Basic Camera Angal

Extreme Long Shot

An extreme long shot (ELS) is used to portray a vast area from an apparently very long distance. An ELS is used to impress the viewer with the immense scope of the setting or scene.

Long Shot

A long shot (LS) shows the entire scene area where the action is to take place. The setting, the actors, and the props are shown with an LS to acquaint the audience with their overall appearance and location within the scene. An LS is used to establish all elements within the scene so the audience knows who and what is involved and where they are coated. long-shot (LS).

Medium Long Shot

A Medium Long Shot can frame one or two people standing up, that is, their entire body. MLS Medium Shot  refers to a conventional camera shot filmed from a medium distance;although it is difficult to precisely. define, it usually refers to a human figure from the aist (or knees) up; between a close shot and a long shot;

Close Up

A shot taken from a close distance in which the scale of the object is magnified, appears relatively large and fills the entire frame to focus attention and emphasize its importance;i.e., a person’s head from the shoulders or neck up is a commonly-filmed close-up CU; a tight shot makes the subject fill almost the entire fram e; also extreme close-up (ECU or XCU) is a shot of a part of a character (e.g., face, head, hands) to emphasize detail;also known as detail shot  or close on; contrast to.

Extreme Close Up

An Extreme Close-Up, sometimes called a “tight close- up,” might perhaps frame only a part of a human face (an eye or the mouth), or perhaps a hand or foot.  ECU Extreme Close-Ups can in fact frame anything very small. This is a common shot found in video demonstrations of intricate procedures (e.g. dissections, drawings, etc.)

Zoom In

A single shot taken with a lens that has a variable focal length, thereby permitting the cinematographer to change the distance between the camera and the object being filmed, and rapidly move from a wide-angle shot to a telephoto shot in one continuous ovement; this camera technique makes an object in the frame appear larger; movement towards a subject is known as zoom in or forward zoom, or reversed is known as zoom.

Pan

Abbreviation for panorama shot; refers to the horizontal scan, movement, rotation or turning of the camera in one direction (to the right or left) around a fixed axis while filming; a variation is the swish pan (also known as flick pan, zip pan, or whip pan), in which the camera is purposely panned in either direction at a very fast pace, creating the impression of a fast-moving horizontal blurring of images across the screen; often confused with a dolly or tracking shot.

Dolly In

Refers to a moving shot in which the perspective of the subject and background is changed; the shot is taken from a camera that is m ounted on a hydraulically-powered wheeled camera platform (sometimes referred to as a truck or dolly), pushed on rails (special tracks) and moved smoothly and noiselessly during filming while the camera is running; a pull-back shot  (or dolly out) is the m oving back (‘tracking back’) of the camera from a scene to reveal a character or object that was previously out of the frame, dolly in is when the camera moves closer (‘tracking in’) towards the subject, and dollying along with (or ‘tracking within’) refers to the camera moving beside the subject; also known as tracking shot, trucking shot,  follow shot, or traveling shot; contrast with zoom shots.

Truck

A smooth shot in which the camera moves alongside (‘tracking within’) the subject in a side-to-side motion (relative to the scene or the action); also known as following shot; sometimes used interchangeably with dolly shot, pull back shot, track back or track in,

High Angle

A shot in which the subject is filmed from above and the camera points down on the action, often to make the subject small, weak and vulnerable; contrast to low-angle shot

Low Angle

 A shot in which the subject is filmed directly from below and the camera points up at the action, to make the subject appear larger, more formidable and menacing, or perhaps tall and regal; contrast to a high-angle shot.