Camera Angles, Shots, and Lighting

Camera Shots

Establishing

Longshot

Fullshot

Midshot

Close Up

Extreme Close Up

Powtoon on Camera Shots: http://www.powtoon.com/show/dVqA1eYI1MW/media-production

Camera Angles

Eye

Low

High

Overhead Shot

Undershot

Camera Movement

Pan

Track

Dolly

Zoom

Tilt

Point of View

Dolly In, Zoom Out

Conversation Shots

Two-Shot

Over-the-Head

Over-the-Shoulder

Face-to-Face

Film-making Techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1japIhKU9I

A little more on camera angles and shots: http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

Lighting

How can lighting affect the producer’s intent and the viewers opinion of the subject?

Lighting creates mood, directs attention, and, in the way it is angled, changes the picture. It conveys time and place and sets mood:

• Soft, indefinite lighting may suggest romance or peace;

• Strong lighting often is used to convey a feeling of realism;

• Abrupt changes in lighting may be effective in portraying a startling development of any kind, perhaps in emphasizing a product improvement.

Lighting is also used to direct attention, often by lighting a subject so that "while it appears completely natural, the product is treated in a way that attracts the eye"

Like cameras, lights can be angled onto subjects to create certain effects. The killer who leans toward his sleeping victim and pauses with his face above the bedside lamp, shadows jutting upward, has his evil intent conveyed by his lighting. When lighting is angled from below the face, create an overall effect of being bizarre, uncanny, horrific.

Lighting from above, on the other hand, makes a subject seem lean, scrawny, and haggard: Downward shadows grow, progressively 'aging' the subject.

Front lighting creates a flat effect which "may help where it is diplomatic to make the subject look younger, or where a face is very strongly wrinkled" (Millerson 127).

Back lighting softens, may even create a halo effect. This lighting is often seen in shampoo commercials, demonstrating highlights and glows in hair that yours never seems to have no matter how many times you wash with Jhirmack. (Perhaps you should try standing in front of a spotlight.)