Do you have a master list of shots to choose from?

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. · October 6, 2019

Other day someone mentioned a 'swish pan' as a transition in a commentary. Do you have a master list of shots to choose from as reminders of what the possibilities are? If not, is there a list of different type of shots?

Thanks

Satsuki Murashige · October 6, 2019

I think most cinematographers just keep a list in their heads. There are so many possibilities that it’s often better to just watch a wide variety of movies, tv, commercials, music videos, experimental films, etc. to stay fresh on the less common techniques and to let the images marinate in your subconscious.

Also, most DPs will search out reference material to share with their director while prepping a new project, often drawing on the subconscious image bank as a starting point for more research.

I just re-watched the HBO mini-series ‘The Night Of’ which has a lot of unusual framing with excess headroom, something that doesn’t get used too often. They also used a transition technique throughout where instead of finishing a scene on the protagonist’s close-up as they listen to someone speaking, they would cut to the (less-important) speaking character and rack focus to some minor detail in the foreground, leaving the speaking actor out of focus for an uncomfortable amount of time. Really puts you in the head of the protagonist, and not a technique I recall seeing used like that before. But now it’s in the memory bank...

Webster Colcord · October 7, 2019

If you're working on a set, you need to know the lingo for the various shot possibilities. There's a lot of short-hand terminology for various kinds of shots, set-ups, and even for blocking. Unfortunately they don't teach much of this in film school, you have to be on set to learn it. This is a great book that covers a lot of it:

Movie Speak on Amazon

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. · October 8, 2019

I guess if you are good at it, it is natural, 2nd nature so to speak and no list needed.

Bruce Greene · October 8, 2019

I've seen a bunch of scripts with "smash cut to" written in them. But I have no idea how to shoot it!

Satsuki Murashige · October 8, 2019

26 minutes ago, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

I guess if you are good at it, it is natural, 2nd nature so to speak and no list needed.

I think it’s more a case of building experience through trial and error, and also studying a lot of films for new ideas. It’s a developed craft, not natural instinct. And like most crafts, the more you learn the less you know.

There was an illustrated book series that has something like what you’re asking for: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1615930876/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_uJqNDbZHX5YJT

It was rather light reading as I recall, more like something you would flip through as a reference. But maybe that’s enough to start? I think it would make a better reference book if it showed frame grabs from well-known film examples but I guess there are copyright issues with that.

There is also this YouTube series, which I find more helpful, as they go into greater detail on a variety of topics.

Webster Colcord · October 9, 2019

There's also a company that released a DVD set years ago that's all about blocking actors and camera angles, how to deal with complex staging issues, all that... it was sort of meant for previs artists (one of the previs companies I worked at had the set) and it's really dry and boring, but full of good info. It won't help so much with the lingo that you need to know - terms like "cowboy", "dirty over", "banana" - the "Movie Speak" book is better for that.

https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/