The main types of camera shots are defined by shot size: extreme wide, wide, full, medium wide, medium, medium close-up, close-up, and extreme close-up, plus inserts for objects and details. The second dimension is camera angle: eye level, high, low, overhead, Dutch, over-the-shoulder, and point of view. Size tells the viewer what to look at; angle tells them how to feel about it.
For a marketer, this is less film-school theory than a shared shorthand. "Get me a CU of the label, low angle" is a complete instruction a camera operator can act on in seconds. "Make the product look good" is not. This guide covers every standard shot size and angle, which ones marketing video actually uses, how framing changes for a phone screen, and how to write it all into a shot list.
What are the main camera shot sizes?
Shot size describes how much of the subject fills the frame, measured against a person: an extreme wide shows them as a speck in a landscape, a medium cuts at the waist, a close-up fills the frame with a face. The eight sizes below are standard across film, TV, and commercial production, so the abbreviations will mean the same thing to any crew you hire.
Same subject, same position, eight frames. Only the amount of the frame they fill changes.
| Shot size | What's in frame | What it does in a marketing video |
|---|---|---|
| Extreme wideEWS | The whole location. People are small or absent. | Establishing a place: the city, the venue, the scale of a factory floor. Opens brand films and event recaps. |
| WideWS / LS | The full subject with plenty of room around them. | Context. Who is here, where they are, how the product fits the space. The shot the edit cuts away from. |
| FullFS | Head to toe, filling the frame's height. | Anything where the whole body matters: apparel, fitness, a full-body demo, a walk-on. |
| Medium wideMWS | Roughly knees up. Also called a cowboy shot. | Walk-and-talks, presenters who gesture, two people interacting without a cut. |
| MediumMS | Waist up. | The workhorse. Talking to camera, demos where the hands and the face both matter. |
| Medium close-upMCU | Chest up. | Interviews, testimonials, founder-to-camera. Close enough to read emotion, wide enough to keep body language. |
| Close-upCU | A face, or a single object, filling the frame. | Reactions, emotion, the product hero shot. The size that carries a feeling. |
| Extreme close-upECU / XCU | One detail: eyes, a texture, a button, a stitch. | Craftsmanship and proof. The condensation on the can, the grain of the leather, the exact moment a finger taps. |
| Insert / cutawayINS | An object or action shown apart from the main subject. | Phone screens, hands typing, a step in a recipe. Also how editors hide a jump cut in an interview. |
Two framing setups sit alongside these sizes and come up constantly: the two-shot (two people in one frame, usually a medium) and the over-the-shoulder (framed from behind one subject toward another, or toward a screen). Both are covered under angles below.
The one size worth rationing is the close-up. It is the most powerful frame on the chart, which is exactly why it stops working when every shot is one. Cinematographer Roger Deakins puts it simply:
"I – and most importantly the directors I have worked with – generally subscribe to the view that when you shoot a close up you should really mean it." — Roger Deakins, cinematographer (1917, Blade Runner 2049), on his official forum
In a marketing video, meaning it is simple: the close-up lands on the thing the whole piece is about. The reaction, the product, the proof. Not whoever happens to be talking at the time.
Which shots does a marketing video actually need?
Most marketing videos need three sizes for every important moment: a wide to establish it, a medium to show the action, and a close-up to land the detail or the reaction. That trio, called coverage, is what lets an editor cut a scene together, trim it for a 15-second version, and reframe it for vertical without going back to set. Everything else on the chart is a specialist tool you reach for when the format calls for it.
The mix shifts by format. Here is where each common marketing video spends its shots:
| Video type | Core shots | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Testimonial or interview | MCU on the speaker, a looser MS from a second angle, inserts of their work | Two sizes let you cut between takes invisibly; inserts cover the edits. |
| Product demo | MS of the presenter, inserts and ECUs of every step | The viewer needs to see the exact button, not the person pressing it. |
| Social ad (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) | CU or MCU opening, ECU proof shot, CU product hero | Tight frames read on a phone; wide shots turn into wallpaper at that size. |
| Brand film | EWS and WS to set the world, ECUs for texture, CUs for emotion | The range between huge and tiny is what makes it feel cinematic. |
| Event recap | EWS of the crowd, MS of speakers, CU reactions | Scale first, then the people who make the scale mean something. |
If you remember one rule, make it this: never leave a key moment with only one size. A single wide of the product reveal is a shot you cannot fix in the edit. A wide, a medium, and a close-up of the same reveal is a scene. The shot list guide shows how one script line turns into exactly those three rows.
How do camera angles change what a shot means?
