Size - how much of the subject is in the frame
Extreme wide (EWS / XWS): the subject is a small element in a vast landscape. Used to establish geography and scale.
Wide shot (WS / LS): subject fills the frame head-to-toe with environment around them. The environment is half the story.
Medium wide (MWS): sometimes called a cowboy shot. Roughly mid-thigh up. Useful for two-shots with breathing room.
Medium (MS): waist up. The workhorse shot for dialogue. Most TV is medium shots cut against medium shots.
Medium close-up (MCU): chest up. The first shot where the face becomes the dominant element.
Close-up (CU): shoulders up, with the face filling most of the frame. The shot where performance lives.
Extreme close-up (ECU): a single feature - eyes, mouth, hands. Used sparingly because it's lossy of context.
Angle - where the camera is
Eye level: subject's eye height. Neutral. The default.
High angle: above the subject, looking down. Diminishes the subject. Vulnerability, surveillance, geometric composition.
Low angle: below, looking up. Empowers the subject. Heroes get low angles. Villains do too when the audience should feel small.
Bird's-eye / overhead: straight down. Choreography, geographic establishment, abstract composition.
Dutch / canted: rolled so the horizon is tilted. Psychological unease, instability, tilted moral compass. The Third Man taught this shot to a generation.
Composition - what's in the frame
Over-the-shoulder (OTS): framed from behind one character's shoulder, looking at another. The standard coverage shot for dialogue. Establishes geography.
Point-of-view (POV): a character's literal sightline. Moments of subjective experience.
Two-shot: both subjects together. The opposite of an OTS - both visible as a pair.
Single: one person, isolated. Distinct from a close-up: a single can be at any size, as long as the framing isolates the subject.
Insert: a close-up of a specific object or detail. The classic example: the hand turning the key, cut against dialogue.
Establishing shot: a wide that locates the audience at the start of a scene.
Movement - what the camera does
Pan: rotates left/right on its vertical axis. Follows horizontal action or reveals off-screen.
Tilt: rotates up/down on its horizontal axis. Reveals vertical scale or action.
Dolly: physically moves toward/away from the subject on a track. Dolly in compresses emotionally. Dolly out expands.
Truck / crab: moves laterally, parallel to the subject. Follows horizontal action at the same distance.
Pedestal: moves vertically on a pedestal or jib. The camera rises/falls bodily.
Crane / boom: long arm, often combining moves. Spectacular when done well.
Steadicam / handheld: operator-mounted. Steadicam reads cinematic and smooth; handheld reads documentary and immediate.
Gimbal / drone: modern motorised rigs. Default now for what used to require a crane.
Push-in / pull-out: slow gradual dollies the audience barely notices.
Rack focus: camera static; lens focus shifts attention foreground-to-background or vice versa.
Whip pan: fast enough to blur. Usually a transition.
Lens choice - the invisible fifth dimension
Wide (14–35mm): large field of view, deep depth of field, distorted perspective when close. Landscapes, action.
Standard (40–60mm): closest to the human eye. The neutral choice for dialogue.
Short telephoto (75–135mm): flattering for faces because it compresses features. Portrait range.
Long telephoto (150mm+): compresses depth dramatically. Surveillance shots, sports, abstract compositions.
Macro: extreme close focus on objects.
Putting it together - a working shotlist row
Scene 14, Shot 14B. MCU, OTS over Maya's left shoulder onto Sam. 35mm. Slow dolly in over the dialogue. Rack focus to Maya at the end.
Every word does work. Camera department knows exactly what to set up, lens department knows which glass, dolly grip knows which track to lay, focus puller knows what to ride, script supervisor knows what to log.
What this looks like inside StoryboardCanvas
The /shotlist route uses this vocabulary as structured fields so every row is machine-readable, exportable, and linkable forward into the storyboard editor and the schedule. The Shot Design Guide at /shot-design-guide walks the visual vocabulary with reference frames.
When you build a shotlist row, the AI Artist surface reads those structured fields directly and uses them to compose the frame. Specify MCU OTS 35mm and the generation knows the framing before you've typed a word of prompt.