Shots and Camera Angles PDF

SHOTS AND CAMERA ANGLES Mr. Bridenstine and Mr. Harchol’s Guide CAMERA DISTANCES (also known as SHOTS) 1. EXTREME WIDE SHOT (also known as EXTREME LONG SHOT) The person is tiny (we can barely make out their...

SHOTS AND CAMERA ANGLES Mr. Bridenstine and Mr. Harchol’s Guide CAMERA DISTANCES (also known as SHOTS) 1. EXTREME WIDE SHOT (also known as EXTREME LONG SHOT) The person is tiny (we can barely make out their face if at all), for example, a person riding on a horse far away in the distance on a mountaintop An Extreme Wide or Long shot shows a character dwarfed in relation to their surroundings. Someone riding a horse far in the distance, in the desert, for example, would be an Extreme Wide Shot. So would a shot of a lost astronaut as he traverses the terrain of Mars. These shots allow the audience to see a direct relationship between the environment or setting and the character, and how they interact. "Lawrence of Arabia" "The Martian" 2. WIDE SHOT (also known as LONG SHOT) Space above and below the person, where we can see the person interacting with their setting, for example, a shot of students sitting in the classroom. We see the classroom and the people in it. In a Wide/Long shot, the camera has a fair amount of space above and below the character. There can be many characters in a Wide/Long shot, such as a group of people sitting in a theater watching a show, or just a shot of two men having a light saber battle. This shot highlights the direct relationship between setting and character. "The Royal Tenenbaums" "The Empire Strikes Back" 1  CAMERA DISTANCES (also known as SHOTS) - CONTINUED 3. FULL SHOT Person is framed head to toe (no space or almost no space above or below the person) In a Full Shot, the camera reveals the character's full head and body, with little room above and beneath, and sometimes it can feature more than one character at a time. By showing the full body, the relationship between the character and the setting is even more intimate than previously wider shots. "The Breakfast Club" "The General" 4. "COWBOY" SHOT (also known as a 3/4 SHOT) Person is shown from the knees up. In a "Cowboy" shot, or 3/4 shot, we see the character from the knees up. The term “cowboy shot” came from old westerns, where the camera was positioned to show a gunslinger’s gun or holster from the hip up. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" "Moonlight" 5. MEDIUM SHOT Person is shown from the waist up. For a more intimate shot, bringing us more into the character’s space. “Titanic” "Black Panther" 2  CAMERA DISTANCES (also known as SHOTS) - CONTINUED 6. MEDIUM CLOSE UP SHOT Person is shown from the chest up. A Medium Close Up shot is framed from the character's chest up, getting us even closer to their faces. Emotions, such as confidence and laughter, can clearly be seen in a Medium Close Up shot. "Joker" "Moonlight" 7. CLOSE UP SHOT Person is shown from the chin up. A Close Up shot is framed from the character's chin up and may or may not cut off a bit of the top of their head. This shot is arguably the most important shot in filmmaking, as the audience can clearly see the emotional experience the characters are having. In these two shots, the last of "La La Land", we see the main characters look at each other, smile and silently acknowledge their deep love for each other in spite of not being together. "La La Land" "La La Land" 8. EXTREME CLOSE UP A portion of the face, for example, an eye. An Extreme Close Up shot shows just a portion of a character's face, giving focus to that one particular feature. Most often in film this the eyes, as we see in the two examples below, but if could be any portion of a character's body, such as mouth, hands or even feet. Character intimacy is intense in an Extreme Close Up and is therefore used with great discretion in most films. "Moonlight" "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" 3  VERTICAL CAMERA ANGLES 9. BIRD'S EYE VIEW Camera pointing straight down A Bird's Eye View Angle shot is when the camera angle is facing directly down onto a character. "The Shawshank Redemption" "The Avengers" 10. HIGH ANGLE Camera is above the subject tilting at a downward angle "Harry Potter" "The Shining" 11. NEUTRAL A Neutral Angle shot is not tilted up or down to any considerable degree, and is often considered at eye level, whether a character is standing or sitting. "The Hunger Games" "Moonlight" 4  VERTICAL CAMERA ANGLES (continued) 12. LOW ANGLE A Low Angle shot is always below the subject matter or character, tilted up at an angle, but not directly up. "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" "Inglorious Basterds” 13. WORM'S EYE VIEW A Worm's Eye View Angle shot is looking directly up at the subject matter or character. "Breaking Bad" "Mysteries of Lisbon" HORIZONTAL CAMERA ANGLES 5  14. FRONT VIEW A Front View angle shot shows the front of a character, or characters. It could be a Close Up or a Full Shot. The key is that it shows the character(s) facing directly towards the camera. "John Wick 2 " "Moonlight" HORIZONTAL CAMERA ANGLES (continued) 15. QUARTER TURN A 1/4 Turn angle is when a character's face is slightly off center, or turned away from the camera. They are not looking straight to camera, but they are also not in profile. In most framed 1/4 turn angle shots, both eyes of a character are seen in the frame and only one ear. "Casablanca" "Moonlight" 16. PROFILE A Profile angle shows a character's face from the side, and the second eye is NOT seen. "Black Panther : Wakanda Forever" "Vertigo" 6  17. THREE-QUARTER TURN A 3/4 Turn angle is when a character's face is turned almost completely around, but not quite just the back of the head. Think of it as between a Profile and a full out back of the head. Examples are circled in red below. