Camera Movements

 What is the effect the movements have on the viewer?

Moving a camera helps emphasize emotions in a scene. When the camera moves, it needs to move in relationship to someone or something to create the emotion that supports the story.

Crane Down: A crane shot moving down moves you into the story or scene. There is a feeling of falling into the character's world or being dropped into the scene. 

Crane Up: When the camera moves from a shot of an actor into a wide vista shot on a crane, it gives us a feeling of how small the character is or how large the obstacle that he or she is on.

Crane High to Low Angle: When the camera moves from a very high shot to a very low shot, this makes the character look strong and imposing, creating a lot of fear. It gives us a sense of authority.  

Handheld Camera: Handheld camera movement can create a feeling of uneasiness or danger. It needs to be a bit shaky and unsettling, making us feel strange.

Quick Pan: A quick pan can change the emotional direction of the scene almost at once. We reveal something dangerous or something that the character is going to overcome, and it sends the audience in a totally different emotional direction.

Quick Push In: A quick push in creates a feeling or surprise or shock.

Slow Dolly In: A slow dolly in can create a tension and helps us become a little more intimate with the character.

Slow Dolly Out: Slowly dollying away from a character can leave them emotionally lost and abandoned. It can create an emotion of empathy.  

Dolly Across: A dolly across reveals action or change of the emotional direction of a scene.

 Glidecam Camera: A smooth glide ca, shot between two men holding guns creates more of a ballet dance feeling. It feels epic or dreamlike, creating an emotion much different than if you go after something with more of an edgy kind of handheld camera.

Glidecam 360 Reveal: This gives you a very interesting kind of calm before the storm feeling, like something is about to happen.

Zolly: A zoom with a dolly at the same time. The background gets larger or smaller, but the person remains the same size. A zolly creates an overwhelming emotional feeling.