Filming Techniques

Over the shoulder shot

• Over-the-shoulder shots are just what the name says: a shot with an actor’s shoulder in the foreground, out of focus. I will tell you right away that good over-the-shoulder shots are some of the most time-consuming to shoot correctly, because you need to make sure that there is neither too much nor too little shoulder in the frame. However, in my opinion no serious filmmaker can afford not to learn this technique because it is essential to the narrative in many cases. Some directors openly say that they never shoot over-the-shoulder shots precisely because it takes ages to get the look they want and frequently can’t do it at all, but in my opinion they are missing out.

• From a narrative point of view, over-the-shoulder shots draw the viewer in by creating a sense of intimacy, depending on how much of the screen area the shoulder in the foreground occupies. As I wrote above, the key to making the shot work is to get exactly the right amount of shoulder in the shot. The way to do this is to work with the actor over whose shoulder you are shooting to make sure that he/she is leaning into the shot by exactly the right amount.

Example from no country for old men

Tilt shot

• Tilting up or down is one of the simplest camera techniques there are. Due to its simplicity it tends to be overused and/or poorly executed. The truth is that well-executed tilting, combined with some interesting action and with perfect coordination between the camera operator and the action, can be incredibly elegant in their simplicity. If you want to see further examples of tilt shots and the circumstances that make them appropriate, check out pretty much any film by Steven Spielberg, especially “Schindler’s list.”

• Set up the shot in such a way that you can tilt straight up or down, without mixing it with panning. If you can set up the shot in this way, you can lock off the panning axis of your fluid head so that it can only tilt and not pan. This will make the tilt shot very pure and elegant. Obviously there are certain circumstances in which tilting combined with panning — a diagonal movement — is the best option. What I’m saying here is that you should not mix tilting with panning just because you failed to set up the shot properly. If you are tilting up or down to move from one subject to another along the vertical axis, set up the shot in such a way that you can execute it with the panning axis completely locked off.

• Tilt shots (and panning shots) should be executed smoothly and confidently, without overshooting the final frame and then backtracking clumsily to re-establish framing, unless of course you actually want that look. It is perfectly possible to do a whip-tilt — a very fast tilt from one framing to another - with an instant lock-off and very precise framing, but you will need a highly competent and experienced camera operator. For ambitious film work, experienced camera operators are worth every penny and essential to realizing the director’s vision.

Example of a tilt shot from Engl 220

Panning Shot

• Panning the shot is the horizontal equivalent of tilt shots. Like tilt shots, panning shots are conceptually simple and therefore usually overused and/or poorly executed. Exactly the same best-practice considerations made for the tilt shots apply to panning shots: try and design them in such a way that you can lock off the tilt axis in order to keep the panning pure, and hire a competent camera operator, especially if your shots require precise timing and framing accuracy. Once again I will refer you to any of Steven Spielberg’s films as an excellent source of well-executed panning shots, that are so well-motivated and well-executed as to be almost unnoticeable (because they draw you into the story as opposed to distracting you from it).

Example of a panning shot of old buildings in New York

Zoom Shot

• Zoom shots are extremely cool if you get them right and successfully blend them into your directorial style. Zooming was massively out of favor in the 1990s, and enjoyed a revival when Ridley Scott’s career really took off in the early nineties with “Gladiator” and “Hannibal,” both of which have outstanding examples of Ridley-Scott-style zoom shots. The way to make zoom shots truly effective and “creepy” is to make them absolutely smooth and not too fast. If you’re wondering how Ridley Scott achieves his distinctive zoom shots, that is how it’s done. If the zoom is jerky, you will get the cheesy 1970s look.

• Ridley-Scott-style zoom shots are incredibly cool, and you should never let a film school professor or anyone like that dissuade you from experimenting with them. Remember that you cannot become a truly competent filmmaker without making some cheesy mistakes in your early efforts!

Example of a black and white zoom dolly shot

Tracking shots

• Setting up tracking shots is more complicated than setting up tilt or panning shots, but ultimately anyone can mount the camera on a dolly and moved the dolly along tracks. Moving the camera on the dolly does not a great tracking shot make — it takes a little more directorial flair than that! Here are some recommended best practices based on my own experience and on the many films I have watched:

• For a truly visually dynamic tracking shot, foreground objects located between the camera and the main subject are essential. Foreground objects will enhance parallax, which is the visual effect in which objects closer to the frame appear to be moving faster in the field of view than those that are more distant. Check out any sideways tracking shot in a Steven Spielberg movie and you will notice this effect.

• Due to the parallax effect, anything behind the subject in the distance will be moving across the frame more slowly and therefore contribute less to the feeling of motion. A notable exception is very fast sideways tracking shots in which the camera is mounted on a process vehicle following another car or someone on horseback, for example. Due to the very fast tracking, a very nice effect is achieved whereby the various planes in the background move at different velocities across the screen due to their varying distance from the camera. The perfect example of this is the shot in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” in which he was galloping at full speed across barren Italian countryside on his way back to Rome. There are no foreground objects in the shot, but the feeling of motion is enhanced by the background of the shot. Pay attention the next time you watch the scene and you’ll never see it in the same way again!

• For truly professional results, there is simply no substitute for using a real dolly (such as the PeeWee dolly) operated by a professional dolly grip. I have used both lightweight “prosumer” dollies like the Doorway dolly and heavy professional dollies like the PeeWee, and I’m telling you that there is simply no comparison, especially in the hands of a talented dolly grip!

• Again, there is more to shooting good tracking shots than simply moving the dolly with the camera on it. By all means experiment with lightweight dollies on your early films, but sooner or later you will have to move on to a PeeWee-like dolly if you really want the results you hope for.

• The choice of focal length is very important in tracking shots. There is a misconception that only the widest lenses should be used in tracking shots, but this is quite simply untrue. Even Steven Spielberg, who is undoubtedly the master of wide lenses, frequently uses long lenses in his tracking shots. If you do not understand the effect of focal length on the look of the shot, you really need to read my post on how to learn camerawork and develop your own visual sense.

Example of a long tracking shot from Kill Bill

Crane shot

• Cranes are used to achieve vertical translational motion. Whenever you see the camera moving up or down by more than a few feet in a film, it was done with a jib or crane. The bad news is that cranes are expensive and require specialized operators; the good news is that they are rarely needed and almost never indispensable. Nevertheless, well-executed, well-motivated crane shots can add production value to a production and can definitely improve your reel if they were used to enhance the storytelling rather than to show off random skills

An example of an amateur crane shot of a river

Track-in shot

• In a track-in shot the camera moves in on the subject. For best results a Dolly should be used: a Steadi-cam is really not suited to this kind of shot, unless the ground is uneven and there is no other viable option. This can also work in a backwards motion, as seen in the example.

Example of a reverse tracking shot from Goodfellas

shots with secondary fore-ground

• A variant of the “clean shots” involves a foreground object. The significance of this foreground object is that, since it is closer to the camera than the main subject, it increases in size faster than the main subject as the camera moves in. This gives the shot an enhanced three-dimensional illusion. As with all foreground objects, this shot works best when the foreground object is out of focus.

Example of a panning shot of soldiers with the guns in the foreground out of focus

Dutch Angles

• A Dutch angle is a shot that is rotated about the camera axis, resulting in tilted verticals. Dutch angles are used to elicit a sense of unease and disorientation in the viewer. In music videos anything goes, but in narrative filmmaking, Dutch angles should be used sparingly, reserving them for the rare occasions in which they are appropriate to the narrative.

Example of a Dutch angle shot from mission impossible