Getting the Shot

This post takes a look at some of the terms involved with "getting the shot," in particular, the Cover Shot, the Master Shot, and the ever-popular C.T.O. shooting. If you have never heard these camera shot terms before then this post is for you, the newcomer or novice. This post contains the explanation for all three of the shots listed about, but let me start with this. In film and video production the word "shot" refers to two distinct parts involved in the filmmaking process, technically "the shot" represents the moment the camera starts rolling film up to the moment it stops rolling film. In video or digital camera terms that would be from the time you push the record button (recording) to the time you push the stop button, in that time you will have captured your shot.

The Cover Shot

In basic terms is the amount of footage shot and the different camera angles used to shoot a scene. Imagine setting up the cover shot for the chase scene in the Steve McQueen motion picture Bullitt where your audience will be able to see several different angles of the same chase sequence, in many cases without even knowing they're looking at the same action from a different POV (Point Of View) thanks to great editing. More cover shots for a scene will mean that there is more usable footage for your film editor to smile about as she works to assemble the final cut. In the film industry when it comes to scene footage, "it is better to have and not need---than to need and not have," as my JR. High School homeroom teacher Mr. Johnson used to say, but where Mr. M.H. Johnson spoke about that rule in more general terms I'm applying his lesson learned to film and video production, and the very important cover shot.

A Master Shot

The filming/videotaping of an entire dramatized scene from the word Action!---To Cut! (start to finish) is what makes a master shot. The master shot is usually filmed from an angle where all of the players can be seen in the viewfinder. In some of my television work, this shot was also known as an "establishing shot" which is what the master shot can sometimes double as. A long shot that keeps all of the key players in view.

C.T.O.

The last item on the shots list above, the Color Temperature Orange, or C.T.O. which is really not a shot instead refers more to the lighting people amongst us, done right as a director you can create some pretty memorable scenes shooting C.T.O., a lighting process that has more to do with the corrective gels used in lighting to convert the color temperature from daylight to tungsten or take a scene from flat to warm in screen appearance. It's the combination of all the above and knowing how and when to use them that will make your productions great. The screen, large or small, is your canvas and all of the above can help you sweeten your film and digital-cam projects enough to create the right on screen mood and keep people glued to their seats when being entertained by one of the projects you worked on, that is my hope anyway.