective frame is the story beat — a reveal only they can see, a lie that collapses when we share their sightline. Casual "from her POV" in action without a true subjective cut is usually just prose habit.
Narrative point of view is broader: which character's knowledge, desire, and emotional cost organize the scene. A scene can stay third-person visual while still locking to one person's agenda. When coverage says the draft feels unfocused, check whether scenes keep switching narrative POV without earning the handoff.
Specs should not turn every glance into a labeled POV shot. Reserve the notation for moments where sharing the eye line changes information or dread. If you are testing a more subjective sequence, keep the experiment on a draft line or take so the cleaner, less camera-heavy version remains easy to restore.
In slug or shot notation, yes — we see through that vantage. In development talk, point of view can also mean whose stakes and knowledge the scene centers without a literal eye-line shot.
No. Overusing POV turns a spec into a shot list. Write it when the subjective frame itself delivers the beat or hides information the wider frame would spoil.
An insert isolates a detail; POV assigns the vantage. You can combine them — a character's POV of a phone screen — when both the eye line and the readable detail matter.
Easily. Most scenes privilege a character through action, dialogue, and what we withhold. Labels are optional tools, not a requirement of professional formatting.
