Types of Camera Movement

When working with Cameras, proper terms are used for the majority of movements:

Pan:

The Camera swivels smoothly on a tripod.

Tilt:

The camera is tilted up or down.

Dolly:

The camera and its support is moved along a form of track to follow an action.

Tracking:

The camera follows the characters as either handheld or using a sling or steadicam.

Crane:

The camera is moved through the air using a crane, jib or aerial track.

Push in / Pull back:

The camera is pushed towards the action or pulled back. This is oftern used to subtly suggest an increasing affinity or dislike of a character as a clip or scene progresses.

Zoom in / Zoom Out:

The camera lens zooms in or out to change our spatial and emotional relationship to the scene and characters

Focus:

Filmmakers oftern keep areas in an image deliberately in or out of focus to help control the audience's relative interest in different areas of the field of view:

• Deep Focus is where much of the field of view is in focus, this is oftern used to help underline the characters relationship to his or her surroundings.
• Shallow Focus is where only a small area of the image is in focus at any one time, this is used to focus the audiences attention on one character, a detail in the field of view or to suggest a character is caught up in their own thoughts.

Pull Focus:

Here the cinematographer adjusts focus between two or sometimes three characters or areas of interest within the field of vision to literally refocus the audience's attention on different aspects of the action, or to suggest changing audience sympathies with the characters shown.