How to handle a video camera - Basic Camera Movements

Have you ever use a video camera? have you ever shoot a video? may be atleast with a mobile camera.. or..professional video camera perhaps..?  How well did you shoot it? well.. do you know that every camera shot we take, can be divide into few basic camera shots..

In other words, we can say that every video shot has made from one of few basic camera shots.

 

 

Basic moving camera shots

• Pans
• Tilts
• Dolly
• Track
• Zoom
• Crane
• Hand-held
• Aerial

I'm explaining each shot type in details below.

1. Camera Panning (Pan)

• Those movements of the camera that scan a scene horizontally from a stationary axis point, with the camera on a tripod

• A horizontal camera movement in which the camera moves left and right while its base stays in a fixed position. 

 special things to remember, when you use camera panning..

• camera movement must be smooth & slow

• used to keep a subject within the frame

• camera moves horizontally to keep the person in the middle of the scene

• extreme long shots are common in epic films

• shows vastness of a particular scene

• effective in medium and close shots as well

sometime, we can refer Panning as "Reaction shot"
 - panning away from the central figure to catch the response of another figure in the scene
moves from speaker to onlooker or listener

2. Camera Tilting (Tilt)

• Up or down movements of a camera around a stationary horizontal point

• Uses

• to keep actors/objects within frame
• emphasize how space & psychological movie aspects can be connected
• point out cause-effect relationships
• Point-of-view shots
• subjective simulation of a character looking up or down a scene

•  Tilting is less common than panning because humans look left and right more often than they look up and down

• Tilting is often done simply as a matter of course, such as tilting down to follow an action. However, you can also tilt to achieve a particular effect, such as tilting up or down to denote height or depth. 

3. Camera Dolly (Dolly)

•  Dollying refers to moving the camera forward or backward in a scene.

• The camera moves toward a subject (dolly-in)

• or away from a subject (dolly-out).

• Shots that are taken from a moving vehicle or dolly

• Emphasize movement in and out of a scene

• especially in point-of-view shots

• Used when the experience of a specific movement is important to a character

• if a character is searching for something, suspense is lengthened by a dolly shot tracking the search

4. Track Shots

•  A truck is a lateral, sideways, travel shot, with the entire camera and tripod being moved right or left.
• The truck shot differs from a pan in that the depth of field in a truck shot is maintained as the whole unit, the tripod and camera - moves past the objects.

•  E.G. The camera travels alongside the race track in athletics

• Dollying is similar but moves closer or further away from the action.

5. Camera Zoom

• Camera stays stationary as the focal length of a lens zooms in or out.

•  - Framing gets ‘tighter’ if the camera zooms in.

• Framing gets ‘looser’ if the camera zooms out.

•       Zooming in and out changes the focal length and, therefore the size of the image with varying speeds while the camera is stationary.

 

• Zooming is an easy-to-use but hard-to-get-right feature of most cameras.
• camera can change from close wide-angle distances to extreme telephoto positions (and vice versa) instantly
• effect is breathtaking/jolting sense of being plunged into or plucked out of a scene
• cheaper than dolly or crane shots
• no vehicle or other mechanical devices

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There is a special type of camera movement, which we called as "Zolly Shot" , the effect is very dramatic. The shot is taking while zooming, and camera dolly while object size stays same.

Here I've embedded a movie, and if you play at 21:06 , you can see what is Zolly Shot.
if you look at this below clip, check how background is moving, while object (two actors) size is almost same. That effect is taken, while Dolly In and Zooming out.


Chak De India (2007)-001 (www.SominalTvTheater... by SominalTvMovies

6. Crane Shot

• crane is a mechanical arm

• often more than 20 feet long

• lifts cinematographer and camera in/out of a particular scene using a Steadicam

• airborne dolly shots

• move in any direction

• up, down, diagonally, in, out, or any combination
• A camera positioned on a crane can swoop down or up covering great distances and producing unusual camera angles
   

 

7. Hand-held shots

• mounted with a harness onto cinematographer’s shoulder

• allow camera operators to move in and out with greater flexibility/speed

• less lyrical, more noticeable than dolly shots

• often jumpy and ragged – hard to ignore

There is a special type of hand-held called "Steadycam" ,  Harnesses worn to counterbalance the camera and cancel operator movement keep the camera steady when following rapid movement this is known as a steadicam

8. Aerial Shots

• Variations of crane shot taken from a helicopter

• can move in any direction

• used on exterior locations when crane is unusable

• occasionally used to suggest a sweeping sense of freedom

• Nearly limitless in the perspective of distance

 Do you know that "Home" film about earth, all the shots are aerial shots. Go and check the movie here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU