Camera Shots and Movements

Camera Angles

Music videos feature a number of shots for various reasons, which helps relate to the audience by expressing thoughts and feelings, but also show the viewer what’s happening. Certain shots that you would normally find in a music video include:

Very wide shot – this is where the artist is shown visible but the emphasis is still on placing the artist in the location/setting.

Wide shot – this shot shows the artist taking up most of the shot but the setting/location is still focused on

Mid shot – this shows the artist from his/her waist to head, and focuses mainly on the subject but still giving an impression of the location/setting.

Medium close-up – this shot is half way between a mid-shot and a close up, showing the artist from the chest upwards.

Close-up – this shows the artist face or can show an object that is rather on the artist or if they’re holding it, generally where the camera focuses on mostly.

Extreme close-up – this is when the shot is very close to the artists face, eyes or mouth to identify something it can have the effect of showing the audience the artists thoughts and feelings or even showing lip sync which is commonly used in music videos.

Over the shoulder shot – this is a good camera shot that is usually shown most on narrative based music videos, usually when the artist is acting and speaking to another person you tend to see an over the shoulder shot to display the conversation, or can be used to show what the character is looking at.

Cut in – this shot can be used is music videos to show something that the lyrics might be saying for example ‘I will shoot you with my gun’ and a gun comes in, it shows he object in detail, similar to an extreme close up, but used very quickly or an object that relates to the subject or narrative.

Camera Movements

The camera moves to follow the artist or to show the performance of the artist; the movements used are usually the panning and tracking. A director could choose to move an action along by telling the story as a series of cuts going from one to another, or may even decide to move the camera with the action. Examples of camera movements are:

Pans – where the camera will scan a scene horizontally; the camera is placed on a tripod which functions as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame making them the main eye catcher.

Tracking – this is where the camera is placed in a kart which will travel along tracks for a smooth movement, this would usually be used to follow the artist from the side.

By Megan Birch