The manner in which the cameraperson moves his/her camera plays a very important role in giving the entire scene the requisite effect. The basic two ways in which a camera moves is:
The camera's head alone moves above its stationary pedestal/tripod.
The camera moves along with its pedestal/tripod.
Operating a camera movement needs three basic steps to compose: the start frame, the camera movement, end the end frame. There are many ways to move a camera: in fluid long takes, rapid and confusing motions, etc. that establish the rhythm and point of view of a scene.
Pan
A pan is a horizontal camera movement in which the camera moves left and right about a central axis. The Pan movement should have a definite direction. It should have a start and end point. The camera swivels (in the same base position) to follow a moving subject. A space is left in front of the subject: the pan 'leads' rather than 'trails'. A pan usually begins and ends with a few seconds of still picture to give greater impact. The speed of a pan across a subject creates a particular mood as well as establishing the viewer's relationship with the subject. 'Hosepiping' is continually panning across from one person to another; it looks clumsy.
A pan directly and immediately connects two places or characters, thus making us aware of their proximity. The speed at which a pan occurs can be expoited for different dramatic purposes.
Tilt
A tilt is a vertical camera movement in which the camera points up or down from a stationary location. For example, if you mount a camera on your shoulder and nod it up and down, you are tilting the camera. This movement is not used as much as panning due to human nature. We tend to look left and right more than we do up and down. It produces a mobile framing that scans the space vertically. Its function is similar to that of pans and tracking shots, but on a vertical axis. A tilt usually also implies a change in the angle of framing. Lastly, a tilt is also a means of gradually uncovering offscreen space. This can be exploited for suspense, since a sense of anticipation grows in the viewer as the camera movement forces her/his attention in a precise direction, yet never knowing when it will stop, nor what will be found there.
Pedestal
A pedestal shot means moving the camera vertically with respect to the subject. The term comes from the type of camera support known as a pedestal. Pedestals are used in studio settings and provide a great deal of flexibility as well as very smooth movement. Unlike standard tripods, pedestals have the ability to move the camera in any direction (left, right, up, down). Note that a pedestal move is different to a camera tilt; it means the camera is in the same position but tilts the angle of view up and down. In a ped movement, the whole camera is moving, not just the angle of view. In reality, like most camera moves, the pedestal move is often a combination of moves. For example, pedding while simultaneously panning and/or tilting.
Dolly
A dolly is a cart which travels along tracks. The camera is mounted on the dolly and records the shot as it moves. Dolly shots have a number of applications and can provide very dramatic footage. Dollies are operated by a dolly grip. In the world of big-budget movie making, good dolly grips command a lot of respect and earning power. The venerable dolly faced serious competition when the Steadicam was invented. Most shots previously only possible with a dolly could now be done with the more versatile Steadicam. However dollies are still preferred for many shots, especially those that require a high degree of precision. The use of the camera operator's body as a camera support, either holding it by hand or using a gyroscopic stabilizer and a harness. Newsreel and wartime camera operators favored smaller cameras that were quickly adopted by documentarist and avant-garde filmmakers, notably the cinéma verité movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Whereas hand held cameras give a film an unstable, jerky feel, they also allows for a greater degree of movement and flexibility than bulkier standard cameras --at a fraction of the cost. Gyroscopically stabilized "steadicams" were invented in the 1970s and made it possible to create smooth "tracking" shots without cumbersome equipment. More recently, they are extensively used in music videos and in the films of the Dogme movement, such as Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark.
Tracking and trucking
This is the lateral movement of the camera on its pedestal. Trucking is basically the same as tracking or dollying. Although it means slightly different things to different people, it generally refers to side-to-side camera movement with respect to the action. The term tracking shot is widely considered to be synonymous with dolly shot; that is, a shot in which the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks. However there are a few variations of both definitions. Tracking is often more narrowly defined as movement parallel to the action, or at least at a constant distance (e.g. the camera which travels alongside the race track in track and field events). Dollying is often defined as moving closer to or further away from the action.
A tracking shot usually follows a character or object as it moves along the screen. Contrary to the pan, which mimicks a turning head, a tracking shot physically accompaniesthe entire range of movement. It therefore creates a closer affinity with the character or object moving, since the spectator is not just watching him/her moving, but moving with him/her. A standard tracking shot, as it was devised in the Classical Studio filmmaking, consisted in placing the camera on a wheeled support called a dolly, and moving it along rails or tracks to ensure the smoothness of movement associated with the continuity editing style. As cameras became lighter and steadier, tracking shots became more flexible and creative: bycicles, wheelchairs, roller skates, and many ingenious wheeled artifacts augmented the range of movement of tracking shots.
Crabbing and Arc
The term crabbing shot is a less-common version of tracking, trucking and/or dollying. These terms are more or less interchangeable, although dollying tends to mean in-and-out movement whereas the others tend to mean side-to-side movement at a constant distance from the action.
A combination of dolly and truck, the ARC is a semicircular movement or to reveal a view from behind the principle subject.
Crane
A crane is the movement of the camera at the top the long arm of a crane. Sometimes the command Boom up and Boom down is used. A horizontal movement of the crane arm is called Tonguing. A shot with a change in framing rendered by having the camera above the ground and moving through the air in any direction. It is accomplished by placing the camera on a crane (basically, a large cantilevered arm) or similar device. Crane shots are often long or extreme long shots: they lend the camera a sense of mobility and often give the viewer a feeling of omniscience over the characters.
ZOOM SHOT. from the movie The Stendhal Syndrome, 1996. Which shot is the beginning and which is the ending? What is the point? How the woman "helps" the zoom?
Another example from the same movie; the painting is Caravaggio's Head of Medusa, 1590-1600. What is the function of the zoom here? What feelings it causes?
This is a following shot from the movie Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999). The camera pans slightly to accompany a couple into the ballroom floor. A following shot combines a camera movement, with the specific function of directing our attention to a character or object as he/she/it moves inside the frame. What kind of camera movement we've seen? How the frame changed?
This is a clip from The Player (Altman, 1992). Which camera movement is used and why? What kind of shots are good for this movement and why? What kind of feeling it gives to the viewer?
This is a clip made by a handheld camera. Today's steadicams allow for a fairly stable image, but in the art of film, the instabile, squeezing image is used, in horror movies, or in the Dogme style cinema and other radical filmmaking movements attempt to create a new cinematic look as further away as possible from mainstream Hollywood, like in this movie, the Dancer in the Dark from Lars von Trier. Which other elements does the clip use? What kind of effects and feelings it makes?
What kind of camera movement can be seen in this short clip from Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000? In the clip above, the defense lawyer has just finished a long, clever speech, yet the judge has no second thoughts on his verdict, nor any pity for the (presumably guilty) accused and their rich legal cohorts. The speed at which a camera movement occurs can be expoited for different dramatic purposes. How fast is it here? What should it mean?
A clip from Besieged (L'Assedio, Italy, 1998) by Bernardo Bertolucci. What kind of camera movement is this? How the camera angle is changing and why? How theclip reveals the social (and even racial) distance between an African housemaid and her wealthy English employer?
In this clip from Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Salles, Brazil, 1998), one ininterrupted movement is rendered with two different movements, linked with A cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted, called match on action. Which one is this? What is the difference between the two movements?