This document provides information and examples of various film shooting techniques, including over-the-shoulder shots, tilt shots, panning shots, zoom shots, tracking shots, crane shots, track-in shots, shots with secondary foreground objects, and Dutch angle shots. Key points covered include how to properly execute each technique, best practices, examples from films by directors like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, and the intended effects on the viewer.

1. Filming Techniques

2. Over the shoulder shot
• Over-the-shoulder shots are just what the name says: a shot with an
actor’s shoulder in the foreground, out of focus. I will tell you right
away that good over-the-shoulder shots are some of the most time-
consuming to shoot correctly, because you need to make sure that
there is neither too much nor too little shoulder in the frame.
However, in my opinion no serious filmmaker can afford not to learn
this technique because it is essential to the narrative in many cases.
Some directors openly say that they never shoot over-the-shoulder
shots precisely because it takes ages to get the look they want and
frequently can’t do it at all, but in my opinion they are missing out.

3. • From a narrative point of view, over-the-shoulder shots draw the
viewer in by creating a sense of intimacy, depending on how much of
the screen area the shoulder in the foreground occupies. As I wrote
above, the key to making the shot work is to get exactly the right
amount of shoulder in the shot. The way to do this is to work with the
actor over whose shoulder you are shooting to make sure that he/she
is leaning into the shot by exactly the right amount.

4. Example from no country
for old men

5. Tilt shot
• Tilting up or down is one of the simplest camera techniques there are.
Due to its simplicity it tends to be overused and/or poorly executed.
The truth is that well-executed tilting, combined with some
interesting action and with perfect coordination between the camera
operator and the action, can be incredibly elegant in their simplicity. If
you want to see further examples of tilt shots and the circumstances
that make them appropriate, check out pretty much any film by
Steven Spielberg, especially “Schindler’s list.”

6. • Set up the shot in such a way that you can tilt straight up or down,
without mixing it with panning. If you can set up the shot in this way,
you can lock off the panning axis of your fluid head so that it can only
tilt and not pan. This will make the tilt shot very pure and elegant.
Obviously there are certain circumstances in which tilting combined
with panning — a diagonal movement — is the best option. What I’m
saying here is that you should not mix tilting with panning just
because you failed to set up the shot properly. If you are tilting up or
down to move from one subject to another along the vertical axis, set
up the shot in such a way that you can execute it with the panning
axis completely locked off.

7. • Tilt shots (and panning shots) should be executed smoothly and
confidently, without overshooting the final frame and then
backtracking clumsily to re-establish framing, unless of course you
actually want that look. It is perfectly possible to do a whip-tilt — a
very fast tilt from one framing to another - with an instant lock-off
and very precise framing, but you will need a highly competent and
experienced camera operator. For ambitious film work, experienced
camera operators are worth every penny and essential to realizing the
director’s vision.

8. Example of a tilt shot
from Engl 220

9. Panning Shot
• Panning the shot is the horizontal equivalent of tilt shots. Like tilt
shots, panning shots are conceptually simple and therefore usually
overused and/or poorly executed. Exactly the same best-practice
considerations made for the tilt shots apply to panning shots: try and
design them in such a way that you can lock off the tilt axis in order to
keep the panning pure, and hire a competent camera operator,
especially if your shots require precise timing and framing accuracy.
Once again I will refer you to any of Steven Spielberg’s films as an
excellent source of well-executed panning shots, that are so well-
motivated and well-executed as to be almost unnoticeable (because
they draw you into the story as opposed to distracting you from it).

10. Example of a panning shot of old
buildings in New York

11. Zoom Shot
• Zoom shots are extremely cool if you get them right and successfully
blend them into your directorial style. Zooming was massively out of
favor in the 1990s, and enjoyed a revival when Ridley Scott’s career
really took off in the early nineties with “Gladiator” and “Hannibal,”
both of which have outstanding examples of Ridley-Scott-style zoom
shots. The way to make zoom shots truly effective and “creepy” is to
make them absolutely smooth and not too fast. If you’re wondering
how Ridley Scott achieves his distinctive zoom shots, that is how it’s
done. If the zoom is jerky, you will get the cheesy 1970s look.

