Camerawork: Framing

In filmmaking, camera framing, like shot sizes and angles, is important because they help enhance the felling of being in the movie towards the audience. In this blog, I will be discussing the definitions of camera framing techniques which are used in film.

The first shot on the framing list, the "single" is defined as one character in the shot, instead of multiple. The two types of singles; the "clean single", where there is just the one character in the shot, and the "dirty single" where there is presence of another character (not their full body) on screen. A clean single would be a wide shot, isolating the subject of the frame. A dirty single would be an over the shoulder (OTS) shot as a conversation between two or more people.

Next, the "two shot", is like the single shot, except there are two people in the shot instead of one. Two shots can be used in a wide shot as well, showing a relation to each other in distance and where they are in the shot.

Then the list continues, the "three shot" has three characters, "four shot" having four characters, and so on. The list of shots could be endless, but it is regular to have too many characters in one shot to count, which is why filmmakers refer to it as a "crowd shot" where  there are many characters in one frame. 

An "over the shoulder" shot is when the camera is looking over one character's shoulder, showing the face of another character in front of them. This technique is typically used in scenes where there is a conversation taking place, to give the audience a feeling of inclusion in the conversation.

Next is the "POV" shot; POV stands for "Point of view" and means the camera is looking at the subject of the frame, seeing what one character sees. The video is usually used alongside a POV audio, when the camera hears what the character can hear as well.

The "insert shot" (discussed in a previous blog) is "used most commonly to highlight and isolate something important to the narrative of a scene or film, emphasizing the importance of the subject of the frame. A good example is if the camera zoomed in on a character opening a box with a ring inside. This is considered a decent example because the camera captures and allows the audience to see something that was important to the scene of the film and creates dramatic irony between the audience and a certain number of other characters in the film."