This document provides an overview of various shot types, camera movements, and editing transitions for storyboarding coursework. It describes shots like pans, tilts, tracks, and establishing shots. It also explains common editing techniques like cuts, dissolves, and shot/reverse shot. Maintaining techniques like the 180 degree rule and eye line matches are important for continuity. The goal is to familiarize readers with visual storytelling techniques for their projects.

1. Step Outline / Storyboarding Guide Book
This booklet will inform you of the different shot types, camera movements and editing transitions you
must be familiar with if you are to successfully complete the storyboarding sequence of your coursework.
Shot Types & Camera Movements
Pan Shots
A ‘Pan’ refers to the horizontal rotation of a camera from a stationary position.
A ‘Pan’ replicates the movement of the human head from side to side (similar to
that of someone shaking their head ‘No’)
Tracking Shots
The camera is mounted on a track and is pushed along to follow the
subject. The camera itself does not move, it is simply being pushed
a long a pre‐determined route capturing whatever passes in front of
it.
Tilt Shot
The camera itself is tilted up or down, replicating the movement of the human
head when nodding ‘YES’.
Hand Held Shots
Hand held shots denote a certain sense of realism and can be used to make the
audience feel as though they are part of a scene, rather than viewing it from a
detached, frozen position
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2. Low Angle Shot
A low angle shot placed the camera below eye level, looking up
at the character / subject. This shot has the effect of making
characters / subjects appear more dominant and powerful
within the scene. We are literally looking up at them as they fill
the frame.
High Angle Shot
A high angle shot places the camera below eye level, down on the
character / subject. This shot has the effect of making the character
/ subject appear weak and vulnerable. The audience are positioned
above the character / subject and are literally looking down upon
them.
Establishing Shot
Each time a film / music video cuts to a new location, an
establishing shot can be used to inform the audience of
where they are.
Eye Level
A fairly neutral shot; the camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene, so that
the actors' heads are on a level with the camera. The camera will be placed approximately five to six feet
from the ground.
Bird’s Eye View
This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. This shot puts the audience
in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant‐like, part of
a wider scheme of things. Hitchcock (and his admirers, like Brian de Palma) is fond of this style of shot.
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3.
Canted Angle / Oblique Angle / Tilted Frame
If the level of the camera is ‘canted’ the image on
screen will appear rotated in some way. This is an
effect that is generally achieved through a hand
held camera manoeuvre. It can be used to give the
audience a sense of the unconventional or unusual.
This shot type can be used to suggest Point of View
shots (POV) representing what the characters see.
Editing
‘CUT’
When a film editor begins piecing together a film, they must decide on how each shot is to be connected.
A ‘CUT’ is the most basic and most common form of transition.
A cut is an instant change from one shot to another. Cuts often go unnoticed by the viewer, allowing filmmakers to
change camera position and shot type without distracting the audience with the ‘mechanics of the editing’. This is
also known as an ‘Invisible Edit’
This scene begins with Tom Cruises’ character Ray standing outside his
home. As Ray notices the sudden change in weather, he begins moving
towards his back garden.
The scene ‘cuts’ instantaneously to a shot of Ray running through an
alley beside his home.
As Ray runs past the camera the scene ‘cuts’ to a low angle shot of Ray
looking up at the storm clouds.
By cutting between the different camera angles we follow Ray from his
starting point, through an alley and to a final position in the garden. The
use of cuts creates a continual passage of time and allows the audience to follow Ray’s journey without being
distracted by the mechanics of editing.
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4.
Fade UP / Fade IN
This is where the scene starts as one colour (usually black), and the images fade up through the black.
Fade Down / Fade OUT
This is where a scene will begin fading to one colour (usually black). The image continues to fade until the screen is
completely filled with one colour (usually black).
WIPE
Dissolve
This type of transition uses overlapping images to change shots. At the end of a shot a second image (the next shot
in the sequence) gradually ‘dissolves’ through the first image, eventually replacing it.
Dissolves can be used to create sense of time passing. They can also be used to link unconnected shots and create a
further meaning.
E.g. Dissolving from a shot of an old man to a shot of a younger man tells the audience that the two men are in fact
the same person from different periods of his life.
E.g. The Godfather Part II (Coppola 1974), tells the story of both Don Vito Corleone (DeNiro) and his son Michael
(Pacino). The film cuts between 1940’s New York to follow Michael and the early 1900’s to follow Vito Corlone.
Throughout the film dissolves are used to link both stories together. By dissolving between the two the audience are
informed that the stories are related and that Michael is reflecting on his past and Vito on his future.
Establishing shots
The initial shot of a scene as well as the first shot of a film, and the editor will employ it to help the audience locate
the space they are being drawn in to. The establishing shot is used to establish a context for a scene. It tells us where
we are!
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5. Establishing shots should only last a few seconds. Once the audience understands the setting and location, a cut is
made.
The 180 Degree Rule
The 180˚ rule is a basic guideline in film editing that states that two characters should always have the same
left/right relationship to each other.
E.g. The 180 ˚ Rule
The man in Orange (John) is on the left hand side of the image.
The man in Blue (Mark) is on the right hand side of the image.
As this scene progresses, John should always be shown on the left hand
side of the image, and Mark always shown on the right hand side.
If the scene cuts to a shot where John is on the right and Mark is on the
right, audiences will be disorientated and the flow of the scene is
broken.
SHOT / REVERSE / SHOT
This is one of the most common techniques in editing. It is used to portray conversations between people who may
not appear on the screen at the same time. One character is shown on screen looking at another character (usually
off‐screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
Since the characters are seen facing the opposite direction we assume they are looking at one another.
Shot/Reverse/Shot is a feature of the continuity editing style which deemphasises the transition between shots so
that the audience perceive one continuous action that develops linearly, chronologically and logically.
It is essential that the ‘eye‐line’ matches are consistent throughout a shot/reverse/shot sequence. If not the
audience will not believe the two characters are communicating and attention will be drawn to the mechanics of
editing.
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6.
EYE LINE MATCH
Conversations, and for that matter any interaction between characters, will usually require an eye‐line match in
order to maintain continuity between edits. A characters gaze should be directed at the object or person that they
are looking at. If the gaze is not, then the continuity of the scene is broken and the audience again begins to question
to mechanics of the editing.
MATCH ON ACTION
Two shots can be connected by the replication of an action (character puts drink down in an American bar, and cuts
to a drink being picked up in another bar) or a cut which splices two different views of the same action together at
the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted.
GRAPHIC MATCH
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