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Film & Television vocabulary · Shots and Camera Movements

Wide shot

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/ˈwaɪd ʃɒt/nounCore term

In film & television, wide shot means: A shot that shows a large area, with people appearing small or full-length inside their surroundings, so that the audience sees where they are.

In Turkish: genel plan, geniş plan

How it is used

Written WS in shot lists. Long shot (LS) means almost the same thing; extreme wide shot (EWS) shows a whole landscape or city. Directors usually start a scene wide and move in, and editors call it going wide or cutting to the wide.

Example sentences

  1. Start with a wide shot of the village, then cut to the two men at the café.

  2. We only have time for the wide shot, so the close-ups will be tomorrow.

Common collocations

  • extreme wide shot
  • start on a wide shot
  • cut to the wide shot
  • wide-angle lens
  • establishing shotA shot, usually wide, at the start of a scene that shows where and sometimes when the action takes place.
  • medium shotA shot that shows a person from about the waist up, close enough to see expressions but wide enough to show gestures and some background.
  • close-upA shot taken very near the subject, usually showing a person's face or a small object so that the audience can see emotion or detail.
  • shotOne continuous piece of film recorded from the moment the camera starts until it stops, or the piece of it that appears between two cuts.

More terms: Shots and Camera Movements

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