I have found a website which lists the most common shots that are used within films, including a description of them and an example. This is in alphabetical order, and not in order or most important or most used. I found this very useful in the pre-production and filming of my music video, as it was a guideline of which shots were used professionally and therefore which shots I should use to make it look professional.
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/
Aerial
Shot
An exterior shot
filmed from — hey! — the air. Often used to establish a (usually exotic)
location. All films in the '70s open with one — FACT.
EXAMPLE: The opening of
The Sound Of Music (1965). Altogether now, “The hills are alive..."
Arc
Shot
A shot in which the
subject is circled by the camera. Beloved by Brian De Palma, Michael Bay.
EXAMPLE: The shot in De
Palma's Carrie (1976) where Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) and Tommy Ross (William
Katt) are dancing at the prom. The swirling camera move represents her giddy
euphoria, see?
Bridging
Shot
A shot that denotes a
shift in time or place, like a line moving across an animated map. That line
has more air miles than Richard Branson.
EXAMPLE: The journey
from the US to Nepal in Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981).
Close
Up
A shot that keeps
only the face full in the frame. Perhaps the most important building block in
cinematic storytelling.
EXAMPLE: Falconetti's
face in The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928).
Medium
Shot
The shot that
utilizes the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot, more
than a close-up. Obviously.
EXAMPLE: Any John Ford
film (i.e. The Searchers), the master of the mid shot.
Long
Shot
A shot that depicts
an entire character or object from head to foot. Not as long as an establishing
shot. Aka a wide shot.
EXAMPLE: Omar Sharif
approaching the camera on camel in David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia (1962).
Cowboy
Shot
A shot framed from
mid thigh up, so called because of its recurrent use in Westerns. When it
comes, you know Clint Eastwood is about to shoot your ass.
EXAMPLE: The three-way
standoff in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966).
Deep
Focus
A shot that keeps the
foreground, middle ground and background ALL in sharp focus. Beloved by Orson
Welles (and cinematographer Gregg Toland). Production designers hate them.
Means they have to put detail in the whole set.
EXAMPLE: Thatcher
(George Couloris) and Kane's mother (Agnes Moorehead) discussing Charles (Buddy
Swan)'s fate while the young boy plays in the background in Citizen Kane (1941).
Dolly
Zoom
A shot that sees the
camera track forward toward a subject while simultaneously zooming out creating
a woozy, vertiginous effect. Initiated in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1959), it also
appears in such scarefests as Michael Jackson's Thriller video (1983), Shaun Of
The Dead (2004), The Evil Dead (1981) and The Goofy Movie (1995). It is the
cinematic equivalent of the phrase "Uh-oh".
EXAMPLE: Police Chief
Brody (Roy Scheider) sees the Kintner kid (Jeffrey Voorhees) get it in Jaws
(1975). Not the first but the best.
Dutch
Tilt
A shot where the
camera is tilted on its side to create a kooky angle. Often used to suggest
disorientation. Beloved by German Expressionism, Tim Burton, Sam Raimi and the
designers of the villains hideouts in '60s TV Batman.
EXAMPLE: The beginning
of the laboratory scene in Bride Of Frankenstein (1935).
Establishing
Shot
The clue is in the
name. A shot, at the head of the scene, that clearly shows the locale the
action is set in. Often comes after the aerial shot. Beloved by TV directors
and thick people.
EXAMPLE: The first
glimpse of the prison in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
Handheld
Shot
A shot in which the
camera operator holds the camera during motion to create a jerky, immediate
feel. Beloved by Steven Soderbergh and Paul Greengrass. It basically says,
"This is real life, baby".
EXAMPLE: The pool hall
fist fight in Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).
Low
Angle Shot
A shot looking up at
a character or subject often making them look bigger in the frame. It can make
everyone look heroic and/or dominant. Also good for making cities look empty.
EXAMPLE: Darth Vader
stomping around the Death Star corridors in Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope
(1977).
High
Angle Shot
A shot looking down
on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame. Nothing says Billy
No Mates like a good old high angle shot.
EXAMPLE: Little Charlie
(Teresa Wright) realizes her uncle (Joseph Cotton) is a serial killer in
Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt (1943).
Locked-Down
Shot
A shot where the
camera is fixed in one position while the action continues off-screen. It says
life is messy and can not be contained by a camera. Beloved by Woody Allen and
the dolly grips who can take the afternoon off.
EXAMPLE: Ike (Woody
Allen) and Mary (Diane Keaton) walk in and out of shot whilst flirting.
Library
Shot
A pre-existing shot
of a location — typically a wild animal — that is pulled from a library. Aka a
"stock shot", it says this film is old. Or cheap.
