Everything About Establishing Shots in Movies

Understanding Establishing Shot

You cannot build a house without a good foundation, and just like that, you cannot tell a good visual story without a good establishing shot. As with any form of storytelling, you need to set the stage and let the audience know where and when the story is happening.

Usually a panning, long, and wide sequence, the establishing shot lets us know the location, time, and context of the unfolding story. It can be anything from a wide rural landscape to a single building, but we instantly know the next scene is happening nearby.

Let's learn the definition of establishing shots and how they are used in films.

Definition

An establishing shot is usually a long, wide shot that sets the stage for a scene in movies, series, and clips. The main objective is to provide context to the viewer by letting them know key information about the environment in which the scene is happening.

You will find an establishing shot at the beginning of almost every story beat, and it usually shows the location, time of day, and the overall atmosphere of the story that we are about to see.

Some people may feel confused between an establishing shot and a B-roll. Generally speaking, an Establishing Shot is a main shot that sets the scene, while B-roll is supplementary footage that adds detail or atmosphere to the main story.

The Most Notable Visual Characteristics of the Establishing Shot

Wide or Long Shots

Establishing shots are often captured from a distance, using wide or extreme wide angles. This allows creators to capture a broad, panoramic view of a city or landscape, ensuring that all important visual elements are visible.

Static or Slowly Moving Camera

The frame in the establishing shots is usually stable, sometimes with slight camera movements like dolly in/out or drone shots for immersion.

Minimal Character Presence

Establishing shots typically don't feature close-up action or dialogue. If characters appear, they're usually small in the frame, reinforcing the sense of space rather than focusing on individual emotion.

How Do Experts Use the Establishing Shot in the Real World?

The establishing shot provides spatial orientation, sets the mood, time, and context, and captures the user's attention. Apart from that, it helps maintain narrative continuity, so take a look at the three most common types, and you might find an idea for your project.

The 3 Most Common Types of Establishing Shots

City Aerial Shots

This is usually a wide shot showing a city landscape or a bustling urban area. Depending on the shot, you will know the mood and scale of the location where the story is happening.

Building Exterior

It can be an office building, a school, a family home, or any other type of building, but it should be only one so that the audience knows that the next scene will happen within it.

Natural Landscapes

Featuring a slow-panning wide-angle camera or zoomed shots, establishing shots featuring natural landscapes usually focus on the beauty of nature and help us feel at ease.

Top Three Genre-Specific Applications for the Establishing Shot

Drama Movies and Series

Dramas aim to make us feel complex emotions, which requires brilliant acting, a perfect script, but you also need to understand where all this is happening. That's why every good sequence in a drama starts with a beautiful shot that highlights the location. Director Frank Darabont provides a perfect example in his masterpiece, The Shawshank Redemption.

Action and Adventure Movies and Series

Action is all about pacing and keeping the action flowing and the adrenaline pumping, but to get there, you need to start somewhere, and where better than an establishing shot. An excellent example comes from the James Bond movie Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes, which features a wide angle and stunning camera movement.

Science Fiction Movies and Series

Explaining the location is a big part of the story in science fiction. These events usually happen in fictive lands or far-away galaxies, and audiences need an establishing shot before each story sequence to understand the location and how characters live their lives there. This helps you tell a more nuanced story. This sequence from Star Wars has several establishing shots cut together.

Combining the Establishing Shot with Other Creative Techniques

Here are a few video editing techniques you can seamlessly pair with establishing shots to improve them.

Pair the Establishing Shot with a Time Lapse

A time-lapse alone can be an establishing shot, but you can also use it before an establishing shot when switching between locations and progressing the story. The time lapse will inform the audience about the passage of time, and the establishing shot about the new location.

Example

After the first act of your story ends, introduce a time lapse that shows the day/night cycle many times. Then, introduce an establishing shot to guide your viewers into the next scene and begin the second act, keeping the story beat intact.

Enhance the Establishing Shot with Sound Design

Artistic videography implies combining visual and audio elements to make something great. Consider the tone of your establishing shot and pick a song or a sound effect (or even a combination of sound effects) to make the scene more memorable, authentic, and impactful.

Example

A shot of a scary house at night is accompanied by spooky music and distorted sounds. You can see and hear heavy rain, and the sound of distant lightning appears sporadically. Before we transition to the interior scene, we use the loudest lightning strike.

Introduce the Establishing Shot with a Crossfade Transition

Go with a slow crossfade transition after the intro credits. To begin your story, you can go with a black screen and crossfade (or fade in) to the establishing shot.

Example

A thriller film starts with a flickering screen and EDM music while you see the names of actors, the director, and all the other important crew that made the movie happen, and after that, the screen goes to black, and the establishing shot fades in.

A Few Artistic Considerations About the Establishing Shot

Avoiding some common rookie mistakes is the key to creating an establishing shot that will instantly lock your audience into the story.

Thematic Relevance

Some directors spend a lot of time editing the shots of the location, and when they transition to the interior, the mood, setting, and tone are completely different. This is a mistake, and you can avoid it by shooting the establishing shot later in the filmmaking process. Film your story, establish the theme and mood, and then record the establishing shot to match it.

Visual Consistency

If your story is long, it will have several establishing shots. Some artists try to experiment with different approaches, but consistency is usually the best way to go. If you pick a certain visual style for the first establishing shot in your story, then make sure to select something similar for all other location shots throughout your story, unless you are working on something experimental.

Explore Different Establishing Shots in a Video Editor

If you are looking for some establishing shots during your video editing, you can choose Filmora. It gives you access to a wide library of stock videos that you can use to complete your video. Download the Filmora desktop app on your Windows or Mac device, and then follow the easy three-step guide below.

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Explore different types of establishing shots in Filmora's Stock Media.

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Step 1

Click on New Project.

Step 2

Go to the Stock Media tab and type a keyword.

Step 3

Finally, drag the video to the timeline and use it to begin your project. You can then further edit your videos with numerous video editing features in Filmora.