# Wide Shot — camera technique | AIM Previz

https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/wide-shot

[Previz](https://aimpreviz.com/) / [Techniques](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques) / Camera · Basic

# Wide Shot

Wide Shot is a camera technique: The whole figure with the space around it. Establishes where everyone is standing before the scene tightens in. In PREVIZ picking it sets the Camera Rig pose and the shot size in Keyframe, Director and Infinitum.

Published 29 Sep 2026Updated 4 Oct 2026by the PREVIZ team

What it does to the frame

The whole figure with the space around it. Establishes where everyone is standing before the scene tightens in.

- **Reads as** — Cinematic
- **Difficulty** — Basic
- **Runs in** — Keyframe · Director · Infinitum

The control it moves in PREVIZ

- Camera Rig pose Keyframe

  distance 8 m — wide shot (WS)

  The rig snaps to the station it will actually render, so the readout, the label and the frame agree.
- Shot size Keyframe

  WS — Wide Shot

  Subject in environment

Picking the technique sets these controls; it does not paste text into a prompt. The setting can be re-run, checked against the settings beside it, and carried into the next shot.

## Also in camera

Where the lens sits and how it moves: angle, distance, and the moves that carry a shot through time.

- **[Low Angle](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/low-angle)

Basic · Dramatic, Cinematic** — The camera sits below the subject and looks up. Reach for it when someone should read as powerful, imposing, or in control of the room.
- **[High Angle](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/high-angle)

Basic · Dramatic** — The camera looks down on the subject. The inverse of a low angle — it diminishes, and is the standard way to make someone read as vulnerable.
- **[Bird's Eye View](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/birds-eye)

Intermediate · Artistic, Cinematic** — Straight down from directly overhead. Flattens the scene into pattern and geometry, and detaches the viewer from the action entirely.
- **[Steep Overhead](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/overhead-steep)

Intermediate · Dramatic, Artistic** — Steeply down but not fully vertical. Keeps faces readable while a true bird's eye loses them — the usual choice when you want the detachment but still need performance.
- **[Profile Shot](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/profile-shot)

Basic · Artistic, Dramatic** — Dead side-on, ninety degrees to the subject's facing. Reads as formal and observational — you are watching rather than being addressed.
- **[Three-Quarter Angle](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/three-quarter)

Basic · Cinematic, Documentary** — Between straight-on and profile. The default flattering angle for faces — it gives the head volume that a square-on shot loses.
- **[Behind the Subject](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/behind-subject)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Dramatic** — Directly behind, seeing what they see. Puts the viewer at the character's shoulder and makes the environment ahead the subject of the shot.
- **[Over-the-Shoulder](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/over-the-shoulder)

Basic · Cinematic, Dramatic** — From behind and to one side, with the near shoulder in frame. The workhorse of dialogue coverage — it fixes who is looking at whom.
- **[Extreme Close-Up](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/extreme-close-up)

Basic · Dramatic, Horror** — A detail filling the frame — eyes, hands, an object. Removes all context, which is exactly why it reads as intense or claustrophobic.
- **[Close-Up](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/close-up)

Basic · Dramatic, Cinematic** — Head and shoulders. The standard shot for performance — close enough that the face carries the scene.
- **[Medium Shot](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/medium-shot)

Basic · Documentary, Cinematic** — Waist up. Holds the figure and enough of the room to read body language — the neutral shot most scenes are built from.
- **[Extreme Wide Shot](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/extreme-wide)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Artistic** — The figure is small against the landscape. Scale is the subject — the person is there to give the environment a size.
- **[Dolly Zoom](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/dolly-zoom)

Advanced · Horror, Dramatic** — Track in while zooming out (or the reverse). The subject stays the same size while the background rushes — the standard visual for dread or realisation.
- **[Push In](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/push-in)

Basic · Dramatic, Cinematic** — The camera moves steadily toward the subject. The most reliable way to tell an audience that this moment matters.
- **[Pull Back](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/pull-back)

