Establishing shots are used through-out pretty much every single film out there. The main ‘role’ of an establishing shot is to introduce the setting and the location of the scene that is about to take place, whether it be a candle lit bustling restaurant on a summer’s evening or a moon lit graveyard just before a murder is going to happen.
A film lacking establishing shots, is a film lacking a story. Your camera angles can really tell the story without the use of sound or dialogue, or even actions. The establishing shot is your beginning, your opening, your introduction.
Use it to extend the knowledge of your audience, or use it to hide something secretive in your film. Below are three examples of how you can use establishing shots in your movies:
If the above was a shot in a movie, there are a number of things we can ‘establish’. The audience will know that the scene is going to take place in the middle of a busy part of Tokyo, or another large city in Japan
The audience can also understand that the scene will take place on the street or in one of the buildings that are in shot. The shot is also very effective because it has a large depth of field which gives the audience the impression that the location is vast and that the population is huge.
Although in this shot, the main focus is on the white flowers, it could still be an establishing shot as it introduces to the countryside location. From this shot, the audience can see it is a spring or summer day, with the long grasses slightly swaying in the breeze. An example shot that could follow this would be a couple of children running through the long grasses in another shot.
This shot does not introduce the audience to a location, but the setting and the weather. There is clearly a bolt of lightning and it is clearly night. Generally, if these two elements are put together, it will be introducing an evil or horrific event. This is a perfect example of how pathetic fallacy can be used visually. Think Frankenstein and you get the ‘picture’.
It is quite obvious that much care and thought must be taken when using establishing shots. They can help your audience out, if completed well, or can really make them lose the plot. One final hint, only introduce important scenes with establishing shots. If you do it for every scene, it becomes a bit too tedious and far too repetitive.
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