Types of shots

Before we can even discuss camera movement we are going to do a quick overview of camera distances and angles that make up the standard video shots. Most are all pretty self explanatory so we will only briefly cover them.

Distances

Establishing Shot: Your establishing shot is the shot used to set the scene at the start of the film. Most commonly the establishing shot is a wide landscape style of shot.

Long Shot: Normally shows the scene to scale. For example, a person would be fully in the scene with their head and feet coming close to the top and bottom edges of the screen. The background would be clear enough to understand the setting, however not focused on like in an establishing shot.

Medium Shot: An above-the-waist height. Focuses on between one to three people in a scene with a minimal background as the location has previously been established.

Close-Up: Tight view of a face, upper body or object. Very little of the background in focus. All the focus is on the one thing in the scene. For example, a character’s facial expression would be well shot as a close-up.

Angles

Birds-Eye View: perched above the subject in the scene. Shows the subject and the ground. Often used for dramatic effect.

Eye Level: Shot at the eye level of the camera operator. Very standard and the most commonly used shot. Also pretty boring.

Low Angle: Also known as a Worm’s View. Shot from below looking up on a scene. Makes objects look larger. Think Star Wars and Darth Vader, he was often shot from below to signify power.

High angle: The opposite. Shot from a height to make people seem smaller in the scene. Often used to signify weakness.

Oblique angle: Tilting the camera at an angle. Un-usual effect but it suggests that the world is crooked or messed up.

Camera Movement

We all know the compositional techniques used in photography: leading lines, rule-of-thirds, etc. I think of each of the different camera movements as an additional compositional technique. You examine the scene and decide if one will enhance the meaning of the scene, then employ it.

Most of the movements in this article have been around since the start of cinema, however the techniques used to shoot them have evolved a lot due to technogolical advances. We are going to start with the easiest three that you properly already know, even if you have limited knowledge of film.

Zooming

A zoom shot is really easy to understand, simply zooming the camera in or out to include more or less of the scene. The camera stays still and never moves.

Zooming out is used to show the viewer more of the scene or encooperate other characters into the scene. Whereas zooming in is used to focus on an object or person.

The speed of the zoom is also very important, zooming in fast can be used to shock, where as a slow zoom is normally used to draw attention.

To make the zoom shot easier to shoot with your DSLR, I would suggest purchasing a follow focus system. They will allow you to zoom your lens much more precisely while also helping to prevent camera movement.

Panning

A pan shot is when you rotate the camera along the horizontal axis to bring the viewer on another point in the scene.

There a few different types of panning shots including:

A Following Pan: Follows a character or object in the scene, such as a car driving down a road.

A Surveying Pan: Often used for a climax as the camera searches the scene for a point of interest. Often used in horror movies for shock value.

A pan often ends with a couple of seconds of no movement. It slows down the shot and makes the next cut more natural.

Aerial

An aerial shot is normally shot from a helicopter, very large camera crane or very tall building. They are normally used for establishing shots or to show that the action had moved from one location to another.

Unless you live in a city with a skyscraper nearby, it is unlikely that you would use aerial shots as this would be very expensive.