The Twenty-ninth Child-- Shoot!

So, I've noticed doing these blog posts that nearly all of them fit into a style or category.  I have my genre posts, my director posts, my script posts, and my sort of random things posts.  Then on top of that I have the few that don't fit like my post about The Beatles, or my history post about HUAC or my movie post about Citizen Kane.  Well today I'm going to do another out of category post, this one is about camera shots.

First off, let me say that I had this whole post done and it deleted it all, so I'm totally starting over from scratch... I'm pissed...

ANYWAY, if you like my blog go check this motherfucker out... http://musingsofamoviedouche.blogspot.com/

AND, after you're done reading this here, check out this crazy British film maker... http://www.cyriak.co.uk/

Alright, let's restart this piece of shit I guess...

First off we have an aerial shot, which is a far away, high shot, generally to capture landscapes.  A crane or helicopter is usually used to get this kind of shot.  An aerial shot can also make a character seem insignificant.

Next up is considered an "American shot" (at least in France) or a 3/4 shot.  It's a medium-long shot of a group of characters, all of the characters are set up strategically so that all of them are on screen at once.  It's used to allow for dialogue without a lot of camera changes.  The reason it's known as an "American shot" is that French critics mistakenly thought that the shot was common in all American films when it was really only common in low-budget films.

There's the bird's-eye shot, which is an overhead shot where the camera looks directly down at the top of the subject.

A close up is a tight shot on a subject.  It gets close up on a subject or part of a subject to show emotion or emphasis on something specific.  They are very detailed shots that can have many purposes.

Next up is the crane shot (pretty much like the aerial shot).  A crane shot is done solely with a crane in order to shot large groups or to view actors from above or move away from them.

A dolly zoom is an in-camera special effect used to cause an unsettling feeling or feeling of vertigo.  It's made by having a zoom lens shift the angle of view as the camera moves toward or away from the subject in an attempt to keep the subject the same size.  It was used by Alfred Hitchcock in the movie Vertigo.

Then there is the dutch angle.  This is when the camera is tilted off of it's axis in order to raise the uneasiness of a scene.  Dutch angles are used often by directors like Terry Gilliam, Sam Raimi and Tim Burton and a lot in the old Batman TV series.

Establishing shots set up a scene and shot the relationship between characters and settings.  It shows where or when the scene will take place.

A follow shot or tracking shot is where cameras pursue a character.

Forced perspective is an optical illusion to make an object appear farther or closer or larger or smaller.  It's done by having the larger thing closer to the camera making the thing farther away seem smaller.

The next shot is the freeze frame. It's a still frame that is repeated multiple times to make it appear that no movement is occurring

A hanging miniature is another in-camera special effect where there are still subjects in the foreground with the action all in the background.  It's similar to a matte shot.

High-angle shot is when the camera is placed above eye-line and looks down on a character, it usually makes the character seem powerless or vulnerable.

Another is the long shot.  It depicts a character's entire form and places them in relation to its surroundings.  A scene setting long shot that shows location more is an extreme long shot.

A long take is an uninterrupted shot with no edits.  It's very unusual in film and hard to achieve.  The Alfred Hitchcock film Rope (1948)  was intended to be all one long take, but due to cameras at the time, they had to switch film rolls (however, the entire film only consists of 11 takes).

A low-angle shot is, more or less, the exact opposite of a high-angle shot.  This is when the camera is below eye-line looking up at a character.

A master scene is a scene, from start to finish, all of the characters are in the scene and in view.  It's usually used as an establishing shot.

Mattes are in-camera special effects where two or more frames are combined into one single frame.  It usually combines one frame in the foreground put over something else in the background.  Traveling mattes are background mattes that move, static mattes are background mattes that stay in place.

Next is a medium shot, which is a camera shot from a medium distance.  It's a bit hazy as to what constitutes a medium shot.

An over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone taken over the shoulder of another character.  The character who's closest to the camera's head and shoulder are generally shown in the shot.

Panning is a technique where a camera moves or rotates horizontally, either following or moving across the subject.

Next is a point of view shot, it shows the thing that character is looking at from the perspective of the character.

Racking focus changes the attention of the viewer by shifting the focus from a subject in the foreground to one in the background, or vice versa.

Another technique is a reaction shot.  The shot cuts away from the main action of a scene to show a character's reaction.  It's used to show emotion.

A  sequence shot involves a long takes and a intricate movement of the camera.

Another is the shot reverse shot (or a shot/countershot).  It's a technique where one character is shown looking at and talking to another character and then turning the camera around to show the other character.

The SnorriCam is a bit less common in film but much more common in music videos.  This film technique is when a camera is attached to the body of an actor and pointing toward the actor.  It gives the affect of the character standing still and everything around it moving.

A tilt is another technique where the camera moves up or down vertically.

A tracking shot (or dolly shot) is where a dolly mounted camera follows a subject.  It can be used to move toward, away from or next to the subjects.

Next is a trunk shot, this is a shot where the camera is placed in the trunk of a car pointing up at the actors, it's in the perspective of whatever's in the trunk.

Another is a two shot, which is a simple technique where two characters are displayed on screen at once, with once actor generally in the foreground and another farther off in the background.

There are a few shots used in films, I hope that helps with understanding films.  However, if you're not interested in studying films you may not care, anyway, hope you've enjoyed it.

Hasta La Vista babies!