The Long Shot

Long Shots Show your Location

If movies were a language, then the different types of shots would be the vocabulary.

To really be good at telling your stories visually, you’ll need to learn the language of movies.

OK, students.  Let’s begin with some basic vocabulary.

The Long Shot.

• An image made with the camera positioned to observe the most action or scenery possible.

The purpose of the long shot is to convey information about a location.  It shows your audience where the heck your action is supposed to be taking place.  In the above example, you would expect an audience to understand that the following scene will take place just beyond this sand dune- at the beach most likely.

Ok, class.  What else would you use a Long Shot for?   Sally… you haven’t answered in awhile.

A long shot can be used to denote a change in location.  It can also be used to bring into view what a particular character is seeing at a particular time in a story.

Very Good, Sally.

A long shot is meant to give a viewer a general sense of what’s happening.  So to keep your long Shots effective, remember to omit great amounts of detail.

This means…

• Your Long Shots shouldn’t show a detailed item in frame that you WANT your audience to key in on.  Because they WON’T see it.

A classic use of the Long Shot is to end your story.

It’s very common to see a movie end in a very wide Long Shot.

This helps key the audience into recognizing that’s it’s now time to let the characters to themselves.

End of Lesson.  Now go out, and shoot a Long Shot for your next video!

Stay tuned for more Camera Shot School from Creative Home Movie.com