4 Essential Camera Shots You Need To Know
Understand the different types of camera shots and how they influence and help you tell your story.
The camera shots are one of the main aspects filmmakers make use of as a way to capture and transmit emotions and dynamism to the audience.
“Don’t let the difficulty of actually achieving a shot make you think that the shot is good” — Sindey Lumet
In this article you’ll learn about the basics camera shots most used in the filmmaking industry and will start framing the shots way before pulling out your camera. So stick around and let’s dive deep into it!
What is a shot?
Filmmakers use the term “shot” to define whatever is happening on screen from the beginning until the end of a scene.
A shot is extremely important because it can capture many aspects and pass it forward to the audience. Shots vary depending on what you want the audience to perceive and that’s why you need to master them all!
Establishing shot
Establishing shot is a scene-setting shot used to situate the audience and contextualize the scene. It shows where a scene is taking place so people can better understand the story as a whole. Therefore, it’s focused on giving a general impression rather than detailed information and usually show the exterior part of a place.
Full shot
The full shot frames the main subject from top to bottom or head to toes. It’s commonly used to shoot action scenes in which you’re able to see the whole character/subject body and, therefore, be aware of all the movements it’s making. As it’s focused on capturing movements and dynamism, you won’t be able to perceive as much details as close-up shots. So, use it when you feel it’s important for the audience to see the whole character!
Medium shot
The medium shot — one of the most common shots seen in films — shows the subject from the waist up and captures some of the environment it’s in. It’s more focused on the subject, its interactions and provides more details to the audience. Usually it comes after a establishing shot in which people already know where the scene is taking place or between two full shots to provide more detailed and precise information about what’s happening.
Close-up shot
The close-up shots are used to reveal the subject’s emotions and precise details of it. Usually, it frames the head or the face of a character so it’s easier to the audience to perceive the expressions and understand the scene’s emotional atmosphere. In this type of shot, almost anything about the environment is included so the relevance concentrates on the character’s feelings.
Conclusion
Using different types of shots make the audience keep up with your story and fully understand what you want them to understand within each scene. Therefore, it’s very important for you to practice and master each one of the camera shots mentioned in this article to be able to combine them and create meaningful videos.
You can practice different shots at anytime and anywhere with our Vliz app which is a video app in which you record 50-sec moments that are put together into a single video. Perfect for you to create a video composed by moments that capture different shots. You can download the app for free on the App Store at: vliz.tv/download.
Don’t forget to always practice what you’ve just learned and remember that every shot has a different purpose and your job is to find the right one for your scene!
Learn more about the basics of filmmaking camera positioning:
