We know the concept of pointing and shooting a camera to start making a video, but there’s so much more to it than that.
The types of camera movements you decide on can play an important part in the story you’ve chosen to tell. Let’s take a look at some of the camera actions and shot types in film, and what they mean.
What are Camera Movements and What is a “Shot”?
Before we get to our main list, you need to know what we mean by camera movements. It’s the physical motion of the camera while filming… simple as that! How these movements vary in terms of their speed, direction, or scale for example, is where the camera movement terms come from. A shot (or camera shot) is a single, continuous and uninterrupted, sequence of frames.
There can be quite a bit of cross-over, and more than a couple of subsets, but for the sake of our article we’ll touch on the ones you’ll be likely to come across most often.
Top Camera Actions and Shots to Master
Shot Types – How Something is Framed on Screen
1. Extreme Long Shot (ELS)
An extreme long shot captures big landscapes or other expansive environments, featuring the subject as a tiny element within the frame. ELS shots often establish a setting. ELS is often used interchangeably with EWS (extreme wide shot), but an ELS tends to focus on a space and emphasise the subject’s smallness within that surrounding, where as an EWS the focus is less on the showing the environment and more on a balance between that space and the subject.
2. Long Shot (LS)
Long shots frame the subject from a moderate distance, showing the full body or a good portion of the subject within the frame. In a long shot you should still be able to clearly see what a character is doing in their surroundings.
3. Medium Long Shot (MLS)
As above, but a medium long shot typically would show the subject from the knees or waist up, so we’re gradually closing in on the character or subject now.
4. Medium Shot (MS)
From the waist or chest up, focusing a lot on facial expressions and body language. These shots focus on connecting with the subject.
5. Medium Close-Up (MCU)
A medium close-up frames a person from the shoulders or chest up, with more of a focus on facial expressions and subtle nuances.
6. Close-Up (CU)
As it sounds, a close-up tightly frames the subject, focusing on the face or specific body parts. These quite often give us a sense of intimacy and intensity, magnifying emotions and getting across narrative significance through the proximity to the subject.
7. Extreme Close-Up (ECU)
A close up, but EXTREME! This magnifies a specific detail or feature, say the eyes, lips, or hands for example.
8. One Shot, Two Shot, Three Shot
No, we’re not doing a fun rhyme, these are types of shot that have either one subject, two subjects, or… you’ve guessed it, three subjects in the frame.
9. Over The Shoulder (OTS) and Over The Hip (OTH)
Exactly how it sounds, these shots are generally used to show interaction between two characters and they’ll be shown with one character’s shoulder or hip partially visible in the frame, while the person they’re speaking to is fully shown in the background.
10. Point of View
VIDEO HERE: Public Skate park ramps, low angle point of view
Showing exactly what the character is seeing “through their eyes’. This is quite often shot hand-held so it feels more realistic.
10 Camera Movement Terms – Camera Movements in Film and What They mean
1. Pan (and Whip Pan)
A pan camera movement is where the camera is horizontally (left to right, right to left) pivoted from a fixed position. This can be used to reveal something, or to follow a person in the frame. Pan shots are great for wide landscapes or tracking characters’ movements across a scene. Quite often the term ‘pan’ is used as shorthand for a range of camera movements. You’ve probably heard someone say ‘pan up’ but that would actually be a tilt; panning is only horizontal.
A whip pan is a quick ‘swooshing’ (that’s our technical term and we’re sticking to it) motion that creates a motion blur.
2. Tilt
Unlike a pan, a tilt involves vertically moving the camera (up or down) while keeping its horizontal position fixed. Tilts are ideal for showing height or depth – think of looking up at really tall buildings, or dramatic skies. They can also be used to show something from a character’s perspective by looking up or down.
3. Zoom
Zooming is adjusting the camera’s focal length to magnify or decrease the size of subjects within the frame. Zoom shots are great for revealing details, creating intimacy, building suspense, and much more.
4. Tracking Shots (Plus Dolly/Truck)
A tracking shot is the overall term for this kind of filming, with Dolly and Truck being types of tracking shot. Tracking shots involve moving the entire camera setup along a particular path, staying the same distance from the subject. This can be using a dolly track, a wheeled platform, or even done handheld.
