Thursday 1 October 2015

Basic Camerawork: Camera Shot Types

Basic Camerawork: Shot Types
Here are a few camera shot types for you to learn and understand.



Here is an image of the basic shot distances, and as you can see as they go along they get closer and closer to the subject, hence their name and shot distances.


Now I am going to add a video as well as the picture to help fully understand the basic shot distances more:




Those were the shot distances, now here are the different basic shot types:

An Establishing Shot: This is to be considered the first shot of a new scene. This is designed to show the audience where the action is taking place. It is usually a very wide shot or an extreme wide shot.


A Montage Shot: A montage is a technique in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time and information.



A Shot/Reverse Shot: A technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the original character.


Two Shot: A shot of two people together. The subjects don not have to be standing next to each other. They could be standing in front or behind each other as long as they are both in the shot.



Graphic Match Shot: A cut in a film between two diferent objects in two different spaces that match graphically (Look Similar).


Aerial Shot: A shot from a plane, helicopter or drone. It doesn't always have to have camera movement but sometimes it may need to. 



Point Of View Shot (POV): A shot which shows the scene from the specific point of view of one of the characters. For this video look from 0;50 seconds to 1:29 for the point of view shot.



High Angle Shot: A technique where the camera looks down on the subject from a high angle. This makes look they are vulnerable by something or someone and makes them look in fear.



Low Angle Shot: A technique where the camera looks up at the subject from a low angle. This makes the subject look superior.



Eye Level Shot: An eye level shot is where the camera is level with the subjects line of view. Therefore, making them look on equal terms with everyone else unlike the high and low level shots.



For my next post I will be talking about the different types of basic camera movement.