EXAMPLE: Every shot of
an animal in a black and white Tarzan movie.
Matte
Shot
A shot that
incorporates foreground action with a background, traditionally painted onto
glass, now created in a computer. Think the Raiders warehouse or the Ewok
village or Chris Hewitt's house.
EXAMPLE: The final shot
of 1968's Planet Of The Apes.
Money
Shot
A shot that is
expensive to shoot but deemed worth it for its potential to wow, startle and
generate interest. In pornography, it means something completely different.
EXAMPLE: The White House
blowing up in Independence Day (1996).
Over-The-Shoulder
Shot
A shot where the
camera is positioned behind one subject's shoulder, usually during a conversation.
It implies a connection between the speakers as opposed to the single shot that
suggests distance.
EXAMPLE: The opening of
The Godfather (1972).
Pan
A shot where the
camera moves continuously right to left or left to right. An abbreviation of
"panning". Turns up a lot in car chases and on You've Been Framed
(worth £250 if they use a clip).
EXAMPLE: Brian de
Palma's Blow Out (1981) — a 360 degree pan in Jack Terry (John Travolta)'s
sound studio.
POV
shot
A shot that depicts
the point of view of a character so that we see exactly what they see. Often
used in Horror cinema to see the world through a killer's eyes.
EXAMPLE: The opening of
Halloween (1978) told from the point of view of the child Michael Myers (Will
Sandin).
The
Sequence Shot
A long shot that
covers a scene in its entirety in one continuous sweep without editing.
EXAMPLE: The 3 min 20
secs opening of Touch Of Evil (1958) in which Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) and
Susie (Janet Leigh) cross paths with a car carrying a ticking bomb.
Steadicam
Shot
A shot from a
hydraulically balanced camera that allows for a smooth, fluid movement. Around
since the late '70s, invented by Garrett Brown. Beloved by Stanley Kubrick,
Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuaron. A lengthy Steadicam shot is
the directorial equivalent of "Look ma, no hands!"
EXAMPLE: Henry Hill (Ray
Liotta) taking his new girl (Lorraine Braco) through the Copa by the back
entrance in Goodfellas (1990). If you have the time, also see Russian Ark, a 99
minute Steadicam shot.
Tilt
A shot where the
camera moves continuously Up to Down or Down To Up. A vertical panning shot. A
tilt to the sky is traditionally a last shot in a movie.
EXAMPLE: The last shot
of Robert Altman's Nashville (1975).
Top
Shot
A shot looking
directly down on a scene rather than at an angle. Also known as a
Birds-Eye-View shot. Beloved by Busby Berkeley to shoot dance numbers in
patterns resembling snowflakes.
EXAMPLE: The camera
moving over the carnage left by Travis Bickle at the end of Taxi Driver (1976).
Tracking
Shot
A shot that follows a
subject be it from behind or alongside or in front of the subject. Not as
clumsy or random as a panning shot, an elegant shot for a more civilized age.
Beloved by Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Terence Davies, Paul Thomas
Anderson.
EXAMPLE: The dolly shots
in the trenches during Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory (1957).
Two-Shot
A medium shot that
depicts two people in the frame. Used primarily when you want to establish
links between characters or people who are beside rather than facing each
other.
EXAMPLE: Quiz Kid Donnie
Smith (William H. Macy) and Thurston Howell (Henry Gibson) discuss love in
Magnolia (1999).
Whip
Pan
A shot that is the
same as a pan but is so fast that picture blurs beyond recognition. Usually
accompanied by a whoosh sound. Beloved by Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright.
EXAMPLE: Any one of a
dozen sequences in Hot Fuzz (2007).
Zoom
A shot deploying a
lens with a variable focal length that allows the cinematographer to change the
distance between camera and object without physically moving the camera. Also
see Crash Zooms that do the same but only quicker.
EXAMPLE: The slow
descending zoom that picks out Mark (Frederic Forrest) and Ann (Cindy Williams)
out of a crowd in The Conversation (1974).
Crane
Shot
A shot where the
camera is placed on a crane or jib and moved up or down. Think a vertical
tracking shot. Beloved by directors of musicals. Often used to highlight a
character's loneliness or at the end of a movie, the camera moving away as if
saying goodbye.
EXAMPLE: Gone With The
Wind (1939). As Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) arrives at the train depot, the
camera heads skyward to reveal hundreds of wounded confederate soldiers around
her.
I make use of how the lens occasionally comes out of focus and blurs. This fits the theme of the song, as the protagonist is in a blurred mindset and is unsure of her choices and her future. She is struggling with depression, which is an illness, and the music video perfectly displays the struggle happening inside of her head. I love how the unfocused lens contributes to this.