1. Year 12 Media Studies
Camera angles, movement and composition

2. L.O.
• To know the different camera angles used in TV
drama and how movement affects shots
• To know what composition and the rule of thirds
means
• To be able to storyboard using shot sizes and
angles
• To be able to analyse a TV drama and identify
camera shot sizes, angles and movement

3. The International
• Look at the camera angles and shot sizes
and think about why they were used.

4. Camera angles
• Low angle - connotes superiority
• High angle - connotes inferiority
• Tilt - camera tilts up or down
• Pan - when the camera swivels from left to
righ to right to left. Pans usually slow and
steady
• A whip pan is a very quick pan

5. Camera terminology
• Track - when the camera physically moves
across the floor. A camera could be on
wheels on a track - called a “tracking shot”
• Camera can have wheels bolted onto the
bottom of the tripod for the same effect
• Much more often ‘steadicam’ is used, where
the camera is fixed to the body of a camera
operator with belts, for even smoother
action.

6. Tasks
• 1. Storyboard story as listed on sheet
• 2. Watch Life on Mars and fill out table
•

7. Composition
• Rule of thirds:
• createvideonotebook.blogspot.com
• Depth of field - is the portion of the shot or scene that
appears acceptably sharp in the image. Its determined
by how far the camera is to the subject, the lens focal
length, f numbers and other factors. You can change
the depth of field so that even though a lens can only
focus on one area, a large or small area can be sharp.
•

8. Focus
• The more shallow a depth of field, the more narrow an
area will be sharp.
• Deep an shallow focus - a large DOF is often called deep
focus and a small DOF is often called shallow focus

9. Focus pulls
• Used in TV drama when the camera ‘pulls’
from one point on focus eg a gnome in the
foreground, to another point of focus, eg. a
gnome in the background.
• Creates a dramatic shot, movement and
action, all within one smooth shot
• Also concentrates the viewers attention.