Professional Practice: Shot Types

Professional Practice: Shot Types

As part of my ongoing research for this project, I have been looking in to various shot types and shooting styles used in commissions. This is a collation of what I have found. It is expanded upon from the research in my report.

Establishing Shots

One type of shot that was present in all of the commissions I looked at (including previous students work) was the Establishing Shot. Merriam Webster describes an establishing shot as “a usually long shot in film or video used at the beginning of a sequence to establish an overview of the scene that follows”. (Webster, 2015)

Bernard states “within any given scene you want establishing shots, wide shots, medium shots, close ups, and cut aways”. (Bernard, 2010, p. 177) I found establishing shots in particular to be key in showing the audience where the events are set and gives some kind of context. I use several establishing shots especially when starting a new point in the voice over.

The first establishing shot helps give context to the following Piece to camera by setting the location, I used the museum sign as Iconography so that you can get some context as to the location I am referring to.

The second use of establishing shots is used to show the Fire Pump in its entirety and helps to help remind the audience of the subject In addition to the establishing shots I followed Bernards advice by shooting several wide shots, since in the past I’ve needed to re-shoot a scene and have not had enough wide shots, as such I have learned to get good shot coverage.



Pans/Tracking Shots

When planning this commission I knew that there would be times when the younger target audience's attention might be reduced as they become slightly bombarded with information. As such I knew I had to keep the visuals of the shot interesting. Lynda.com refers to panning as a direct method of manipulating audience attention, stating “Panning can be used to follow a subject as it makes its way across the frame. Or it can be also used to redirect the viewer's attention to reveal new details”. (Angel, 2015) Meaning that we can see everything that is going on in a shot as if we ourselves were there following the action. I knew it was important to keep movement in the piece and had multiple panning methods.

The first was a traditional horizontal movement with the camera mounted on the tripod.
Then through looking at other commissions such as the Middelheim Museum promo, I noted that they blended tripod and handheld movement to make it feel like the video was constantly on the move. Picking up on this I used the fig rig to get closer than I could with a tripod moving along the object to direct audiences eye line.
My final method of panning/tracking was using my mini dolly. I know from research that low angle shots give the subject power so I used a series of low angle pans (from both the front and side to find the best option) to keep audiences in awe of the object and maintain attention.
The area I had to work with wasn’t ideal for this since the concrete ground was uneven and didn’t provide steady footing. However I overcame this by utilising the smooth planks and pillars around me as an anchor point.
Point Of View Shots (POV)
Another use of movement came thanks to the action cam and a gorilla pod. I was able to mount the camera on to the moving parts of the pump to create POV shots, as if the audience were actively engaged in its motion. Media Collage.com defines a POV shot as “A shot that shows a view from a certain perspective” (Collage, 2013).
Film graduate Christopher Kneller states that “emotional connection with a film can be engrossed with the use of P.O.V” (Kneller, 2013) which is one of the main reasons I decided to employ the technique. I wanted my audience to connect with the story and that is one method of doing so.
I received positive feedback about these shots and they seemed to do their job well.

Zoom Shots
Jackobs and Peacock write that “The zoom lens is the ideal tool to keep continuity, while keeping action on screen at all times” (Jason Jackobs, 2013).


I knew I wanted to maintain audience attention as previously mentioned by keeping the movement on screen. Zoom tools were another method of this. I used a larger lens on occasion in my project to allow for me to zoom in on particular focus points, or out to re-establish the subject. However, upon reflection I didn't utilize this technique as often as I could have done and as such had to manipulate some shots in post to create this effect.