Camera Shots

Wide shot – Conveys sense of place and context. Can also convey characters’ relationship to surroundings or social relationship to other characters as an ‘Establishing shot’

Medium Shot – Focuses viewers’ attention on one or more principal characters. Commonly used for dialogue scenes as ‘Two Shot’.

Close Up – Conveys intimacy and emotion. Often used for interior monologues/voiceover or speaking directly into the camera.

Extreme Close Up – Conveys heightened emotion (Fear, Suspense, Desire) dramatic tension or a reveal.

Rule of Third – Subject placed at aesthetic intersect.

High Angle Shot – Danishes character or subject in frame, emphasising vulnerability or isolation.

Low Angle Shot – Emphasises character or subject dominance in frame.

Dutch/Tilt angle – Disorienting crates psychological tension.

Expressionism – Angle shots are a common feature of expressionism, particularly the classic German Expressionist films of the 1920s-30s. It presents the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.

(Pan, tilt, handheld, Steadicam, dolly, crane)