I guarantee you know more about cinematic shots than you think. You might not know their technical names, but you know a lot about how filmmakers use different shots for different effects from just watching movies.
10 TYPES OF SHOTS EVERY FILMMAKER SHOULD KNOW is a good primer that covers what you need to understand to create fantastic digital content with any camera—including your smart phone. Want to take a deeper dive? The National Film Institute covers 80+ SHOTS YOU MUST KNOW so that you can feed the monster filmmaker inside you trying to break free.
The nifty thing about camera shots is that it allows you, the storyteller and filmmaker, to tell us where to look and what is important. Getting fundamental film shots under your belt uplevels anything you shoot on your phone. If you have a pulse, you have already mastered the closeup, aka “selfie.” You have also mastered a 2-shot with every picture you have ever taken with your BFF. Extreme wide or establishing shot? Yup. That’s that awesome pic you took standing at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Learning about camera angles and shots is fundamental to the digital entrepreneurship that is now required to pursue any professional acting career, including musical theatre. First and foremost, you will be using your phone camera to do your self-tape auditions.
Most professional self-tape auditions require a “medium shot” from the waist up, and a “wide shot” for the slate so that the viewer can see their body head to toe as you state for the camera any important details such as height, agent, location, etc.
You might also use what is known as a COWBOY SHOT for audition songs or material that requires more substantial physical movement. A cowboy shot is a camera angle in filmmaking that frames its subject from the mid-thigh, just below hip level, to the top of their head. This shot derives its name from its use in Western films, where filmmakers kept both the actor's face and guns slung around their waist in the frame.
Everyone has an opinion about what equipment you need and what you can and cannot do in a self-tape. HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT SELF-TAPE is a solid starter guide. The industry standards and the equipment available to everyone as consumers is evolving at lightning speed, so the best advice I can offer for equipment recommendations is ask to around and research current information from industry professionals.
Navigating different types of audition material will dictate different strategies as well as different aesthetics for the genre/medium you are auditioning for. If you are preparing sides for a disturbing serial killer in a new HBO series, it will require a different approach than your setup and prep for a Broadway musical.
The thing to remember about auditioning in person and auditioning with self-tapes is that good acting is still good acting. The parameters are different and require some adaptation for things like volume, physical architecture, movement, eye line/focus and more, but good acting is still good acting.
At the end of the day, you will book the job because you are talented, you did your preparation, and are the best choice for the role. The technical stuff is important, but the work is the priority.
I know you know this. And I’m here to remind you.
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filmmaking 101, types of shots, camera shot, camera angles, over the shoulder, camera movement, closeup, establishing shot, wide shot, medium shot, cowboy shot, self-tapes, self-tape auditions, auditioning via zoom, smart phone filmmaking, how to slate
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