Know Your Camera Shots

As an actor, it is very helpful to understand some of the lingo used by the director and the crew, so you know what's going on and how it pertains to you on screen. One example is the camera shots used when filming a scene. A scene will be filmed many times from different angles and different framing.

When you know your framing, you know how much room you have to move, and how subtle your performance needs to be. When the camera is far away, you can get by with more expression than you can when it is focused just on your face.

Listed below are the most common terms that I've encountered on the many films I've worked on. Don't feel overwhelmed by all of this, and don't feel like you have to memorize every one before you go on set. This is merely a tool to help you feel more comfortable and understand what is going on. If the director or the camera operator doesn't tell you what they're seeing through the camera, it's very helpful to ask, "What's my framing?" I've had to ask this MANY times! And it really helps.

Close-Up, Close Shot.  A detailed view of a person or object, usually without much context provided.

Crane Shot. A shot taken from a special device called a crane, which resembles a huge mechanical arm. The crane carries the camera and cameraman, and can move in virtually any direction.

Dolly Shot, Tracking Shot, Trucking Shot. A shot taken from a moving vehicle. Originally tracks were laid on the set to permit a smoother movement of the camera. Today even a smooth hand-held traveling shot is considered a variation of the dolly shot.

Establishing Shot. Usually an extreme long or long shot offered at the beginning of a scene or sequence providing the viewer with the context of the subsequent closer shots.''

Eye-Level Shot. The placement of the camera approximately 5 to 6 feet from the ground corresponding to the height of an observer on the scene.

Full Shot. A type of long shot which includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.

Master Shot. A single uninterrupted shot, usually taken from a long or full shot range, which contains an entire scene. Later, the closer shots are photographed, and an edited sequence, composed of a variety of different shots, is subsequently constructed on the editor's bench.

Medium Close-Up (MCU). A shot cropped between the shoulders and the belt line. Also called a bust shot. 

Medium Shot.  A relatively close shot, revealing a moderate amount of detail. A medium shot of a figure generally includes the body from the knees or waist up. This shot is also called a Cowboy Shot, and got its name during the filming of many westerns, when this was a common framing technique. When the term Cowboy Shot is used, the shot will always include the hip because that's where the cowboy kept his gun.

Montage. Transitional sequences of rapidly edited images, used to suggest the lapse of time or the passing of events. Often employs dissolves and multiple exposures. In Europe "montage" means editing.

Over-The-Shoulder (OTS) Shot. A medium shot, useful in dialogue scenes, in which one actor is photographed head-on from over the shoulder of another actor. (This one of the most common shots in filmmaking)

Point-of-View Shot. Any shot which is taken from the vantage point of a character in the film. Also known as the first person camera.

Rack Focusing, Selective Focusing. The blurring of focal planes in sequence, forcing the viewer's eye to "travel" with those areas of an image that remain in sharp focus.

Two-Shot. A medium shot, featuring two actors. The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two-shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background.

Wide Close-Up. This shot features the subject taking up the whole frame. It should include the actor's chin and top of the head.

It is common for a director to start with an establishing shot that shows the entire scene and all the actors, then start moving in closer - two shot, medium shot, over-the-shoulder, and close-up.  Each director has their own methods for filming a scene, though.  Which is why it's helpful to ask questions if you're not sure what's going on.

I copied the camera shot definitions from an article written by Ryan Felton.  To see more types of camera shots and example pictures, visit this link to read the rest of his article:

http://www.castingexchange.com/4/post/2013/12/know-your-shots-camera-shots-that-is.html