6 TRIPOD Shots that make EVERYTHING CINEMATIC!

What creates a cinematic shot? Crazy one-shot sequences, steady and smooth tracking shots, or shaky handheld shots and quick cuts? None of these are bad answers, and I don't think that there is necessarily a wrong answer. But with all the filmmaking gadgets at our fingertips, like gimbals, steady cams, easy rigs, cranes, and dollies, you might think that you absolutely must make the camera move. Now, what if I told you that sometimes the magic of a great shot actually lies in keeping things stationary? Today, we're taking a look at the art of tripod shots, specifically six tripod shots that prove that you don't always need elaborate camera movements to make something cinematic. Let's begin with a stationary shot that has no camera movement at all, the static shot. A static shot is great for dialogue. It can put focus on an actor's performance, and a static shot can also be used to emphasize the emotions of a current situation or a character, like in this shot from Dunkirk. As the dropping bombs get closer, the camera never moves, representing the character's feeling of being stuck. A wide static shot can be more observational, as if the viewer is monitoring the scene from a distance. I also used quite a few static shots in my recent short film. By simply not moving the camera and holding a shot for a relatively long time, I tried to build tension and make the viewer feel uneasy. The character is having a hard time, and I wanted the viewer to feel that. To shoot a static shot, you simply lock the camera to a tripod in a fixed position. But because the audience will be looking at this shot for a longer period of time, composition becomes all the more important, and a few compositional options for static shots are putting your character in the third of the frame, using a foreground element or shooting over the shoulder, and a personal favorite of mine, a frame within a frame. As the name suggests, this technique uses visual elements in a scene to border or frame a subject. Having an additional frame can direct focus and attention to the subject, but it can also create a deeper meaning in a shot. A character presented in a frame can reflect their isolation, loneliness, or confinement. This is another method I applied in my short film to try and represent the current situation of the character, trapped and alone with his delusional thoughts. Another stationary shot that doesn't necessarily require any camera movement at all is a top-down or overhead shot. Besides creating a unique perspective for the viewer, these shots can also be used to show the character in their environment and give the audience more information about the location. A lot of filmmakers also use top-down shots to represent who has power in a shot. The character higher up has more power than the character further down. They also function as opportunities for the audience to see what the character sees through their eyes. An absolute master of creating beautiful top-down shots like this is director Wes Anderson, where not only the unique angle, but also the immaculate compositions make for some incredibly pleasing shots. For a top-down shot, the camera is placed directly above the subject or scene. You might need to get your tripod up quite high in order to get the frame you're after. The camera is set somewhere around a 90-degree angle above the scene. The closer to a 90-degree angle you get, the more symmetrical the shot will look. And some top-down shots might require you and your talent to get in an awkward position to make things work, but the result can be an interesting perspective as the viewer is transported to the character's point of view. And we're gonna dive into a few more stationary shots that can support the story or scene right after this quick sponsor break from Ugreen. No matter if you're into filmmaking or photography, the end result of what you're doing is data. And for some of us, this data is our bread and butter, whether it be YouTube or client projects. It is in direct relationship to money that ends up on your bank account. That is where Ugreen's NAS storage solutions come in, and more specifically, their 4-Bay SSD NAS. With a NAS or a network-attached storage, all your data is in one easy-to-access location. So no more scouring between a bunch of external drives to find a certain file or project, and more importantly, having a safe backup system for all your projects. The Ugreen DXP-480T Plus has all the things you want from a NAS, like a powerful 10-core Intel CPU, DDR5 memory, a max storage capacity of up to 16 terabytes, 10-gig network ports to access your files at very high speeds, and Thunderbolt 4 ports to transfer files from, let's say, an SSD drive when you're backing up files after finishing a project. The single-port transmission rate can reach up to 40 gigabits per second. Besides that, Ugreen's all-inclusive app has things like this smart recognition function that allows you to search photos with keywords instead of scrolling through endless photos. You can find the right Ugreen NAS for your needs with the link in the video description, plus you can get up to 35% off before May 9th. And now, back to the video. The next shot we're going to take a look at is similar to the top-down shot in that the camera is looking down, but this time, not at a 90-degree angle. This is called the high-angle shot. It's used for showing things in a scene that would be difficult to see from any other angle. It can show off the scale or give context to a scene. A high-angle shot