Nature Calls Backpacking

#12 Shot Styles in Video feat. Inspireason-Making Videos for Outdoor Adventure

Chris, at Inspireason, https://www.youtube.com/user/inspireAson , walks us through some great techniques on some different shot styles that will surely make our videos more fun and interesting to watch.

Shot Types

There is a convention in the video, film and television industries which assigns names and guidelines to common types of shots, framing and picture composition.

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)
The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.

VWS (Very Wide Shot)
The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasis is still on placing him in his environment.

WS (Wide Shot)
The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA: long shot, full shot.

Cowboy Shot
From the framing of cinema shots in Westerns, where the holster and gun needed to be in view along with the actor's face.  A shot framed to include a region from the actor's head to mid-thigh.

MS (Mid Shot)
Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

MCU (Medium Close Up)
Half way between a MS and a CU.

CU (Close Up)
A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.

ECU (Extreme Close Up)
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail.

Cut-In
Shows some (other) part of the subject in detail.