GENERAL MEDIA TRAINING NOTES

The Different Camera Shots & Framings

Basic camera shots and angels... I mean angles

MS (Medium Shot)
MCU (Medium Close Up)
CU (Close Up)

Shots are all about composition. Rather than pointing the camera at the subject, you need to
compose an image. And here are some of a few accepted industry guidelines which you should
use as rules of thumb.
The rules of framing, video images are essentially the same as those for still photography. So if
you learn one of them the other will flow automatically.

Basic shots in camera are referred to in terms of a subject. For example, a "close up" has to be a
close up of something. A close up of a person could also be described as a wide shot of a face, or
a very wide shot of a nose.
The subject in all of the following shots is a boy standing in front of a house.

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot also known as the Establishment shot)

The point of this shot is to show the subject's surroundings. First shot of a new scene, designed to
show the audience where the action is taking place.

VWS (Very Wide Shot or a Full Wide Shot)

The VWS is much closer to the subject. He is (just) visible here, but the emphasis is still on
placing him in his environment.

WS (Wide Shot or Full body Shot or A Long Shot any of this can do)
In the WS, the subject takes up the full frame. In this case, the boy's feet are almost at the bottom
of frame, and his head is almost at the top. The small amount of room above and below the
subject can be thought of as safety room (head & leg room).
MS (Mid shot or Medium shot (the below the belt and above the knees shot most directors call
for at central) The MS shows some part of the subject in more detail. In fact, this is an
approximation of how you would see a person "in the flesh" if you were having a casual
conversation. You wouldn't be paying any attention to their lower body.

MCU (Medium Close Up) (Half way between a MS and a CU. This shot shows the face more
clearly, without getting uncomfortably close -Normally used in news, interviews and so on)

CU (Close Up) (In the CU, a certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame. A
close up of a person usually means a close up of their face. A CU of the strings and hand alone
on the acoustic guitar u know, a CU of the drumsticks or snare plates alone.)

ECU (Extreme Close Up or Tight shot, or Detailed shot) (The ECU gets right in and shows
extreme detail. For people, the ECU is used to convey emotion.)

CA (Cutaway normally known as B rolls, by the way shots) (A cutaway is a shot that's usually
of something thing other than the current action. It could be a shot of the lights, the balloons and
pots on stage, the crowd, choir, electric, keys etc.)
Cut-In (You show detail of a subject like going for that 1 drop of rain or scale on a fish, a shot
of individual figures pressing the keyboard, we’ve seen many of those shots in wcn.)

(OTS) over-the shoulder shot used in film

(Looking from behind a person at the subject.)

Point-of-View Shot (POV) (Shows a view from the subject's perspective.)

"Headroom","looking room”, and "leading room". These terms refer to the amount of room in
the frame which is strategically left empty. The shot of the baby crawling has some leading room
for him to crawl into, and the shot of his mother has some looking room for her to look into.
Without this empty space, the framing will look very unpleasant and remember that this principle
applies to every item you will ever record,
 “even a stone or cup will need good framing”.

 Everything in your frame is important, not just the subject. What does the background
look like? What’s the lighting, iris, focus, and white balance like? Pay attention to the
edges of your frame (all the time). Avoid having half objects in frame, especially people
(showing half of someone's face is very unflattering). Also try not to cut people of at the
joints (when tracking with the subject moving) — the bottom of the frame can cut across
a person's stomach, but not their knees. It just doesn't look right.

The Power of 3 | Rule of Thirds

(Composition)

 The rule of thirds. This rule divides the frame into nine sections, as in the first frame
below. Points (or lines) of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up (or across) the
frame, rather than in the centre. Imagine a grid over your image that divides your frame into
thirds vertically and horizontally. Your subject should be placed along one of the gridlines, or
where the gridlines intersect, and the horizon should be along one of the horizontal lines.

The rule of thirds is a powerful compositional technique for making photos and videos more
interesting and dynamic in your camera screen. It's also perhaps one of the most well known.
This article uses examples to demonstrate why the rule works, when it's ok to break the rule, and
how to make the most of it to improve your cinematography skills.
*why* and of what importance are the rules of thirds
1- They create energy and tension
2- They create a feeling of balance in the photo.
3- Makes the scene stronger by positioning the most important elements at the intersections of
imaginary lines.

“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”, Sometimes, rules are meant
to be broken, like dessert after dinner. If I want that piece of cake before dinner, nothing will
stop me. **So don’t feel that you MUST follow it from now on. As you can see in the photo
below, sometimes the strongest images DO break the rules. But you can’t break the rules if you
don’t know them…**

In the example below, the biker was placed more or less along the leftmost third since he was travelling to
the right. Similarly, the birds are off-center to give the impression that they c’d take off to the right at any
moment. OFF-center composition is a powerful way to convey or imply motion.

Off-Center subjects can give a sense of direction

In the picture below on your right, I cropped off part of its empty sky in Photoshop so that the horizontal
aligned with the upper third of the image- adding emphasis to the foreground and mountains.

You don’t have to apply the rule of thirds in such a literal way it’s just a rough guideline. Think
of it as a good reminder to keep your subject out of the “dead center” of the frame, and keep your
horizon from dividing the picture in half. Even without using the exact thirds of the frame, your
 composition will be more interesting and dynamic if you think about these ideas when you are
framing a photo.

The rules of thirds when applied in your compositions also help provide room and space for easy layouts of designs,
graphics, lower thirds and titles. You will agree with me if you have watched a documentary before and noticed how
the person speaking was positioned left with the name on the right below.

It is one of those rules that make complete sense when you see it….but you don’t know why. For
example, look at these two head shots below.

See how her face falls right in the middle of the grid? See how her eyes fall right on the top third
line? A pleasing example of how the Rule of Thirds works to make a better portrait.

Here are some portrait examples of how pulling a subject into the right or left grid line helps add
impact to your image.

Notice how they are all facing the left. You want more space wherever your subject is facing. If we had
placed them right in the middle, you would have all this dead space behind them, or on the right that
serves no purpose. A mistake we do a lot, when recording the “backups and subjects” on stage.

Watch TV and movies, and notice the shots which stand out. There's a reason why they stand out
***it's all about camera positioning and frame composition.***
 Camera will be simple if only you remember the basics.
Hope you will understand my humble fetched words of wisdom good luck, Maynard.