Beginning

Head Room

  • Too much head room - having too much space between the top of a subject’s head and the top of the frame
  • Too little head room - having not enough space between the top of the frame and a subject (often referred to as “cutting off someone’s head”)

Looking Room

  • Making sure a subject is looking across the frame or has space (looking room) to do so
  • Very important with interviews

Leading Room

  • Also important with a subject that is moving, need to give them room/space to move into.
  • Referred to as “leading”

Establishing Shot

  • Meant to establish the scene and story taking place.

Wide Shot

  • Wide view of an entire setting.

Mid Shot

  • Head to waist/stomach (middle)

Full Shot

  • Head to toe
  • Also called a Long Shot
  • Want the whole subject in the shot

Close Up

  • Tight shot of face or object
  • Used to show detail or focus in on a certain action or object

Extreme Close Up

  • An even tighter shot than a regular close up.
  • Looking for extreme detail

Pan

  • Moving (panning on tripod) the camera horizontally
  • Example: following a subject walking across the screen
  • Example: going from side to side of a long object like a sign or vehicle

Tilt

  • Moving (tilting on tripod) the camera vertically
  • Example: going from someone’s head all the way down to their toes
  • Example: Going from the bottom of a building all the way to the top

High Angle

  • Shot from up high looking down on a subject.
  • The idea is to make the subject look small, weak, vulnerable.

Low Angle

  • Shot from the ground or low spot looking up at a subject
  • The idea is to make the object look bigger, taller. Gives the illusion of greater stature.