How to Use Shot Choices to Create a Cinematic Look in Video
To make a scene look more cinematic, you need to use extremes of lens choice when shooting video. This lesson shows how cutting from an extreme close-up with a long lens to a wide lens of the same moment will create the cinematic sensation.
You’ll discover the industry-standard way of shooting from wide to close, and then move on to more creative ways of shooting. By reversing this, you start scenes with long lenses, then go wide. There’s also a trick for shoot a close-up and a wide shot all in the same take.
To demonstrate how important lens choice is, one scene is shot in three ways. First, it’s shot with a single lens and no cuts or moves. Secondly, the same scene is shot with a single lens and cuts to different camera positions. Finally, for the full cinematic effect, different moves , camera positions and lens choices are cut together to show how drama and story are brought out by visual contrast.
This tutorial builds on some of the previous tutorials in this series:


Visual Expression: The 8 Basic Ways to Frame Shots in Your Videos

Shruti Shekar27 Sep 2015

How to Make Cinematic Shots With a Telephoto Lens

Christopher Kenworthy11 Oct 2016

How to Make Cinematic Shots With a Wide-Angle Lens

Christopher Kenworthy02 Nov 2016

How to Make Cinematic Shots with a Medium Lens

Christopher Kenworthy11 Jan 2017



