Camera shots

In practice

Camera shots are named by how much of the subject the frame shows, from an extreme wide shot of a whole landscape to an extreme close-up of a single eye. The main sizes are the wide shot, the full shot, the medium shot, the medium close-up, the close-up and the extreme close-up. Each size tells the audience how close to stand, and how much to feel.

Shot size is one of three choices in every frame. The other two are the angle (high, low, eye level, Dutch) and the movement (static, pan, tilt, dolly, tracking, handheld). A shot list combines them: "medium close-up, low angle, slow push in". Shots are also named by what they do: an establishing shot sets the place, an over-the-shoulder shot frames a conversation, a point-of-view shot shows what a character sees.

The rule of thumb is that wider shots give information and closer shots give emotion. A wide shot tells you where everyone is; a close-up tells you what one person is feeling. Directors cut between sizes to control what the audience notices, which is why a scene that starts wide and ends tight feels like it is closing in.

Camera shots that a screenplay implies without naming

The scene never writes "WIDE SHOT" or "CLOSE ON", yet a director can read every size off the page: a wide lobby that makes Ruth small, a full view of the table that shows the odds, an insert of her hands that gives away her nerves, and a close-up line that turns the room. Writing what the audience should see, in order, is how a spec screenplay chooses its shots.

Types of camera shots by size

Extreme wide shot (or extreme long shot): the subject is tiny or absent, and the place dominates, as in a desert, a city skyline or a battlefield. Wide shot (long shot): the whole subject is visible with plenty of room around them, so we see a person in their surroundings. Full shot: the subject fills the frame from head to toe.

Medium wide shot, also called the cowboy shot or American shot: from about the knees up, a framing westerns made famous because it fit a gunslinger's holster. Medium shot: from the waist up, the default for conversation, close enough to read faces and far enough to see gestures. Medium close-up: from the chest up, a shot for dialogue that matters.

Close-up: the face fills the frame, so every flicker of expression counts. Extreme close-up: a single detail such as an eye, a mouth or a finger on a trigger. Sergio Leone's westerns cut from extreme wide shots of the desert to extreme close-ups of gunfighters' eyes, using both ends of the scale in one sequence.

Camera shots by purpose and framing

Establishing shot: usually wide, at the start of a scene, to tell the audience where and sometimes when they are. Two-shot: two characters in one frame, which shows their relationship, close or distant. Over-the-shoulder shot: framed from behind one character toward another, the standard way to cover a conversation, because it keeps both people in the audience's mind.

Point-of-view shot (POV): the camera shows exactly what a character sees, putting the audience in their eyes. Insert: a close shot of an object or detail that matters, such as a note, a clock or a wound. Reaction shot: a cut to someone's face as they hear or see something, which often tells the audience how to feel about it.

Camera angles add a second layer. A high angle looking down can make a subject look small; a low angle looking up can make them look powerful; an eye-level shot is neutral; a Dutch angle tilts the frame to suggest unease; a bird's-eye view looks straight down from above.

Should a screenplay name camera shots?

In a spec screenplay, mostly no. Shot choices belong to the director and cinematographer, and a script crowded with "CLOSE ON" and "WIDE SHOT" reads as a writer trying to direct. Instead, write action lines that imply the shot: describe what the audience sees, in the order they see it, one image per line. A line that isolates a detail ("Ruth's hands, folded on the folder") will be shot as an insert without the word.

There are exceptions. An insert, a POV or an establishing view sometimes carries story information that cannot be implied, such as a note the audience must read or what a character sees through binoculars. A short shot heading is fine there. Shooting scripts, written once a film is going into production, do name shots, because the camera plan is now part of the document.

Using shot sizes to shape a scene

Scenes often move from wide to close as they gain intensity: an establishing shot, a medium two-shot, then singles that tighten as the conversation turns. Cutting back to a wide at the end can show the aftermath, a character alone in a big room. Breaking the pattern is just as useful: a sudden close-up in a calm scene says this moment matters.

Holding a size is a choice, too. A long scene played in one wide shot keeps the audience at a distance and lets the actors' bodies tell the story, the way many comedies and stage-like dramas do. Knowing the vocabulary helps writers talk to directors, read storyboards and write action lines that suggest the film they imagine.