Glossary: Film grammar

Camera Motion: how the camera moves in relation to the characters and the action

Center Framing: putting your main subjects right in the middle to establish a feeling of stability or neutrality

Close Up Shots: camera shot that is very close to punctuate an emotional moment or story point

Dolly: dynamic shot where the camera moves parallel to the ground, as if moving on tracks

Down Shot: shot by placing your camera above the subject and pointing downward

Dutch Angle: shot by tilting the camera to get a diagonal view of the scene

Dynamic Shots: shots taken with a moving camera

Extreme Close Up Shots: shot framed very tightly around the subject to feel intense emotion

Extreme Wide Shots: used to show how big a world is, create a sense of scale or make details difficult to see

Framing: the part of the scene you see through the camera’s lens and from what perspective

Major Beats: key moments in the story

Medium Shots: camera shot that is personal and close enough to establish emotion and conversation

Minor Beats: smaller ideas that collectively make up each scene

Pan: dynamic shot where the camera rotates either horizontally or vertically to reveal addition information

Rule of Thirds: framing technique used by dividing frame into equal thirds and placing the subject at one of the four intersection points

Scene: the part of the story that takes place at a particular time and location where our character learns something new to carry them forward in the story

Sequences: collection of scenes that make up a major beat

Shots: a visual representation of a character’s action in time

Staging: the positions of the characters in the scene and where the action occurs

Static Shots: shots taken using a fixed position and direction throughout the entire shot

Tracking Shot: dynamic shot where the camera follows a particular subject as it moves within the environment

Up Shot: shot by placing your camera down low and pointing it upward

Wide Shots: camera shot staged by placing the camera far away from your characters to give a broad perspective and understanding of a new location; also called “establishing shots”

Zoom: dynamic shot where you push into or pull back from the action within a frame