Long Shot; is generally one which
shows the image as approximately "life" size i.e. corresponding to the real distance
between the audience and the screen in a cinema. This category includes the full shot showing the
entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near
the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.
Medium Shot; Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue
scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the two shot (containing two figures from the waist up) and the three shot (contains
3 figures).
Close Ups; This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a
specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background.
This shot magnifies the object (think of how big it looks on a cinema screen)
and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression
on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality,
we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers,
children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot.
A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable
about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required
framing.
Extreme Close Ups; As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying
beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up
of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background
detail whatsoever. This
is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus
required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the
shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.
High Angle; The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general
overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and
less significant (or scary). The object or character often gets
swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.
Eye-level Shot; A fairly neutral shot; the camera is positioned as though it is a
human actually observing a scene, so that eg actors' heads are on a
level with the focus. The camera will be placed approximately five to
six feet from the ground.
Low Angles; These increase height and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense
of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene.
The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling,
the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the
viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity
in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.
Pan; A movement which scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a
tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is
turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of
the frame.
Tilts; A movement which scans a scene vertically, otherwise similar to a pan.
Hand-held Camera; The hand-held movie camera first saw widespread use during World War II,
when news reporters took their windup Arriflexes and Eyemos into the heat
of battle, producing some of the most arresting footage of the twentieth
century. After the war, it took a while for commercially produced movies
to catch up, and documentary makers led the way, demanding the production
of smaller, lighter cameras that could be moved in and out of a scene with
speed, producing a "fly-on-the-wall" effect.This aesthetic took a while
to catch on with mainstream Hollywood, as it gives a jerky, ragged effect,
totally at odds with the organised smoothness of a dolly shot. The Steadicam
(a heavy contraption which is attached a camera to an operator by a harness.
The camera is stabilized so it moves independently) was debuted in Marathon
Man (1976), bringing a new smoothness to hand held camera movement and
has been used to great effect
in movies and TV shows ever since. No "walk and talk" sequence would be
complete without one. Hand held cameras denote a
certain
kind of gritty realism, and they can make the audience feel as though they
are part of a scene, rather than
viewing it from a detached, frozen position.
