Research into Filming Techniques

Over the shoulder shots - a shot with an actor’s shoulder in the foreground, out of focus. 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, no serious filmmaker can afford not to learn this technique because it is narratively essential 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. 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. Over the shoulder shot in The Godfather

Tilt shots - 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. Tilt shot example

Panning shots - 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. 

Low angle shot - a shot looking up at a character or subject often making them look bigger in the frame. It can make everyone look heroic and/or dominant. Low angle shot in Star Wars

High angle shot - a shot looking down on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame. This is often used when the character is a victim or is vulnerable. Use of high and low angle shots in Scrubs

Zoom shots - Zoom shots are extremely cool if you get them right and successfully blend them into your directorial style. Zooming was massively out of favour in the 1990s, and enjoyed a revival when Ridley Scott’s career really took off in the early naughties 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.

Dolly zoom - a shot that sees the camera track forward toward a subject while simultaneously zooming out creating a woozy, vertiginous effect. It is the cinematic equivalent of the phrase "uh-oh". Dolly Zoom in Jaws 

Deep Focus - a shot that keeps the foreground, middle ground and background all in sharp focus. In the example it shows Thatcher and Kane's mother discussing Charles' fate while the young boy plays in the background. Since everything is focused, the audience focuses on everything, including the boy. Deep Focus in Citizen Kane

POV shot - a shot that depicts the point of view of a character so that we see exactly what they see. Often used in Horror cinema to see the world through a killer's eyes. POV shot in Halloween

Close up - a shot that keeps only the face full in the frame. Perhaps most important building block in cinematic storytelling.

Mid shot - the shot that utilises the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot and more than a close up. This shot can be used to establish both the character and the location, therefore putting the character in relation to the background. Mid shot example

Long shot - a shot that depicts an entire character or object from head to foot. Not as long as an establishing shot.

Handheld shot - a shot where the camera operator holds the camera during motion to create a jerky, immediate feel. It tells the audience something is wrong and it can disorientating. Handheld shot in Mean Streets

Bridging shot - a shot that denotes a shift in time or place, like a line moving across an animated map. That line has more air miles, as shown in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) the journey from US to Nepal. Bridging shot in Indiana Jones

Arc shot - a shot in which the subject is circled by the camera. The shot in De Palma's Carrie (1976) where Carrie and Tommy are dancing at the prom. The swirling camera move represents her giddy euphoria. Arc shot in Carrie

Crane shots - 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. 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. Crane shot in Gone With the Wind

Track in shots with secondary foreground object - A variant of the clean track-in shot 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.  The example shown above is taken from a TV spot I directed, and the foreground object in this case is a computer screen.

Mixing focal lengths in a scene to make one character dominate over the other - When covering a scene with shots and reverse shots, it is good practice to use exactly the same lens for the two complementary shots. If you use a 25mm lens to frame an over-the-shoulder shot, the reverse shot should also use a 25mm lens. If two characters are talking and you cover the scene with complementary over-the-shoulder shots and you want to make one character look a lot more dominant than the other, you can use a wide lens (short focal length) when shooting over the shoulder of the dominant character, and a significantly longer lens when shooting over the shoulder of the other character. As a result of the short focal length, when you film over the shoulder of the dominant character, he will dominate the frame because he will look much larger than the other character. 

High contrast lighting - Good lighting can not only add dimension and depth to your compositions, but it can make your film look like a million bucks. As Rosen says, soft, even lighting tends to flatten images, while lighting with harsher shadows with fast falloff tends to give the illusion of depth. For examples of this kind of lighting, you can't get any more drastic and overt than film noir, who made chiaroscuro lighting one of its many hallmarks. 

Filmmaking Techniques

The 180° rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another . When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.

A popular technique in film lighting is to use a soft (diffuse) light source from the front and a stronger, more directional light from the back, so that your subject has a hot edge. The soft frontal light is known as the fill light; the strong light at the back is known, unsurprisingly, as the backlight.

High key lighting - indicates a brightly lit scene with few shadows; usually provided by one source of light.

Low key lighting - is where the lighting is more towards the greyer and darker scale, where there is a good deal of shadow and where the key light in less bright and doesn't dominate.

Three -point lighting is the standard method used in film: the key light, fill light, and the back light. 

Key light - This is the main light. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow. Fill light - This is the secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key. To acheive this, you could move the light further away or use some spun. You might also want to set the fill light to more of a flood than the key. Back light - The back light is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

Mixing colour temperatures - Using lights of different colour temperatures can be used to great effect. This simply means using lights of different colour in the same shot. This was used to great effect by James Cameron in the steel mill scene of “Terminator 2”, in which he used blue and orange light (consistent with moonlight and molten steel respectively).  The only caveat with this is that you must determine the relationship between the two different colours before filming, because it is not really possible, for example, to make the blue bluer without also making the orange bluer (i.e. less orange).

Silhouetting - meaning dark subject against very bright background — is quite a dark technique. Example: di Caprio’s meeting with his dad in the bar in “Catch Me if You Can.” The dark mood of the lighting reflects the subtext of the scene: his dad now knows that his son is a fraudster, and di Caprio is upset because his dad refuses to ask him to stop. Outstanding and classic use of silhouette.