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How to Use Shot Choices to Create a Cinematic Look in Video

To get the cinematic look when shooting video, use these tools to create the strongest visual contrast.
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8 min read
This post is part of a series called Video Jumpstart Guide.
Sight Lines and Framing for Dynamic Video Composition
This post is part of a series called Cinematic Shot Choices.
Visual Expression: The 8 Basic Ways to Frame Shots in Your Videos
How to Make Cinematic Shots With a Telephoto Lens

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: