Camera Shots, Angle and Movement

Shots: 

Establishing shot

Sets up or establishes the context for a scene by illustrating the relationship between it's important figures and objects. 

Master shot

A film recording of an entire dramatised scene, from an angle that keeps all characters in view.

Close-up shot

Tightly frames a person or an object. Displays the most detail but does not broader the scene.

Mid-shot 

Shot from a medium distance. In between close-up and long shot. Used mainly for wanting to see both body language and facial expressions. 

Long shot (also Wide/full shot)

Shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to it's surroundings. 

Two shot

The frame encompasses a view of two people, typically used to show the emotional reactions between the subjects. 

Aerial shot

Usually shot with a crane or attached to a special helicopter to view large landscapes. 

Point of view shot

A short film scene that displays what a character is looking at which is represented through the camera. 

Over the shoulder shot

A shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. Can be an image or a film. 

Angles:

High angle 

When the camera angle is located above the eyeline. 

Low angle

When the camera angle is positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eyeline, looking up. 

Canted angle

A type of camera shot where the camera is titled off to one side so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame. 

Movement:

Panning

The rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera. 

Tilt

A cinematographic technique in which the camera is stationary and rotates in a vertical plane. 

Track/dolly/crane

The camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails whilst the picture is being taken. 

Zoom

An unsettling effect that undermines normal visual perception. Can be filmed or edited. 

The television uses these camera shots, angles and movements to encode the media in various different ways. Just by changing the angle, you can portray significance and superiority to the audience. By choosing different camera shots, you can create empathy and sympathy. By changing the movement, you can create tension or even relax the audience. These various different conventions of the media create different moods which are compatible with their scene and this is one of the main ways that the television encodes television to give it meaning - without meaning we wouldn't be interested in watching it!