The Coverage Shots

The Establishing Shot is a very wide angle shot that shows the locale of the scene. This familiarizes the audience with where the scene is taking place. Imagine a distant shot of a mountain castle during a lightning storm at the beginning of an old horror film. The establishing shot may not include any actors. Where possible the establishing shot should be from a high angle to give a “bird’s eye” overview to help the audience understand where the subsequent action will take place.

The Master Shot is 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.

Wide Shot – moves in closer but still includes most of the body of the actors. This may be a single grouping of a few of the actors in a larger crowd scene when you want to concentrate on a single conversation.

Two-Shot – shows two characters related to one another usually from the waist up. A Three Shot is three actors, a Four-Shot is four actors and so on.

Over-the-Shoulder – is a medium or close up shot including 2 actors taken over the shoulder of one actor and showing the face of the other actor.

The two-shot is probably the most common shot in movies.

The usual technique is to cut back and forth between two over-the-shoulder shots of the actors like the image above.

However, a conversation between two characters can quickly become boring if the there isn’t a variety of angles used

The worst way to film a two-shot is to line up the actors facing each other at a normal conversational distance as in the following image.

The camera is too far away and the profile of the actors doesn’t show their expressions very well.

A better solution is to move the actors closer than they would normally stand and turn their bodies to face the camera slightly. Also, have them turn their heads slightly toward the camera and look at the ear of the other actor that is closest to the camera rather than the other actor’s eyes.

This adjusting of positioning to give a better angle for the camera is called “cheating”. You can see how the following image looks a little better than the previous image when we “cheat” the actors toward the camera

We are able to get closer and see their faces better, but it still looks natural to the camera.

Another common “cheat” is to have both actors face the camera while they talk. Few people spend a lot of time facing like this in real conversations but it works well in a movie. Any view of an actor that is face-on or in profile is not as good as having the face in a three-quarter view like the actors in the following image.

Compare this third image to the first one to see how much closer we are to the actors and how we can now see their faces very clearly. Placing actors within the frame to best tell the story is part of the art of blocking and staging.

As you watch movies, be aware of the various ways that actors are positioned and angled to keep their conversations interesting.

Medium Shot – is a shot showing an actor from the waist up.

Close-up – is a shot from the actors neck up. Sometime a close-up is a little looser and includes the actor’s shoulders.

Any image involving a single actor, or any moving object, needs to have some visual space in front of it within the frame like the following, to give a sense of dynamics.

Putting the actor in the middle of the frame looks static and feels like a snapshot.

Having more space behind the actor than in front feels like the actor has left, or is leaving, the scene, and just feels uncomfortable.

Even when the actor is facing away from the camera, having more space in front still gives the feeling that

the actor is in the frame.

More space behind the actor again feels like they are out of the scene.

Extreme Close-up – is so close that only part of the actor’s face is visible. This angle can be used very powerfully at highly emotional moments. Save the extreme close-up for such emotional moments.

Insert – is a shot of something other than the actors that will be edited into the scene, for example: a ticking clock. Insert shots can save the editing of a scene if you later discover you don’t have the right angle to transition between to shots. Put the insert in between and the transition looks smooth.

P.O.V. – means Point Of View. This shot is intended to show the audience what one of the characters is seeing, i.e. from the character’s point of view. Point-of-view is discussed in the previous section.

Subjective View:

The camera is involved in the shot. For example, the talent talks into the camera as if talking to another person. The object of this shot is to make the viewer feel that the talent is talking directly to him or her. The shot creates an intimacy between the talent and the audience. A news anchor is shown with a subjective camera angle.

Objective View:

The camera is never addressed directly by the talent. This shot makes the viewer feel like an observer. An

interview uses an objective camera angle. The viewer is overhearing a conversation.

Eye-Level View:

Most TV is shot at the eye level of the talent. This is an important concept in the classroom since the teacher and student are not necessarily at the same eye level. The camera should be set at the eye level of the talent, not at the height most comfortable for the camera operator.

High-Angle View:

When the camera is placed higher than eye level, the talent appears small and is perceived to have less power.

Low-Angle View:

Aiming the camera up towards the talent gives the viewer the impression that the talent is in a powerful position.

Oblique Angles:

The camera leans to one side so the viewer sees the talent at an angle.

These shots add a sense of fun to a production.