Cinematic Shots: Mastering Visual Storytelling Flashcards
Extreme Wide Shot (EWS)
Description: Shows a vast, often expansive landscape or large scene. The subject is very small or not visible.
Purpose: Sets the scene or establishes the environment. It can convey the scale or isolation of a location and help create a sense of awe or insignificance. It’s often used in opening scenes or during transitions.
Wide Shot (WS)
Description: Frames the entire subject or group of subjects within a broader view of the environment.
Purpose: Provides context to the characters by showing their surroundings. It’s effective for establishing the location while still maintaining focus on the subject.
Long Shot (LS)
Description: A shot that includes the subject from head to toe, with the background clearly visible.
Purpose: Establishes the relationship between characters and their environment. It is typically used to show characters in action within their setting and helps with spatial awareness.
Medium Shot (MS)
Description: Frames the subject from the waist up, showing enough background to give context.
Purpose: It’s the most commonly used shot for dialogue scenes as it strikes a balance between showing the subject’s expressions and maintaining environmental context.
Close-Up (CU)
Description: Focuses tightly on a subject’s face or a specific detail (e.g., hands, objects).
Purpose: Highlights the emotional state or importance of the subject or object. It creates intimacy, making the audience focus on facial expressions or key details to understand the character’s thoughts, emotions, or the significance of an object.
Extreme Close-Up (ECU)
Description: A very tight shot on a small detail, such as an eye, a hand, or an object.
Purpose: Adds intensity and emphasis. It is used to focus on a specific element that is crucial to the narrative, creating tension or making a symbolic point.
Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OTS)
Description: The camera is placed behind one character’s shoulder, typically showing their point of view while focusing on the character they’re interacting with.
Purpose: Creates a sense of perspective, showing both characters in the scene and the relationship between them. It’s often used in dialogue-heavy scenes to create intimacy or a sense of inclusion.
Point of View Shot (POV)
Description: Shows what a character sees from their perspective.
Purpose: Provides direct insight into the character’s experience, drawing the audience closer to their subjective reality. It enhances immersion and emotional involvement.
High Angle Shot
Description: The camera is positioned above the subject, looking down.
Purpose: Makes the subject appear small, powerless, or vulnerable. It can convey a sense of dominance or superiority over the subject, often used for villains or intimidating forces.
Low Angle Shot
Description: The camera is placed below the subject, looking up.
Purpose: Makes the subject appear large, powerful, or imposing. It can evoke feelings of awe, respect, or fear, often used for heroes, authority figures, or monsters.
Dutch Angle (Tilted Angle)
Description: The camera is tilted sideways, causing the horizon to slant.
Purpose: Creates a sense of unease, disorientation, or tension. It’s often used in scenes involving psychological instability, danger, or chaos.
Tracking Shot (Dolly Shot)
Description: The camera moves alongside the subject, typically mounted on a dolly or a track.
Purpose: Creates a fluid, dynamic scene where the audience feels they are following the action. It can also be used to maintain continuity and show movement through space.
Zoom Shot
Description: The lens is adjusted to magnify or de-magnify a scene, making the subject appear closer or further away.
Purpose: Allows the director to bring focus to a particular detail or subject without moving the camera. It can be used to create dramatic emphasis or surprise.
Insert Shot
Description: A close-up shot that shows a small detail, such as an object or a part of the body, often inserted into a larger scene.
Purpose: Draws attention to something important to the plot or character. It can symbolize a shift in focus or create anticipation, often used in mystery or thriller genres.
Two-Shot
Description: A shot that frames two characters within the same frame, usually showing their interaction.
Purpose: Often used in dialogue or interaction scenes to emphasize the relationship between the two characters, their dynamic, and how they respond to one another.
Three-Shot
Description: A shot that includes three characters within the frame.
Purpose: Used to establish the relationships between three characters or to show a group dynamic. It’s often seen in ensemble casts.
Establishing Shot
Description: A wide or long shot that shows the setting or environment at the beginning of a scene or film.
Purpose: Sets the stage for the action that is about to unfold. It helps orient the audience to the time, place, and mood of the scene.
Master Shot
Description: A wide shot that captures the entire scene or sequence, typically showing the full action or interaction.
Purpose: It serves as the foundational shot of a scene, ensuring that the audience understands the geography of the space and the positioning of characters. It’s often used for scenes with multiple characters or complex action.
Reaction Shot
Description: A shot that shows the reaction of a character to something happening off-screen or within the scene.
Purpose: Highlights the emotional response of a character, often in contrast to the action occurring. It helps to convey empathy or surprise from the character’s perspective.
Extreme Long Shot (ELS)
Description: Shows a very broad landscape or setting with tiny figures.
Purpose: Similar to an Extreme Wide Shot, it’s used for epic environments, to show vastness, or to emphasize isolation or distance from the subject.
Silhouette Shot
Description: The subject is shot against a strong light source, often backlit, so only a dark outline is visible.
Purpose: Creates mystery or dramatic tension. It can hide a character’s identity or symbolize the emotional or physical distance between characters.
Match Cut
Description: A transition between two scenes that visually or thematically matches.
Purpose: To create a smooth transition or thematic connection between scenes. It can enhance storytelling by drawing parallels or highlighting contrasts.
Wide Angle Shot
Description: Uses a wide-angle lens to create a distorted perspective, often with exaggerated depth.
Purpose: Can add a sense of chaos, disorientation, or emphasize the vastness or smallness of the subject in relation to their environment.
Shallow Focus
Description: A shot where only part of the frame is in sharp focus, with the rest blurred.
Purpose: Directs the audience’s attention to a specific detail or character, often creating an intimate or isolating feeling. It can also signify psychological states, such as confusion or tunnel vision.
Deep Focus
Description: Everything in the frame is in sharp focus, from the foreground to the background.
Purpose: Allows the audience to focus on multiple elements within a scene simultaneously, often used in scenes where environment and detail are equally important to the narrative.
