Types of Shots
Present each part of the lesson in the following order:
KEY VOCABULARY (10 min.):
Shot: a film sequence photographed continuously by one camera. [New Oxford American Dictionary]
Frame: refers to a single image, the smallest compositional unit of a film’s structure, captured by the camera on a strip of motion picture film – similar to an individual slide in still photography; also refers to the rectangular area within which the film image is composed by the film-maker – in other words, a frame is what we see (within the screen). [Film Site Film Terms Glossary from AMC, Written and Edited by Tom Dirks]
Angle: refers to the perspective from which a camera depicts its subject [Film Site Film Terms Glossary from AMC, Written and Edited by Tom Dirks]
Close-up shot (CU): a photograph or movie picture taken very close to an object or person. [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]
Medium shot (med): a camera shot in which the subject is in the middle distance, permitting some of the background to be seen. Compare with close-up shot and long shot. [Dictionary.com]
Long shot: a view of a scene that is shot from a considerable distance, so that people appear as indistinct shapes. An extreme long shot is a view from an even greater distance, in which people appear as small dots in the landscape if at all (e.g. a shot of New York’s skyline). [Purdue Narratology Terms]
Establishing Shot (or ESTAB.): a usually long shot in film or video used at the beginning of a sequence to establish an overview of the scene that follows. [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]
Attention-getter (5 min.):
Go over the Key Vocabulary and show patients an example of a close-up (the little kid’s face 11 seconds in to “Don’t Discriminate”), medium shot (the little kid 19 seconds into “Don’t Discriminate”), and a long shot (the field, 32 seconds into “Don’t Discriminate”).
Discussion (15 min.):
Replay the entirety of “Don’t Discriminate” and instruct students to pay particular attention to the types of shots. They should take notes as they watch.
Using the Storyboard for “Don’t Discriminate” and their notes, have students discuss why they believe certain shots were close-ups, medium shots, or long shots.
Ask students when they would use a close, medium, and long shot, and why.
Activity (20 min.):
Instruct students to use cameras or smart phones to shoot a close-up, a medium shot, and a long shot in the surrounding area (perhaps the school or community center the class is held in). Have students compare their shots with each other to see other examples of close, medium, and long shots. Have them provide constructive feedback on other students’ shots.
KEY VOCABULARY:
Shot list: A shot list is a document that lists and describes the shots to be filmed. [The Elements of Cinema Blog & Podcast]
Assignment (5 min. in class, 20 min. at home):
Using their completed storyboards from Lesson Five, have students create a shot list for their PSAs. This can be in a standard list form or alongside their storyboard labels (as in the “Don’t Discriminate” Storyboard).
∞ End of Lesson ∞