On a basic level, using a track can just help you get much smoother movement, but creatively it can also be useful for things like exploring environments, experimenting with perspectives, or transitioning smoothly between scenes. Dolly usually means the camera is moving forwards and backwards and a Truck shot is left to right.
5. Crane/Jib (and Drones)
Crane shots use a crane (or jib arm) to lift the camera, or lower it. Traditionally this gave us many more options for height than a tripod or handheld could, but increasingly these types of shot are now being done by drone, which are of course much more versatile! Compared to the crane, drones are smaller and lighter, more cost-effective, and easier to manoeuvre, though they don’t do well in strong winds!
6. Aerial Shot
Aerial shots are taken from an elevated position. This can include cranes and drones, like we’ve already covered, but also can use helicopters!
7. Steadicam (and Gimbal)
Steadicam shots involve mounting the camera on a rig worn by the operator, which allows for smoother, more fluid movements. Steadicam shots are popular in action sequences when there’s a lot of movement going on. Gimbals serve a similar purpose, but although they’re quicker to set up and adjust, Steadicams let the operator’s body control the camera so the motion can be more organic and realistic. Their batteries tend to last longer too as they’re not powering motorised mechanisms!
8. Handheld
Handheld means no tripods, no gimbals, no tracks… just simply holding the camera. The slight rawness and shake this usually provides can mean it feels more authentic and immersive. Handheld shots are effective for conveying urgency, chaos, or realism.
9. Pedestal
A pedestal shot is raising or lowering the camera vertically while keeping it in the same position – this is why it’s different to a tilt.
10. Rack Focus
You might have also heard this called focus pull or selective focus, and it’s where the shot transitions between two different focal points to change the depth of field. Usually, this is done either manually or with a motorised focus system used by a person called a ‘focus puller’. It takes a lot of planning and some precise movements to get this looking right.
Planning Camera Movements in Film
We mentioned planning, so it’s worth a quick note to say how you might do that. It helps to be able to visualise what you want. Hopefully some of the examples in this article will help with that, but there are tons of examples in both stock video and on YouTube that you can find. Once you know what you want, you need to plan in terms of equipment you might need, what lighting setups you’ll have, and blocking and choreography. It might be useful to make a shot list, or put together a storyboard mapping out the shots and camera movements needed for each scene.
Camera Movement Terms: Conclusion
Understanding what different types of camera movements, or camera actions are is really important because it will let you make the best decisions for your production. Working out how to use camera movements in film will help you tell better stories and you can start to improve that with the basics, you don’t need to rush out and buy a drone or Steadicam, although the invention of these types of technology has really helped to expand filmmaking possibilities. Remember to plan out what you want to do, and as with anything, practice makes perfect!
Learn More About Filmmaking
We’ve got so many free guides, courses, and tutorials on filmmaking that you’ll be spoilt for choice. Here are some you might like to check out.
Video Courses
DaVinci Resolve Beginner Tutorial
DaVinci Resolve is totally free software, so why not learn how to use it to create awesome films? In this free course, you’ll learn how to set up your project, import your footage, add graphics, and colour correct.
How to Make a Promotional Video
Looking to create a promotional video? Tom Graham has you covered. You’ll learn how to come up with a good idea, organise a shoot, and how to film the whole thing with an iPhone!
Motion Tracking in Premiere Pro
Motion tracking seems like a hard skill to learn, but in Tom Graham’s expert care, you’ll learn how to do it quickly and easily in Premiere Pro.
Tutorials and Articles
Envato Elements
Have you looked at Envato Elements? If you’re a filmmaker or creative, you’ll be able to make great use of thousands of assets for one monthly subscription. There’s something for everyone but Elements includes video templates, overlays, backgrounds, music tracks, and more.
Every month, you’ll also find free files – so see if you can grab yourself something useful this month!
About This Page
This page was written by Marie Gardiner. Marie is a writer, author, and photographer. It was edited by Gonzalo Angulo. Gonzalo is an editor, writer and illustrator.