Introduction to Film Filmmaking as Art and Criticism Part II

Mobile Framing All the definitions and examples from PP 01 implied that characters and objects move within the frame, but the framing stays the same within each shot. In fact, this is not the case at all: Films offer shifting positions and perspectives. Camera movement is one of the most beautiful and yet underappreciated effects in any art form. No other art form is able to accomplish this feat.

Types of Camera Movement 1 PAN: when the camera itself is stationary but pivots on its axis from side to side. TILT (or a VERTICAL PAN): when the camera is stationary but tilts up and down. MOVING SHOT: when a camera is placed on a moving object, such as a car or a train or a ship.

Types of Camera Movement 2 DOLLY: a camera’s own mobile device. TRACKING SHOT or DOLLY SHOT: when a camera, using its own mobile device, moves parallel to the ground. In classical Hollywood filmmaking, crews used to mount actual tracks on the ceiling or the floor, thus ensuring that the camera would move in a very smooth and precise fashion (hence the term tracking shot). CRANE SHOT: when a camera moves up and down through space. For a crane shot, the camera is mounted on a kind of cherry-picker,

Types of Camera Movement 3 HAND-HELD SHOTS: In the 1960s, technology developed to the point at which the size and weight of a motion picture camera, which had formerly been large and cumbersome, was reduced so much that a camera operator could actually carry the camera while filming. These are called hand-held cameras. any number of ’60s (and later) films, directors used hand-held shots as a convention of realism—the jerkiness of hand-held shots seemed to suggest an unmediated reality.

Types of Camera Movement 4 STEADICAM SHOT: In a still later development, cameras are now able to be mounted on an apparatus called a STEADICAM, which fits onto a camera operator’s body (via a vest) in such a way that when he or she walks, the effect is that of very smooth movement, as opposed to a hand-held camera that records every bump in every step.

“False” Camera Movement ZOOM: a kind of artificial movement. There is no real movement with a zoom, just an enlargement or magnification of the image with the camera lens. Zoom lenses are known as varifocal lenses and can shifts back and forth from TELEPHOTO to WIDE-ANGLE.

Directing Camera Movement 1 MOTIVATED AND UNMOTIVATED CAMERA MOVEMENTS: the film’s characters determine whether movement is motivated or not. Motivated camera movements are those that are prompted by the characters and events in the film and vice versa.

Directing Camera Movement 2 EDITING WITHIN THE SHOT: an arrangement and sequential presentation of discrete pieces of information within a single shot. LONG TAKE: a shot that continues without a cut for an unusually long time. SEQUENCE SHOT: when a single shot comprises the entire scene.