This document defines and describes various camera shots and angles used in filmmaking: [1] Establishing shots are wide shots at the beginning of a scene that establish the location and context. [2] Master shots capture all actors in a wide frame. [3] Close-ups magnify details like faces to focus attention or show emotion. Mid-shots show a human figure from the waist up. Long shots show characters as small in a scene. Wide shots use a wide-angle lens to capture more of the scene.

1. Camera Shots and Angles

2. establishing shotUsually a long (wide-angle or full) shot at the beginning of a scene (or a sequence) that is intended to show things from a distance (often an aerial shot), and to inform the audience with an overview in order to help identify and orient the locale or time for the scene and action that follows.

3. The Master Shot Wide enough to include all the actors. If you are shooting on film and have a very small budget this may be the only shot you can get. Stranger Than Paradise consists of nothing but master shots.master shot

4. close-upA shot taken from a close distance in which the scale of the object is magnified, appears relatively large and fills the entire frame to focus attention, to emphasize its importance or to show emotion; also extreme close-up (ECU or XCU) is a shot of a part of a character (e.g., face, head, hands) to emphasize detail or show emotion.

5. mid-shotRefers to a conventional camera shot filmed from a medium distance; although it is difficult to precisely define, it usually refers to a human figure from the waist (or knees) up; between a close shot and a long shot; abbreviated as m.s.

6. long shotA camera view of an object or character from a considerable distance so that it appears relatively small in the frame, e.g., a person standing in a crowd of people or a horse in a vast landscape; a long shot often serves as an establishing shot

7. wide shotA shot (often abbreviated WS) taken with a lens that is able to take in a wider field of view (to capture more of the scene's elements or objects) than a regular or normal lens; a wide-angle shot exaggerates the distance or disparity between foreground and background planes, thereby creating greater depth-of-field and keeping all objects in focus.

8. two-shotA medium or close-up camera shot of two people (often in dialogue with each other), framed from the chest up; often used to provide a contrast between the two characters or show the state of their relationship.

9. aerial shotA camera shot filmed in an exterior location from far overhead (from a bird's eye view), as from a helicopter (most common), blimp, balloon, plane, or kite.

10. point of view shotThis shot is intended to show the audience what one of the characters is seeing, i.e. from the character's point of view.

11. over the shoulder shotA very commonly-used medium camera angle or view in a dialogue scene, mostly with alternating shot/reverse-shot editing, in which the camera records the action from behind the shoulder and/or head of one of the characters, thus framing the image; the two characters are thus linked or connected to each other, and their positions are established

12. high angleA shot in which the subject or scene is filmed from above and the camera points down on the action, often to make the subject(s) small, weak and vulnerable.

13. low angleA shot in which the subject is filmed directly from below and the camera tilts up at the action or character, to make the subject appear larger than life, more formidable, taller and more menacing.

14. canted angleA shot made with the camera leaned to one side and filming at a diagonal angle; see also camera angle. It is meant to indicate confusion or unfamiliarity for a character or to disorientate the audience.