Camera angle changes how the viewer feels about the subject, not what they see. Eye level reads as neutral and honest, high angle makes the subject look smaller, low angle makes it look powerful, and overhead turns the frame into a flat, readable surface. Pick the angle for the feeling you want the moment to carry.
| Angle | Where the camera is | What it does in a marketing video |
|---|---|---|
| Eye level | Level with the subject's eyes. | Trust. The default for testimonials, founders, and anyone talking to camera. |
| High angle | Above the subject, looking down. | Overview, or making a problem look small and manageable. Flattering for people when it is only slightly high. |
| Low angle | Below the subject, looking up. | Aspiration and scale. The classic product hero angle: it makes a water bottle look like a monument. |
| Overhead / top-down | Directly above, pointing straight down. | Unboxings, recipes, flat lays, hands-on how-tos. Native to social feeds because every step reads clearly. |
| Dutch angle | Tilted so the horizon runs diagonally. | Unease or energy. Use it sparingly, as a single beat in a fast cut, never for a whole testimonial. |
| Over-the-shoulder | Behind one subject, looking past them. | Conversations, and screen demos: over a shoulder onto a laptop is how most software looks on camera. |
| Point of view | Where the subject's eyes would be. | Putting the viewer in the user's seat. The backbone of UGC-style and creator ads. |
Angle and size combine freely. A low-angle close-up of a sneaker and an overhead close-up of the same sneaker are both CUs, but one says "icon" and the other says "here is how the lacing works." When you brief a shot, name both.
Should you frame differently for vertical and mobile video?
Yes: frame tighter, and keep the subject near the center. On a phone, a wide shot shrinks to a few centimeters of screen and the detail you cared about disappears, so mobile-first video leans on medium and close shots. If you are shooting horizontal footage that will also be cropped to 9:16, a subject parked at the edge of a 16:9 frame will be cut out of the vertical version entirely.
Tighter does not mean jamming a face into every frame, though. A VidMob analysis of more than 1,400 TikTok ads found that when the talent's face filled less than 20% of the frame, click-through rate was 31% higher than when it filled more (VidMob, 2020). For most mobile marketing the sweet spot is the medium and the medium close-up: close enough to read on a small screen, loose enough to show what the person is actually doing.
Two practical habits follow. First, shoot your wides a little looser and your subject a little more centered than you would for a TV spot, so the vertical crop still lands on a medium. Second, keep text and faces out of the top and bottom of a vertical frame, where the app's buttons and captions sit. The aspect ratio guide covers the exact safe zones for each platform.
How do you write shot types into a shot list?
Give every shot list row one shot size and one angle, using the standard abbreviations: EWS, WS, FS, MWS, MS, MCU, CU, ECU, plus OTS for over-the-shoulder and POV for point of view. Add movement only if the camera moves; the camera movement cheat sheet has the vocabulary. One size per row, never "medium or close," because the person holding the camera will pick whichever is faster.
Here is a prompt you can paste into PlanThatVideo, and the shot list it turns into, with the reason each size was chosen written into the notes line.
Notice what is missing: there is no extreme wide and no full shot, because a 15-second vertical ad has no room for them. Notice also that the one medium shot is the only frame with a person in it. The sizes were chosen by the job each shot had to do, not by habit, and the notes line makes that reasoning visible to whoever is behind the camera.
FAQ
How many types of camera shots are there?
There are eight standard shot sizes: extreme wide, wide, full, medium wide, medium, medium close-up, close-up, and extreme close-up, plus inserts and cutaways for objects and details. On top of size, there are around seven common camera angles: eye level, high, low, overhead, Dutch, over-the-shoulder, and point of view. Exact lists vary by source, but these names are understood by almost any crew.
What is the difference between shot size and camera angle?
Shot size is how much of the subject fills the frame, from a tiny figure in a landscape to a single eye. Camera angle is where the camera sits relative to the subject, such as above, below, or level with it. Every shot has both, so a complete instruction names both: "low-angle close-up of the bottle."
What is the difference between a close-up and an extreme close-up?
A close-up fills the frame with one face or one object. An extreme close-up goes further, filling the frame with a single detail of it: the eyes rather than the face, the stitching rather than the bag. Use the close-up for emotion and the product hero, and the extreme close-up for texture and proof.
What is an establishing shot?
An establishing shot is the shot that tells the viewer where a scene takes place, usually an extreme wide or wide at the start of a sequence. In a marketing video it is often the exterior of the shop, the office floor, or the event venue. Short vertical ads frequently skip it and open on a close-up instead.
What do MS, MCU, and CU mean on a shot list?
They are shot size abbreviations: MS is a medium shot (waist up), MCU is a medium close-up (chest up), and CU is a close-up (a face or single object filling the frame). Others you will see are EWS (extreme wide), WS (wide), FS (full), MWS (medium wide), ECU (extreme close-up), OTS (over-the-shoulder), and POV (point of view).
Every shot sized, angled, and explained.
PlanThatVideo turns a one-paragraph idea into a shot list with the size, angle, movement, and duration of every shot already filled in. Edit, export, hand it to your crew.
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