Basic · Cinematic** — The camera withdraws, revealing context that was outside the frame. The reveal is the point.
- **[Crash Zoom](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/crash-zoom)

Intermediate · Action, Horror** — A violent snap to a tighter framing. Punctuation rather than movement — it hits a beat.
- **[Whip Pan](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/whip-pan)

Intermediate · Action** — A pan so fast the frame smears. Usually used to cut between two places without cutting.
- **[Orbit](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/orbit-shot)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Action** — The camera circles the subject while holding them centred. Shows an object from every side, or builds pressure around a person.
- **[Crane Up](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/crane-up)

Intermediate · Cinematic** — The camera rises through the shot. Conventionally an ending — it lifts away and lets the scene go.
- **[Steadicam Float](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/steadicam-float)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Documentary** — Smooth walking movement with none of the jitter of true handheld. Follows a subject through space without calling attention to itself.
- **[Handheld](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/handheld)

Basic · Documentary, Action** — Visible operator movement. Reads as immediate and unstaged — the reason news and vérité look the way they do.
- **[Tracking Shot](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/tracking-shot)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Action** — The camera travels alongside a moving subject, holding them in frame. Keeps them the fixed point while the world moves past.
- **[Rack Focus](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/rack-focus)

Advanced · Dramatic, Cinematic** — Focus shifts from one plane to another mid-shot. Redirects the viewer's attention without moving the camera or cutting.
- **[Dutch Angle](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/dutch-angle)

Basic · Horror, Dramatic** — The horizon is tilted. Signals that something is wrong — the most legible unease cue in the language.
- **[Snorricam](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/snorricam)

Advanced · Horror, Dramatic** — The camera is rigged to the actor, so they stay locked in frame while the world lurches behind them. Disorientation, or dissociation.
- **[Locked Off](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/static-shot)

Basic · Artistic, Documentary** — The camera does not move at all. A deliberate choice, not an absence of one — stillness reads as composure or as unsettling patience.

## Reads the same way

Other techniques that read as cinematic — a light or a lens to pair with this move.

- **[Rembrandt Lighting](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/rembrandt-lighting)

Intermediate · Dramatic, Cinematic** — Key light high and to one side, leaving a small triangle of light on the shadowed cheek. The classical portrait setup.
- **[Butterfly Lighting](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/butterfly-lighting)

Intermediate · Romantic, Cinematic** — Key light high and dead centre, casting a small butterfly-shaped shadow under the nose. The classic glamour light.
- **[Rim Light](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/rim-light)

Basic · Cinematic, Dramatic** — Light from behind that traces a bright edge around the subject, separating them from the background. Almost every night exterior uses it.
- **[Practical Light](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/practical-light)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Documentary** — The scene is lit by lamps, screens and signs that are visible in the shot. Motivated light — the viewer can see where it comes from.
- **[Neon Lighting](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/neon-lighting)

Intermediate · Cinematic, Artistic** — Saturated coloured light from signage, usually two clashing hues. The look of a city at night in almost every film made since 1982.
- **[Shallow Focus](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/shallow-focus)

Basic · Cinematic, Romantic** — Only a thin slice of the scene is sharp. Isolates the subject from its surroundings and is most of what makes an image read as 'cinematic'.
- **[Anamorphic](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/anamorphic-wide)

Intermediate · Cinematic** — Squeezed capture that yields a very wide frame, oval bokeh and horizontal blue flares. The most recognisable 'big film' signature there is.
- **[Halation](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/halation-glow)

Intermediate · Nostalgic, Cinematic** — A red bloom around bright lights, caused by light scattering back through film stock. The signature of tungsten film shot at night.
- **[Day for Night](https://aimpreviz.com/learn/techniques/day-for-night)

Advanced · Cinematic, Horror** — Shot in daylight and graded to read as night. Sun becomes moonlight, which is why the shadows are always too crisp for real darkness.

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