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" HORIZONTAL CAMERA ANGLES (continued) 18. BACK TO CAMERA ANGLE A Back to Camera angle is when a character's face is completely hidden, and we only see the back of their head and/or figure. You can consider these shots below something like a full frame/full body profile. "Moonlight" "Casablanca" MOVING SHOTS 19. PAN A Pan is when a camera is stationary, often on a tripod, yet pivots (rotates) from the left to right or right to left. In the image below, the camera pans (pivots, rotates) from left to right from one character to the other 7  20. TILT A Tilt is when a camera is stationary, but tilts up to down, or down to up. Tilting from a low angle to a high angle, or from a high angle to a low angle (as in the sequence below) MOVING SHOTS (continued) 21. TRACKING (SIX POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS) A Tracking shot, or tracking, is when the camera is not tilting and not panning, but moving itself. You can track in SIX (6) possible directions: from right to left, left to right, forward, backward, vertically upward, or vertically downward. Tracking left, right, forward, and backward can also be called a Dolly or Trucking shot. Tracking vertically up or down can also be called a pedestal shot. Look at the graphic below. Imagine that there is a couple looking at the Statue of Liberty (Shot 1). Then they decide to walk from left to right, ALL THE WAY ACROSS NEW YORK CITY, until they get to St. Patrick's Cathedral (Shot 2). There is no way you could pan and keep them in the shot. They would get far too tiny. So your camera has to track alongside them the entire walk, keeping them within the shot until they get to their final location. 8  ADDITIONAL SHOTS 22. OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT Over the Shoulder Shots allow us to establish the physical distance and relationship between two subjects. They are very often used in both fictional and non-fictional settings. In documentaries or journalistic interviews, you often see this, where a two-camera shoot allows for one camera to be focused on the interviewer, and one on the interviewee. Both are in the shot at all times, but we focus on one while we see the shoulder of the other. Look at the scene below, from "When Harry Met Sally". It begins with a 2-shot, where both main characters are shown in the space. Then as their conversation continues, we see Sally over the shoulder of Harry. For the reverse shot, we then see Harry over Sally's shoulder. Both shots are similar, easy to follow and stay on one side of the line. Many films feature this simple 2-shot/Over the Shoulder/Reverse Over the Should shot combination. 9 Not all Over the Shoulder shots need to match exactly as they do in the above scene. In the scene below, from "The Dark Knight", we see an intense interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker. The shot on the left is an Over the Shoulder of Batman as a wider shot, where we see both characters from the waist up. But on the reverse Over the Shoulder shot of the Joker, it's a Close-up, much tighter, much more intense. The Director chose to go closer on the Joker because this is the first time he's meeting our main character, Batman, and being able to see all of his emotions close-up is important to understanding who his is, what he wants and how he feels. An Over the Shoulder shot that contains a small fraction of another character in one corner, as seen below, is often called a Dirty Shot. The reason is because of the frame is dirtied up, or occupied, by the shoulder of the other character. If a character looks into a mirror, like in this "Harry Potter" still, it is still called a dirty shot. "No Country for Old Men" "Harry Potter" ESTABLISHING SHOT An Establishing shot is most often an Extreme Wide or Long shot that comes at the beginning of a scene, thereby establishing where the following scene takes place. Take the example from "Seinfeld". This Establishing shot of 10 Tom's Diner is always used on the show just before we see Jerry and his friends in the diner. It visually indicates to the audience that what you see afterwards takes place within this space. The same is true for "Harry Potter", where you often see an Extreme Wide or Long shot of the Hogwarts castle before you see Harry, Ron and Hermione investigating their latest mystery. "Seinfeld" "Harry Potter" A Re-Establishing Shot is used to remind viewers where characters are in relation to each other and their setting. This can be used for dramatic or comedic effect, such as in this film, where the first frame shows a cop shooting left to right, and then the second frame shows a reverse shot of the bad guy shooting back, but the third frame gets a big laugh because it shows that they are only feet away from each other. The scene was never properly established, so the comedy comes from the surprise in how close they are, when we assumed they would be far apart. A Cutaway shot is a shot that moves away from the main action of a scene, without leaving the actual scene. 11 Consider the two shots from the movie "Rocky". On the left is a two shot of two men in the ring. That is the main action. But next to that shot is a Cutaway shot of a woman, who happens to be Rocky's girlfriend. She is not in the ring. She is not in the fight. But she is at the event, and so when the film cuts to her, it is a Cutaway shot. Main Action Cutaway Shot Now look at the next set of two shots from "Shang-Chi". The main action of the scene is the big fight scene on the bus, as shown on the left, but throughout the scene, the film goes to a Cutaway shot of the Youtuber live streaming. All characters are on the train, in the same environment, but because the Youtuber is not essential to the main action, and only used for comic effect, his shots would be considered Cutaway shots. Main Action Cutaway Shot A POV shot is short for "point-of-view" and uses the camera to show exactly what a character sees. This can be used to create a frightening tone, such as on the left in "Halloween", or a lighter, more humane feeling, as seen on the right in "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." Both shots are POV shots used in completely different ways. INSERT SHOT 12 An Insert shot can be considered an Extreme Close Up where the focus is NOT a part of a character's face or body, but an object itself. Take the two examples below. Both show fingers in the shot, but the fingers are not the focus of the shot. It is the ring and the keys. They are what the audience are meant to "see", as they are inserted into a larger scene. In "The Lord of the Rings", the audience needs to see a very tight shot of the ring to understand that this is "the one to rule them all", and in "Poltergeist", tension is built as we see the father frantically fumble with his car keys in a desperate attempt to start the car and flee the scene. "The Lord of the Rings" "Poltergeist" 13