The establishing shot introduces the location of the action. For example, if the story takes place in a bank, the first -- or establishing -- shot of the video production is a view of the bank. Establishing shots are framed using a variety of angles. A high angle requires the camera to be placed on a crane, giving the audience a bird's-eye view of the location. A low angle requires the camera to be placed on ground level and titled up. Building a trench and filming from within will give you an extreme low angle. An eye-level angle frames the location from the approximate view of an upright person. If the establishing shot is a POV, or point of view, shot, the camera level should match the eye level of the specific character who is viewing the location.
Characters can be framed differently from one shot to the next by using long shots, medium shots, close-up shots and extreme close-up shots. A long shot shows the character from head to toe, either standing alone or with others. A medium shot shows the character from the waist up. A close-up shot shows only the character's head, and perhaps some of his shoulders. An extreme close-up shows only the character's face -- or a portion of his face such as just his mouth or eyes. Within a single scene, one character can be framed using all -- or some -- of these shots to add tension.
You can pan your camera, moving it up and down or side to side, in a stationary position, or you can physically move with the camera on your shoulder. A tracking shot requires you to lay down camera tracks and place the camera on a camera dolly. Once the camera dolly is on the track -- which resembles a railroad track -- the DP, or director of photography, rides along with it. You can also use the camera to zoom in or out within a scene. Zooming in is ideal when you want to place importance on a person or object. Zooming out is used to start a scene. For example, you may start on a tight close-up and zoom out to reveal the players involved in the scene.
Using a pull focus -- also known as a rack focus -- adds depth to the scene you're filming. Pulled focus simply means focusing your camera on one person or object in the foreground, and then adjusting your camera lens so that the focus lands on an object or person in the background, behind your original subject. You can also do this in reverse, starting on the object or person in the background and then pulling so that focus lands on the object or person in the foreground. The term "pulling" simply means adjusting your lens to obtain a clear focus on what you're recording.