12. • Ridley-Scott-style zoom shots are incredibly cool, and you should
never let a film school professor or anyone like that dissuade you
from experimenting with them. Remember that you cannot become a
truly competent filmmaker without making some cheesy mistakes in
your early efforts!

13. Example of a black and white
zoom dolly shot

14. Tracking shots
• Setting up tracking shots is more complicated than setting up tilt or
panning shots, but ultimately anyone can mount the camera on a
dolly and moved the dolly along tracks. Moving the camera on the
dolly does not a great tracking shot make — it takes a little more
directorial flair than that! Here are some recommended best
practices based on my own experience and on the many films I have
watched:

15. • For a truly visually dynamic tracking shot, foreground objects located
between the camera and the main subject are essential. Foreground
objects will enhance parallax, which is the visual effect in which
objects closer to the frame appear to be moving faster in the field of
view than those that are more distant. Check out any sideways
tracking shot in a Steven Spielberg movie and you will notice this
effect.

16. • Due to the parallax effect, anything behind the subject in the distance will
be moving across the frame more slowly and therefore contribute less to
the feeling of motion. A notable exception is very fast sideways tracking
shots in which the camera is mounted on a process vehicle following
another car or someone on horseback, for example. Due to the very fast
tracking, a very nice effect is achieved whereby the various planes in the
background move at different velocities across the screen due to their
varying distance from the camera. The perfect example of this is the shot in
Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” in which he was galloping at full speed across
barren Italian countryside on his way back to Rome. There are no
foreground objects in the shot, but the feeling of motion is enhanced by
the background of the shot. Pay attention the next time you watch the
scene and you’ll never see it in the same way again!

17. • For truly professional results, there is simply no substitute for using a
real dolly (such as the PeeWee dolly) operated by a professional dolly
grip. I have used both lightweight “prosumer” dollies like the
Doorway dolly and heavy professional dollies like the PeeWee, and
I’m telling you that there is simply no comparison, especially in the
hands of a talented dolly grip!

18. • Again, there is more to shooting good tracking shots than simply
moving the dolly with the camera on it. By all means experiment with
lightweight dollies on your early films, but sooner or later you will
have to move on to a PeeWee-like dolly if you really want the results
you hope for.

19. • The choice of focal length is very important in tracking shots. There is
a misconception that only the widest lenses should be used in
tracking shots, but this is quite simply untrue. Even Steven Spielberg,
who is undoubtedly the master of wide lenses, frequently uses long
lenses in his tracking shots. If you do not understand the effect of
focal length on the look of the shot, you really need to read my post
on how to learn camerawork and develop your own visual sense.

20. Example of a long tracking
shot from Kill Bill

21. Crane shot
• Cranes are used to achieve vertical translational motion. Whenever
you see the camera moving up or down by more than a few feet in a
film, it was done with a jib or crane. The bad news is that cranes are
expensive and require specialized operators; the good news is that
they are rarely needed and almost never indispensable. Nevertheless,
well-executed, well-motivated crane shots can add production value
to a production and can definitely improve your reel if they were used
to enhance the storytelling rather than to show off random skills

22. An example of an amateur
crane shot of a river

23. Track-in shot
• In a track-in shot the camera moves in on the subject. For best results
a Dolly should be used: a Steadi-cam is really not suited to this kind of
shot, unless the ground is uneven and there is no other viable option.
This can also work in a backwards motion, as seen in the example.

24. Example of a reverse tracking
shot from Goodfellas

25. shots with secondary fore-ground
• A variant of the “clean shots” involves a foreground object. The
significance of this foreground object is that, since it is closer to the
camera than the main subject, it increases in size faster than the main
subject as the camera moves in. This gives the shot an enhanced
three-dimensional illusion. As with all foreground objects, this shot
works best when the foreground object is out of focus.

26. Example of a panning shot of
soldiers with the guns in the
foreground out of focus

27. Dutch Angles
• A Dutch angle is a shot that is rotated about the camera axis, resulting
in tilted verticals. Dutch angles are used to elicit a sense of unease
and disorientation in the viewer. In music videos anything goes, but in
narrative filmmaking, Dutch angles should be used sparingly,
reserving them for the rare occasions in which they are appropriate to
the narrative.

28. Example of a Dutch angle shot
from mission impossible