Week 5: Tools of the Trade 1: Film Language, Part 2 Camera Movement

There are three camera moves that maintain flat space because they do not create relative movement. They are the Pan, the Tilt, and the Zoom. Flat space has no illusion of depth. 

Pan: Panning means rotating the camera to the left or right on its vertical axis, while the camera stays stationary in space. 

 



Tilt: Tilting rotates the camera up or down on its horizontal axis. while the camera stays stationary in space. 

Zoom: A Zoom is not a camera move. Zooming involves changing the focal length of the lens* to make the subject appear closer or further away in the frame.

A zoom is magnification instead of movement.
The key here is that with the zoom magnification, you are not changing the three-dimensional relationship of the surroundings to a character. 

There are three camera moves that create relative movement and the illusion of depth.

These moves are the dolly in/out, the track left/right, and the boom up/down. Deep space gives the illusion of depth. (from Bruce Block, The Visual Story, Chapter 3 SPACE) 

Dolly:  A dolly in/out means moving the camera closer or farther from a subject. Sometimes the filmmakers will use these same movements but call the shots a push in and a pull out.

 A dolly is a camera on a track that moves through space. The filmmaker's goal in using this technique is to move the audience through space.

Here is a look at some of the parallel shots used in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo', the camera can be seen pushing in or pushing out of key scenes. 

The push/dolly in is used to convey heightening tension and to underscore some revelation

The pull/dolly out is designed to create distance, both emotional and physical, from the subject.

Track: Moving the camera left or right. Dollying left or right is sometimes called a tracking shot.

A dolly creates relative movement between the Foreground and Background. Sometimes the camera is mounted on a dolly track, shown in the illustration below. Sometimes it's attached to a train :-)

Boom or Crane shot:  The camera is raised or lowered, usually on a mechanical arm, or in the case of Gone with the wind, an actual crane.

BREAKING BAD - Motivated Camera Movement from Vashi Nedomansky on Vimeo.

Notice that there is no illusion of depth on the Pan (FLAT SPACE) but there IS the illusion of depth on the Dolly Shot  at the end (DEEP SPACE ) for the payoff. For more information on depth cues and the four space types (flat space, deep space, limited space, ambiguous space) refer to  Chapter 3, The Visual Story by Bruce Block. p238/239 which discusses using contrasts in spacial structure to parallel the story intensity.