Camera Movements, Shots, Composition

Camera Movements

A change in frame or perspective is produced by the camera moving. Directors and cinematographers can change the audience’s point of view without cutting by using camera movement. The audience might be psychologically and emotionally affected by particular camera movements. A movie can use these effects to become more compelling and immersive.

Pan

The camera pan directs a camera horizontally left or right. The pan camera movement is typically achieved with a tripod head, but can also be done handheld or with a stabilizer.

Pans are often motivated by a character’s actions. They can also be used to reveal new information to the audience.

Tilt

Camera tilts are just like pans, only vertical. Tilt camera movements direct a camera upward or downward. Camera tilts can be used to give a character dominance in a shot or to reveal new information to the audience. Tilts enable filmmakers to capture the verticality of a film in moments of awe and spectacle.

Dolly In / Out

A dolly-in moves the camera closer to a subject typically with a dolly camera movement or Steadicam. Push-ins can draw the audience’s attention toward a specific detail. Filmmakers also push-in toward characters to try and infer what is occurring internally. This can be a reaction, thought process, or internal conflict.

The camera dolly out is the exact opposite of the dolly in. A dolly out is a smooth camera movement that moves the camera further away from a subject. This movement causes the subject to grow smaller while simultaneously revealing their surroundings.

Dolly outs can be used to reveal setting and characters. Emotionally, dolly outs can highlight a character’s isolation or loneliness. 

Zoom

Although zooms are technically not a camera movement they do create movement within the image. Zooms change the focal length of a camera lens to either zoom in (magnify) or zoom out (de-magnify) the size of a subject in the frame. 

Zooms are unique because there is no equivalent to it in the experience of the human eye. Zooms can feel artificial or even unnatural. For these reasons, zooms are one of the best camera movements to use in horrors and thrillers.

Tracking shot

tracking shot is any shot that physically moves the camera through the scene for an extended amount of time. Tracking camera movement often follows a traveling subject, though they can be used to simply show off the scene.

Descriptions from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/different-types-of-camera-movements-in-film/

Trucking shot

Similar to tracking or dollying, trucking is essentially the same. It may have slightly varied meanings to various people, but in general, it denotes  side-to-side camera movement in relation to the action.

Pedestal

Pedestal means to raise or lower the camera on a tripod or studio pedestal’s central column.

Crane

Crane shots are used with a camera mounted on an upward-and-downward-moving jib. A crane shot often hovers around in the air. The crane shot enables the viewer to depart from a conventional point of view and creates a fresh viewpoint that is naturally cinematic.

Photo by Bopha

Camera Movements: an introduction, with examples and explanations. CLICK HERE

Shot Sizes

What is shot size?

The expression “shot size” describes the relationship of the frame’s size to its content. The shot size basically establishes how much of your subject or environment is seen in each given shot. The scene’s rhythm and visual language are influenced by the combination of various shot sizes.

Image from www.cadrage.app

Elements of Image Composition

FRAMING A SHOT
The most fundamental concerns regarding framing a shot are how much area you include in the frame, the proximity the subject seems to the viewer, where to set the object relative to the screen boundaries, and how to make viewers perceive the entire thing. These elements are known as image composition.

RULE OF THIRDS

The Rule of Thirds is a visual composition method involving utilizing two horizontal and two vertical lines to divide an image into thirds. With four crossing points, this hypothetical grid produces nine segments. Theoretically, you could achieve a far more interesting-looking composition by placing the most crucial components of it at these intersections.

Some of the most basic compositional factors involve subject placement; head room, and lead room; and the horizon line.

HEAD ROOM

When framing your subject, you should also take head room into account. The head room is the distance between a person’s head and the top of the frame. If you give them too much room, the person will look to be drowning in quicksand. On the other hand, if you don’t give them enough space, the person will appear at risk of hitting their head at the top of the frame. Providing proper head room for a subject balances the shot composition. You will provide suitable head room if you place the subject’s eyes on the imagined top third line.

LEAD ROOM

Lead room or look-room is the blank space between the subject and the frame’s edge. To put it another way, it’s about framing what isn’t in the frame, which is crucial when filming people. It is our natural impulse to follow someone’s gaze to find out what they are looking at, whether in the street or on a large screen. Therefore, it is unsettling for the viewers when a character is placed at the edge of a frame and looking off the edges of the screen.

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