can also be used to show a character's weakness. It will quite literally make the character smaller and appear more vulnerable. Often combined with a low-angle shot, it's great to show the balance of power between different subjects. To shoot a high-angle shot, you might see filmmakers use something like a crane. However, a sturdy tripod with good height will get you nice-looking high-angle shots as well. For this shot in my short film, I placed the camera in the corner of the room, giving the viewer a complete look into the apartment of the character. It shows that he is alone in his messy apartment and not actually at a party with other people like he imagines in the close-up shots. The following shots are all stationary with the camera on a tripod, but now we'll be introducing some slight movements. The first one being the pan. A panning shot rotates the camera horizontally either to the left or the right while remaining in a fixed position. You can use this shot to follow a character's action or the direction they're walking in, but it can also be used to make sure the character doesn't leave the shot or break frame. They can also be used to reveal information. A slow pan builds anticipation or tension because the audience knows something is coming, but they can't just yet see what that something is. A fast pan or a whip pan can generate energy within a scene or even be used as a form of communication between two characters like in this incredible scene from La La Land. Pan shots are relatively easy to pull off, but having a tripod with a proper fluid head makes things a lot more consistent and smooth. It will also allow you to lock off any vertical motion. Besides the speed of the pan, another important thing to consider when setting up a pan shot is what your beginning and end frames should look like. In this shot, I went for a relatively slow pan because it fits the overall pace of the film, but also because the audience doesn't know what's coming. The tilt shot moves the camera upward or downward, and like the pan shot, it remains in a fixed position, usually locked onto a tripod. The tilt shot can be used to reveal something in a scene like a character, an object, a setting, or the scale of something. Tilting can also be used to visually display the power structure between two characters. Tilting up or down can indicate that one character is superior to the other. And much like the pan shot, tilting can also be used to make sure the character doesn't break frame. The speed of the tilt movement can also have different effects and is used for different reasons. A slow tilt can, for example, be used to reveal a character in a dramatic way. And although not so common, a fast tilt can be used to follow the character's reaction or surprise as they look at something. For smooth tilt movements, it's vital to have a good fluid head tripod and a steady hand. Besides that, and especially when shooting on a manual focus lens, you might have to pull focus between your start and end frame. In that case, a good focus pull system is crucial to nailing your shot. For this specific shot, I'm actually combining a tilt and a pan. And looking back, there is one thing I wish I would have improved, and it's probably one of the hardest things to pull off with this type of tilt or pan. It's the timing between the camera and the actor. An expert at this is director David Fincher. He has the camera perfectly matched to speed and the direction of the character in the frame. This takes a lot of rehearsing with the actor, a lot of patience, and a very skilled camera operator. But the result is that you are hooked onto the actions of the character. And these types of character-driven camera movements bring me to the last shot I want to show you, which admittedly walks a fine line between a stationary shot and a moving shot, but since it is shot on a tripod, I decided it would still fit this lineup. One way of framing a character laying on a bed is horizontally, but it's also possible vertically, as Mr. Fincher shows here. And that is exactly what I did in this shot. Then I had the camera follow the character as he moves to a sitting position, trying to match his movement as closely as possible. And yes, you could shoot this handheld, but I doubt that you would be able to get such consistent framing. So a tripod and a slightly awkward starting position is how we kicked things off. For a steady motion, we need the two legs to be stable on the ground and stop them from sliding off. So we placed a sandbag as a stopper. After a few tries, it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to pull off this shot by myself, because the actor is not at exactly the same distance away from the camera between the two different positions, we had to pull focus during the movement. I needed my two hands to make a steady camera movement. So Friede was going to operate the focus pool. Definitely not ideal and far from Hollywood professional. But after a few tries, we finally managed to get the shot as I imagined it. I want to end this video with a quote from David Fincher that I find very fitting. They know you can do anything. So the question is, what don't you do? Not what do you do? This can be interpreted in many different ways, but on your next project, think about why, if, and how you'll move the camera for each shot. Does it serve the story? Does it direct the focus of the viewer to where you want it? All right, that's it for this one. I hope you enjoyed the video. Thanks a lot for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.