Framing a Story: The Three Main Camera Shots in Video
In film and video, storytelling doesn’t just come from the words in the script—it’s also communicated visually. There are actors, sets, lighting, and of course, the camera. There are many different types of camera shots, and a good director will use a mix of them to effectively tell a story, whether it’s for a three-hour-long film or a 15-second commercial.
If you haven’t spent any time on a film shoot, you might not know what those shots are, but you’d probably recognize them if you saw them! Let’s take a look at (a simplified version of) the three main types of camera shots and break them down.
The Wide Shot
Wide shots are all about worldbuilding: They show the viewer where the actors or props are within the larger “world” of the film or video. For example, a fantasy movie showing its characters dwarfed by an enormous castle is a type of wide shot. On a smaller scale, a shot in a car commercial showing the car driving through mountain terrain from above is also a wide shot. In both instances, the wide shot establishes the location, or “world.”
This wide shot establishes location: a farmer’s field.
The Close Up
The close-up shot is exactly what it sounds like: A shot that tightly frames the subject. Close-ups provide an intimate and detailed look at the subject in-frame, and are really effective at conveying emotion—which is why close-up shots most commonly feature the actors’ faces.
This close-up shot evokes the viewer’s emotions by getting up close and personal with its subject—in this instance, a very cute baby.
The Medium Shot
We’ve talked about close-ups, we’ve talked about wide shots… so it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that medium shots are somewhere in between those two. To help narrow that down, let’s look at an example: filming a person. A close-up shot might show only their head or face. A wide shot would show their full body (or close to it). A medium shot might be from the waist up or the knees up—quite literally in the middle of two extremes. Medium shots are the most common type of camera shot, the “workhorse” of video, if you will.
This medium shot focuses on the action taking place in this scene, helping tell the story.
There are a lot of variations on these three shots, like the establishing shot, the over-the-shoulder shot, the cowboy shot… but that’s a topic for another day! Did you recognize any of these shot types from your favorite movies or TV shows?