Hi. My name is Tom Antos and today we’re going to talk about
some basics when it comes to camera angles and framing.
The Full Shot or Full Body Shot includes the feet in the frame.
For this kind of a shot, remember to never cut off just the feet.
In fact, it’s a bad practice to cut off your subject at the knees and below.
It may look like you did it unintentionally or by a mistake...
like you can see here. It also looks awkward when a person’s legs
are cut off below the knees. This, in fact, is not a rule by any means.
In fact, I don’t think there are any rules in film.
But it is just a bad practice. If you’re going to frame your subject like this,
then you’d better have a good reason for it.
Otherwise, it will just confuse your audience and
it will look like you simply don’t know what you’re doing.
So, for a full body shot, you should stick to something like this.
Next shot is a Medium Full Shot. That’s when you go a bit closer and
it's usually also when you cut off your subject somewhere between the knees and the waist.
Once you frame above the waist area, that’s called a Medium Shot.
After that, we move in for a Close Shot. That frames from around the breast area and up.
And then this here is a Close-Up,
which mainly frames just the subject’s head. Once you move in even closer,
where you start to cut off the forehead or the chin,
that’s usually referred to as an Extreme Close-Up.
Even if you move in to frame just the eyes, for example.
Now, what you have to remember is that there is no standard by which to go when naming
these shots. These are simple the name that I use.
There are others out there that use different names.
What’s important is that you know what type of shots you want to get.
So, when you’re planning your shots or doing your storyboards,
you always use the same names for the shot types,
so you don’t end up confusing yourself later on down the road
when you go back to look at your notes or storyboards.
Next, we’re going to talk about the types of shots or angles,
like Over-the-Shoulder or a Two-Shot. These are most commonly used in a scene when
two characters are talking to each other. These shots refer more to the angle than
what the exact framing is. For example, you can have a close-up over-the-shoulder...
or a medium over-the-shoulder like you see here...
and you can even go to a full body over-the-shoulder.
Same goes for the two-shot. Here we have a full body two-shot.
And then a medium two-shot.
And then a close-up two-shot.
Or you can also have, you know, a three, four shot, depending how many characters
you have in your shot. Other shot types you might hear about are
an Insert or Cut-Away, which is, basically, a close-up
on a part of a scene or it could be a POV of one of the characters
seeing a certain detail in that scene, like we see here
where one of the characters passes the car keys to the other.
Many times people ask me what size lenses should they use
to get, for example, a good medium shot. And really, there is not one correct answer.
The types of shots or the framing really have nothing to do with the lens.
For example, you can have a medium shot that’s shot using a wide angle lens
such as this 16mm Canon lens that I’m using here.
Or you can have a medium shot that’s shot using a 50mm lens.
Same if you use a 100mm...
or even a 300mm telephoto lens.
They all produce medium shots. But of course, each of those lenses gives
that shot a different look and effect. The framing doesn’t change.
It’s just the perspective. So, remember that shot framing has nothing
to do with the lens size.
And the only way you’ll really know what type of lens to use
in your scenario is once you’ve got a lot of experience
going out there and filming. You know, just trying out different types
of lenses and experimenting.
Then, afterwards, you should come home and compare
what kind of effects you got using various lenses
on different types of shots. Because there’s virtually an infinite amount
of effects you can get when you’re mixing up different types of
framing, shot types, angles and lenses.
For example, let’s take a close-up and
do a few versions of it and see what kind of effects we can get.
If we were to use a mid-sized lens such as this 50mm,
then you would get something like this. You know, an average looking shot.
But, for example, if you were filming a comedy and you wanted to show a person in a funny way,
then it might be better to go in really close
and use a wide-angle such as this 16mm lens,
which will make your subject’s features look a bit distorted or exaggerated.
It’s not actually the lens that makes your subject look that way
but your relative position to the subject. Basically, the closer you move to your subject,
the more dramatic the perspective will be. But obviously you have to use a wide-angle lens
when shooting this close.
Right now we’re about two feet away from the subject.
Now, if we were to use a 50mm lens at that same distance,
then the perspective doesn’t change, but the framing obviously will,
because we’re basically zooming in. So, all you end up seeing is this.
It would be the same if you look at this shot that we got using the 16mm lens and then
digitally zoomed in. The only difference being that the depth of field
would be the same as the 16mm lens. And of course we end up loosing
a lot of the resolution, which is why we use different lenses.
Or if you’re using a camera that doesn’t have interchangeable lenses,
then you would simply zoom in or zoom out. Now, let’s take a look at a full body shot.
To get it with a 16mm lens, we have to move away from the subject
a few feet. If you were to move away from your subject
to about two hundred fifty feet, then this wide-angle might be good
if you’re trying to get, let’s say, a wide-shot of the location.
Because your subject is so small that it’s really hard even to see him.
So, that’s when you want to use a long lens, such as this 300mm, to basically zoom in.
Now, when you’re this far away, that’s when the subject will look more flat
and less exaggerated, since you’re seeing all the features from,
pretty much, the same perspective. It will also bring other surrounding objects,
such as this mailbox that we have there in the background,
closer to our main subject. Whereas, if we were closer and using,
let’s say, a 50mm lens, it looks like that mailbox is a lot farther away.
They’re both the same types of shots
- a full body shot, but what changes now is our relative position
to the subject. And since with the 300mm lens we have to move away
so much farther and then zoom in optically,
we end up also zooming in on the mailbox, which is why it makes it look like it’s
a lot closer to our subject than... than, for example, you can see in this
full body shot we got using a 50mm lens. So, next time you’re wondering what lens
you should use in your setting, just simply go out there with your camera,
test out different lenses, experiment and above all, have fun.
Because that’s really the best way to learn. I hope this video helped to answer
some of your questions and I’ll see you guys later.