Handy guides to knowing how, when, and most importantly why, to move the camera.
In Depth Cine covers Four Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Needs To Know – the types of moves, the equipment used to achieve them, and how each can be used to convey different emotions:
When planning shots, In Depth Cine advises, ask yourself:
- What is the focus of the scene?
- What information do we need to present?
- In what order?
- Whose perspective is the story being told from?
- Should the movement be motivated?
- Does the camera need to move at all?
Director Dave Mullins keeps this camera moves cheat sheet handy while storyboarding:
For a much deeper dive, here’s a long, impassioned thread on Types of camera movements (via Reddit):
Further Viewing
A shot from The Exorcist (1973), and how they filmed it (via All The Right Movies):
As a case study, here’s a look at director David Fincher‘s particular use of motivated camera movement:
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