Pixiq

As you begin shooting more video, you may find yourself paying closer attention to different shooting techniques when you watch a commercial, television show, movie, or even a newscast. There are many techniques that the pros use to make their film stand out. Here are 10 common techniques used by pro video shooters:

SWISH PAN

This is a fast pan—so fast that the shot is just a blur. It is also sometimes called a whip pan. This type of shot is mainly used as a transition element. It is inserted between shots to give the viewer the sense of moving to a new location, among many other uses. It is easy to create this shot—simply pan the camera as fast as you can. To get the best out of the swish pan, plan out the start and stop points carefully. Trying to get the swish pan to stop at exactly the framing you want is extremely difficult. It also helps to have several tonal changes in the scene, because a swish pan of a solid color, like a clear blue sky, won't show much movement.

SNAP ZOOM

A snap zoom is a very fast, blurred action zoom that ends on a specific composition. The speed used to create a snap zoom is similar to a swish pan. If you are zooming in, the snap zoom quickly draws the viewer's attention to the center of the screen. If you are zooming out, the shot emphasizes the overall scene. It is very difficult to perform a snap zoom while simultaneously trying to reframe the shot; that means this technique is best achieved with a camera locked down to a tripod. An interesting way of using a snap zoom is to slow down the actual zoom speed with your video editing software. This accentuates the blurriness of the zoom.

MASTER SHOT

When shooting from a script or plan, a master shot is the main shot that covers all the action in a particular scene. The master is almost always a wide shot. For example, in a scene with two people acting out a scene for a movie, you first shoot the two of them with wide-angle view so that you can see both actors within the entire scene—this is the master. You can then reset the camera position and the lighting and shoot close shots of each performer, cutaways, zooms, pans, etc. Later in the editing process, these shots can be cut in with the master shot to create a well-edited sequence.

SELECTIVE FOCUS

Selective focus is using limited depth of field to define a subject against an out-of-focus background, foreground, or both. Hollywood filmmakers often use selective focus for close-ups to isolate and separate an actor from the surroundings. This is best done with a telephoto lens set to a wide aperture.

ROLL FOCUS

An interesting use of selective focus is to change that focus within the frame while you are recording. This is called a roll focus, and it can take some practice to master. To achieve this with an HD video-capable D-SLR, you must use manual focus. First, establish two points of focus—a starting point and an ending point. Set the focus on your first point, start recording, and roll the focus to the second point during the recording by turning the focus ring on your lens. Practice the focus roll slowly until you feel more comfortable. This technique looks great when shot with longer focal length lenses because the longer lenses magnify the roll focus effect. But longer lenses also intensify other things, including vibrations. To avoid camera shake and other video quality issues, lock your camera solidly on a sturdy tripod.

SPECIAL LENS EFFECTS

The plane of focus is the in-focus part of a scene that is parallel to the camera’s sensor. The plane can be at any depth in a scene, depending on where you focus the camera and the aperture setting. But if you tilt the lens separately from the camera, that plane changes, and is no longer parallel to the camera sensor—now it is an angle to the sensor, and creates interesting visual effects. A tiltshift lens dramatically changes where focus occurs across a scene, and not just from front to back. The Lensbaby, for example, is a special lens that tilts in all directions to place focus in unique areas of your scene while also changing the look of what is in focus.

DUTCH TILT OR ANGLE

A Dutch angle is a deliberate and extreme tilting of the camera so that horizons are crooked and verticals are skewed. Hollywood filmmakers use Dutch angles in action, thriller, and horror movies to increase tension, chaos, and drama. The look tends to give an off-balance but dynamic feel to a shot. It is used sparingly for impact, but it must be used strongly so that it looks like a deliberate effect and not a mistake.

LOW ANGLE

One way to immediately gain impact from video is to shoot from a very low angle. Most video—and in fact most photography—is shot from eye-level or slightly lower. Very little is shot from close to the ground, which is why any visual from this angle will grab a viewer’s attention. One challenge is that few D-SLRs have the tilting LCDs or viewfinders typical of pro video and film cameras. Still, try it and play back your footage to see if you got the shot. A beanbag or other small support can help you get low and hold your camera steady.

POV

One goal, shared by every filmmaker, is to make the viewer feel like they are part of the action. The use of a point-of-view (POV) shot can help the filmmaker accomplish this goal. A POV shot places the camera at point that shows the perspective of the subject and gives the viewer an interactive experience. Different POVs give the viewer a sense of connection to a character. For example, if the actor is looking directly at the camera, it gives the impression that he is talking to the viewer. This technique is commonly used in documentaries. Now imagine viewing a scene of a video where you, the viewer, are placed behind the wheel of the car. The camera in this scene is positioned in a way that allows you to imagine you are driving—this is an engaging POV. A realistic POV will shift the viewers’ focus around the scene, first isolating a flower or a bird, and perhaps looking up at the clouds.

OTS

An OTS (or over-the-shoulder) shot is used when shooting dialog or action between two people. Pros shoot a master shot of the two going through all of their actions/dialog, then reset the camera and shoot each person in a close up. During editing, they can then cut between the three shots. A close up of one person talking tends to take the person listening out of the scene, but by framing the close up so that you catch a bit of the shoulder of the listener, you bring them back into the context of the scene. Consider shooting a close up and an OTS for the most flexibility when you go to edit. There are two additional benefits of shooting OTS. On movie sets, many times the close ups will just involve the person talking while the listener is off in their trailer. This makes it more difficult for the person talking, since they have no one to talk to, and causes two problems. First it take a great actor to talk to thin air and still be convincing. Second, the person speaking needs to look at something so their eyes appear to be looking in the right direction—not to high and not too low. In the film industry, this is called an eyeline. If the actor is looking slightly down in the close up but slightly up in the wide shot, the two shots will look disjointed when they are edited together.