In part two of this series let’s start to go through each type of shot within a video project and what it does.
Establishment Shots
These let the viewer know where we are and what is happening in a general sense. It sets the scene. In our vacation example it could be an outside shot of the house at dawn to convey the time and location. It could be an inside shot within the house in semi-darkness with a subtitle showing “5:30 am.”
It can be anything general that conveys to the viewer where we are. It “establishes” the area of action, the place, the scene and is generally a long shot taken at a distance from the action or where the action will take place.
So in summary an establishment shot can be the first shots of the video that introduce where we are and indicate why we are there.
Establishments shots are also used to introduce a change of scene.
As an example think of a conversation outside a court room on a TV show. When the scene changes to inside the courtroom almost invariably the first shot will be a wide long shot of the whole court room scene which clearly lets the viewer know – we are now inside the court room.
Or, in a wedding video let’s say we have covered the bride and groom’s preparations prior to them going to the church for the ceremony separately. Our final shot was of the bride’s car driving off.
We now have to introduce the next chapter of the story so we cut to a long shot of the Church itself. That now establishes for the viewer exactly where we are and what will be happening next.
This also fulfills another function of the establishment shot when used for scene changes – Rhythm and Prediction
There is an idea within the overall concept of communication (remember that’s what you are trying to do!) of rhythm. Videos have rhythm just like music and writing have rhythm and the key to rhythm is prediction. This is the basic appeal of rhythm to humans, you are actually predicting the future!
Sounds strange right? Not so when you think about it. One of the important points of appeal that we find in music is the repetition of a constant and predictable rhythm. Each time the beat of the music arrives at the exact point in time when we predicted it would arrive we achieve a sense of satisfaction, a sort of comfort. Well that sensation comes from having correctly predicted something happening in the future at a defined point (the beat) and it happening exactly as we predicted.
Think of a popular song that has a break in the rhythm. This is the artist’s intentional act of breaking the rhythm momentarily to create something interesting then returning to the predictable rhythm quickly which, if not overdone, you REALLY find agreeable. Why? Because not only have you predicted the future correctly, but you have also done so through adversity! There is the comfort of the rhythm, then the momentary discomfort of the broken rhythm, then finally a return to the rhythm… and we humans love that!
So in the example of the wedding shots, the viewer predicts the next shot will most likely be the church because they just saw the bride drive off somewhere. The next shot is the establishment shot of the church so the viewer feels “right.” He will now even more willingly follow your story because trust has been built up by you allowing him to feel safe in his predictions.
The exact opposite of this can also be used to effect as well. The horror movie editor’s stock in trade in this exact device! The director and the editor conspire together to get you into a rhythm, get you comfortably predicting the story and events and above all making your predictions correct… you relax and “go with the flow.” The cuts from scene to scene and shot to shot are at a slow and even pace.
Suddenly and without warning they introduce fast, sharp cuts between shots, images that are completely contrary to what you have previously been seeing and loud screeching violins! The result is that you are shocked out of your comfy state because everything you were predicting has gone out the window.
For a look at a real master of that technique just check the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” Enough said.
So, back to establishment shots. They are generally wide or long shots that serves to inform your viewer of where we are and in the case of scene changes they allow you to inform your audience of where we are now as opposed to where we were.
In part three I will go into the use of a combination of long shots, medium shots and closeups to further tell your story.
