Camera Movement Basics

  • Pan 
  • Tilt
  • Zoom
  • Pedestal shot
  • Crane
  • Steadicam
  • Handheld
  • Rack focus


In this scene from The Lady Vanishes, the camera moves along a path, initially showing the mountains before showing the train station and the rest of the town. The camera movement in this scene is a dolly shot, which helps establish the town in which the beginning of the film takes place, as well as the location of the hotel within the town in the next scene.

0:48 - 0:56


In this scene from Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, the tree falls down on the character Olekso. The film utilizes a crane shot to show the tree initially crashing towards the film's protagonist, Ivan, before his elder brother pushes him out of the way, which ends up costing him his life. I really liked how the shot was from the perspective of the tree, and how everything happened in only a few seconds.


In this scene in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as the character Tuco searches the cemetery, the camera is almost always moving. At the beginning of the scene, the camera tilts up to show the size of the cemetery. As he runs, the camera pans to follow him, progressively getting faster. As he searches the graves, the camera zooms in and out on him. The camera movement in this scene helped show Tuco's frantic search as he weaves in and out through the graves.


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