Camera vocabulary

Aerial shot (crane): A view from directly up ahead to give a clear view. ( a shot which involves a camera being lifted on a crane to get a higher shot).

Canted angle: A shot which is tilted to one side.

Crab shot: A type of shot that involves it being put into a small space. (e.g. placed in cupboard).

Deep focus: When objects both near and far from the camera are in focus.

Hand-held shot: A shot filmed by someone holding the camera in their hand.

Head-on-shot: A type of shot where the camera is coming directly to them.

High-angle: when the camera is placed above a character so you are looking down on them.

Low-angle: When the camera is placed below a character so you are looking up at them.

Loose frame: A shot where there is a lot of room around an object.

Master shot: A shot used a the beginning of a sequence to establish the component elements and relationships in such a way as to allow the audience to make sense of the action that follows.

Point of view shot: A shot taken from the position of the subject.

Pull focus: This describes a shot where one thing was in focus and then the lens is changed so that something else stops being blurry and become in focus.

Rule of thirds: This is when rather than placing a person directly in the centre of the shot they have placed him to the side.

Shallow focus: A shot when the objects nearer the camera are in focus and everything else is blurry.

Soft focus: This is the use of a special lens or filter to create a hazy light around the subject.

Subjective filming ( or POV): A type of shot in which the camera is poisoned as if looking at the world through the characters eyes.

Tilt: A camera movement that involves moving the camera vertically up and down from a fixed position.

Tracking shot: A camera shot in which the camera moves along rails to follow the subject.

Whip pan: A very fats pan between two or more characters all points of interest.

Wide shot: This can be used as an establishing shot or to set a location or to show a large crowd of people.

Zoom/Reverse zoom: The adjustment of the camera lens so we can progressively move closer or further away from the subject.

180 degree rule: When during a scene which includes two or more people, we can imagine an imaginary line joining those two people together. Adhering this rule would mean that the camera would stay on one side of that line and would never cross over to the other side.