MEDIA/FILM STUDIES

AS/A-LEVEL
ESSENTIAL INSIGHT INTO

CAMERA ANGLES

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EDUDOG
 WHAT IS A ‘CAMERA ANGLE’?
• In simple terms, a camera angle describes the
precise area where a camera is located to take
a specific shot.
• No film is ever shot from one angle only. There
are many types of camera shots/angles that
you should become familiar with. They will be
covered in this presentation.

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 1. Extreme Long Shot (ELS)
• These are visual shots that have been filmed at a distance, usually with a
wide-angle lens, as this shot is commonly also known as a ‘Wide Shot’
(WS).
• The Extreme Long Shot is mainly used for setting a scene in an establishing
shot, e.g. A wide shot of desert with two proportionately sized men in the
distance. These shots can be filmed with objects as far as half a kilometre
away.
• These shots are often used to show large battle sequences in war epics
and aftermath shots in disaster movies. E.g. The battle sequences in The
Lord of the Rings sequel show clear and frequent use of extreme long
shots.
• They are supposed to give a ‘general’ view of what is happening in the
scene and not provide detailed information. Simple landscape shots, often
with sunsets are the most commonly used ELS.

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1. Extreme Long Shot (ELS) [cont’d]
This is an example of a
photographic Extreme Long
Shot. The same rules apply
when filming and as you can
see, the main objects in an ELS
are far away – in this case, the
dominant objects are the
mountains. Using an Extreme
Long Shot allows the
cinematographer or
cameraman to capture a wider
‘panoramic’ view of the
mountains. The same rules can
be applied to city shots – for
panoramic street views (left).

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 2. Long Shot
• The ‘Long Shot’ is perhaps the most difficult camera shot to define.
However, we have made a great effort to define it and help you to
understand exactly what a Long Shot looks like.

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 2. Long Shot [cont’d]

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