Shot types and angles

How shot types and angles create meaning

Long shots are generally used as establishing shots- especially if it's used in the beginning of the footage (establishing shots are used to inform the audience of the setting of the footage). Long shots are used throughout the footage to stress the environment and setting to the audience.

Shots that present a character's waist and upwards is known as a mid shot. Mid shots are used to emphasises the interactions between particular people. For example if it's wished to focus the attention on a conversation, struggle or embrace a mid shot would be idealistic.

Close ups are used to present more detail about the character through enhanced facial expressions resulting in more emotions being shown. If the close up is on a prop, it signifies the significance of that specific prop. An extreme close up can be used to

An over the shoulder shot is a shot taken over the shoulder on one actor  Over the shoulder shots are a clever way to present an intense dialogue, whilst focusing on one member of the conversation. This shot can also be effective in showing tension between characters and building tension if the another character is in view during this shot.

A point of view shot intensifies the personal feeling of the footage and allows the audience to respond more to the video. This type of shot also allows for audiences to become more emotionally attached to a character, as audiences will feel they're gone through the experience alongside the character. This shot is extremely effective to elicit an response from audiences in products in the horror genre.

Another shot type used is the two shot, where two characters are generally presented from the waist up, although this is not all the time. This shot are generally used to allow the audience to gather more information about the characters and see how they interact with each other- showing the audience the relationship between the characters.

A low angle shot presents status and power of an character during the scene. As the shot seemingly increases the height and disorientation, the audience is introduced to a sense of insecurity. The shot asserts the power and authority to the other character(s) on screen.

High angle shots exaggerates a character's insignificance, as it makes that character seem smaller in stature. When used alongside a zoom camera movement, the character often becomes lost in the setting, used to signify an ending of a period of time, or of a character.

The birds eye view angle is taken from directly above the action. It can be used to suggest something bigger is at play and suggest everything on the mise en scene is insignificant or irrelevant.