Home Video Hints: Camera Moves

Unless you run a surveillance camera in a convenience store, you move your camcorder constantly. Most casual shooters hand-hold every shot, often walking around as they blaze away. To avoid the jerks and jiggles that often result, you can learn how to move your camcorder just like the pros.

Let's examine some good reasons for moving shots, some techniques for pulling them off and some tips for delivering results an editor can work with. But first, we'll do a quick rundown of the four basic types of camcorder moves.

Types of Camera Moves
The easiest moves are simply pivots, arcs of movement around a fixed center, like a tripod head. (Though technically not pivots, hand-held pans and tilts have the same visual effect.) Viewers usually don't notice pivot moves, which have a neutral, disengaged feeling, like that of a spectator following events from the sidelines. Horizontal pivots are called "pans;" up-and-down swings are "tilts." In a slightly more complex move, the camcorder may actually change position as well as angle…

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Jim Stinson | October 2002

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Home Video Hints: Camera Moves

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