263 techniques

Film techniquesFrom the page to the shot

263 techniques of camera, light, lenses and editing, seen from the writer's desk. Each page shows a short clip, explains what the technique does to a scene, how to suggest it on the page, and how to hand it to your crew in a shot list and a storyboard.

Start with these three

Dolly zoom

A dolly zoom moves the camera toward or away from a subject while the zoom travels the opposite way, so the subject holds its size and the background stretches or collapses. The audience feels the ground give way at the exact moment a character does.

Match cut

A match cut joins two shots that share a shape, a movement or a sound, so the eye carries straight across the edit into a new time or place. The audience feels a connection between the two images before they can explain it.

Rack focus

A rack focus shifts the plane of sharp focus from one subject to another during a shot, so one blurs as the other becomes clear. The audience's attention follows the sharpness, and the change works like a cut that happens inside the frame.

Camera movement

A moving camera changes what the audience knows and when. It can reveal, follow, press in on a secret or pull away from a loss. The same scene reads as calm, urgent or unstable depending on how the frame travels.

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Shot sizes

Shot size is distance, and distance is emotion. A wide shot puts a character inside a world, a close-up puts the audience inside the character. Cutting between sizes is how a scene breathes.

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Camera angles

An angle is a point of view with an opinion. Looking up at a character grants them weight, looking down takes it away, tilting the horizon says something is off. The audience feels it before they notice it.

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Eye level shot

High angle shot

Low angle shot

Bird's-eye view

Worm's-eye view

Overhead top-down shot

Ground level shot

Dutch angle

Point of view shot

Profile shot

Three-quarter angle

Reverse angle shot

Trunk shot

Hip level shot

Shoulder level shot

Breaking the fourth wall

Object POV shot

Lighting

Light tells the audience how to feel before anyone speaks. Hard light and deep shadow bring tension, soft light brings intimacy, a single practical lamp brings loneliness. Most of a film's mood is decided here.

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Composition

Composition is the grammar of a single frame: who is big, who is small, who is centered, who is pushed to the edge. It tells the audience where to look and what the relationship between people and places is.

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Lenses and optics

Focal length decides how space feels. Wide lenses stretch distance and pull the audience close to the action, long lenses compress depth and turn the audience into a watcher. The same actor reads differently through each.

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14mm ultra-wide lens

24mm wide lens

35mm lens

50mm lens

85mm portrait lens

135mm telephoto lens

200mm long telephoto

Anamorphic lens

Fisheye lens

Tilt-shift lens

Macro lens

Probe lens

Split diopter

Vintage cine lens

Telephoto compression

Color and film look

Color is the tone of a film made visible. A warm amber past, a cold blue present, a desaturated war: audiences read these signals instantly. Consistent color also holds a story together across locations.

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Teal and orange

Bleach bypass

Black and white

Sepia

Desaturated look

Hyper-saturated look

Cool blue grade

Warm amber grade

Faded film look

Cross processing

Day for night

Tungsten balance

Moonlight gel

Split toning

Overexposed look

Time and motion

Film time is elastic. Slow motion lets a moment last, a time-lapse crushes a day into seconds, a freeze frame stops the story on a single image. These techniques tell the audience what deserves their attention.

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Slow motion

Fast motion

Speed ramp

Freeze frame

Time-lapse

Step printing

Reverse motion

Bullet time

Long take

Motion blur

Stutter motion

Boomerang

Seamless loop

Stop motion

Optical effects

Optical effects happen in the glass or on the sensor: focus that shifts, light that flares, two images laid on top of each other, a scale that lies. Used well, they turn a technical accident into meaning.

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Editing and transitions

Editing is where a film finds its rhythm. A cut can link two ideas, jump through time, shock, or let two stories race each other. The space between shots is as expressive as the shots themselves.

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Match cut

Graphic match

Match on action

Jump cut

Smash cut

Dissolve

Fade in and fade out

Wipe

Iris transition

Cross-cutting

Split screen

Montage sequence

Axial cut

Invisible cut

J-cut and L-cut

Flash cut

Atmosphere and weather

Weather and atmosphere give a scene texture. Rain makes a farewell heavier, fog hides what is coming, haze lets light draw shapes in the air. They also make images feel real, because air on camera is rarely empty.

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Rain

Fog

Atmospheric haze

Smoke

Dust motes

Steam

Snow

Wet-down

Sparks and embers

Sandstorm

Underwater

Genre looks

A genre look is a bundle of choices that audiences recognize at once: the shadows of noir, the saturated colors of giallo, the dusty close-ups of the spaghetti western. Borrowing one sets expectations in a single image.

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