CAMERA DIRECTIONS
HOW WE SEE WHAT’S ON THE SCREEN.
The best advice I can give any new screenwriter is to keep the use of camera directions to a bare
minimum if at all. It’s the director’s job to decide where the camera will go and what type of shots
will best bring a scene to life. Of course, as the screenwriter, you should have a good sense of what
the audience sees on the big (and small) screen. But it’s best to concentrate on what’s taking place on
the screen not how it’s taking place. So, the best camera angle technique available to a screenwriter
is built right on your computer keyboard. You don’t even have to type this camera angle. It’s called
the enter or return key. Look at it this way: each new action-description is basically a camera shot.
Every time the camera angle changes in the scene, you use a new paragraph to describe what we see.
It’s best to write your action-descriptions as tightly as possible, striving to keep each between one to
three sentences in length. This technique is not always practical, and there will be occasions when
you need to write longer descriptions. But when used, this simple rule makes the screenplay, overall,
much easier to read.
SAMPLE CAMERA TERMINOLOGY
WRITERS WRITE, DIRECTORS DIRECT.
There will be times when you want to use a specific camera angle because it’s important to the
story or it’s important to emphasize something to the audience. When you do use them, camera angles
are always written in ALL CAPS.
But these terms usually have a technical quality to them that tends to take away from the
tone of your writing, so use them sparingly if at all. Instead, replace most with words that are
reader-friendly.
Technical Terms Reader – Friendly Terms
Extreme Long Shot In the Far Distance
Long Shot In the Near Distance
Wide Shot Full On
Medium Shot Feature
Close Up On or Off
Extreme Close Up Tight On
Two Shot Angle On
Three Shot Angle On
Low Angle Looking Up
High Angle Looking Down
Tracking Moving With
These terms should cover most of the shots you’ll ever want to emphasize in a screenplay. You may
even want to invent a few reader-friendly terms of your own.
