The 6 shot types every cinematic explainer uses

There are a lot of shot types in the cinematography vocabulary. Most explainer videos use six of them, in predictable proportions, and the ones that don't tend to feel either flat (too few shot types) or restless (too many).

This is the working vocabulary I use when planning coverage. Each one has a job; each one has cases where it's wrong.

1 - The Wide Shot

What it is: the subject in their environment, with the environment visible around them. Sometimes called an establishing shot, though technically the establishing shot is a subset (a wide shot used to establish location at the start of a scene).

What it does: tells the viewer where they are. A medium shot of a coffee farmer at work tells you a person is working; a wide of the same farmer with rows of plants stretching to the horizon tells you the scale, the geography, and the season.

When to use it:

• The first 2–5 seconds of a scene change.
• Any moment where the location is meaningful to the story.
• As a breather after a sequence of tight shots - the eye needs space periodically.

When not to use it:

• For talking-head content where the environment is incidental. You'll waste the budget.
• When the environment is unflattering or off-message. A wide of your bedroom-with-laundry-in-it is going to undercut your credibility no matter how good the audio is.

Typical lens range: 16-35mm on full frame, 11-23mm on APS-C. Wider than 16mm reads as fisheye and starts to distort.

2 - The Medium Shot

What it is: subject from roughly the waist or chest up, with some environment visible behind them. The "talking head" shot for most video.

What it does: introduces a person as a person, with enough body language and hand gesture visible to feel real. The face is recognizable; the hands can enter and leave frame; the background tells you something about the setting without dominating.

When to use it:

• Most of your talking-head footage.
• Interview B-shots and reaction coverage.
• Any moment where the subject's body language carries part of the story.

When not to use it:

• When you need emotional intensity - go closer.
• When you need environmental context - go wider.

Typical lens range: 35-50mm on full frame, 23-35mm on APS-C. The 35mm is the most-used lens in explainer cinematography for good reason - it sits comfortably at medium without distorting faces.

3 - The Close-Up

What it is: the subject's face, framed from roughly the collarbone up. The viewer sees expression in detail; the environment is mostly out of frame.

What it does: emotional weight. A close-up is a contract with the viewer that this moment matters. You've removed all environmental distraction and asked them to read the face.

When to use it:

• A line that carries weight - the punchline, the confession, the moment of realization.
• Listening shots in interviews.
• When you need to pull the viewer in after a wide or medium.

When not to use it:

• For ambient narration. A close-up under generic voiceover feels like overkill.
• When the subject's face is doing nothing interesting. The close-up draws attention to whatever's there; if nothing's there, you've drawn attention to nothing.

Typical lens range: 50-85mm on full frame, 35-56mm on APS-C. Longer lenses compress facial features flatteringly; that's why portrait lenses live in this range.

4 - The Over The Shoulder

What it is: framed from behind one subject, looking at another. The first subject's shoulder and head fill the foreground; the second subject is the focal point.

What it does: gives the viewer a sense of being in the conversation. The OTS shot is the workhorse of dialogue coverage because it positions the camera as a participant, not an observer.

When to use it:

• Two-person conversations and interviews.
• Demonstration moments where you want the viewer to feel they're learning the action alongside the subject.
• Reaction shots in dialogue - the OTS is the natural complement to the close-up.

When not to use it:

• One-person content. You need two subjects for the OTS to make sense.
• When the foreground shoulder distracts more than it frames - usually a problem of lighting that backlights the shoulder, drawing the eye there instead of past it.

Typical lens range: 35-85mm on full frame. The choice depends on how much you want the foreground to feel close versus how much you want the background subject to feel separated.

5 - The POV Shot

What it is: the camera is positioned where a subject's eyes are, so the viewer sees what the subject sees. POV stands for point-of-view.

What it does: dissolves the distance between viewer and subject. POV is the most intimate camera position - for the duration of the shot, the viewer is the subject.

When to use it:

• Demonstrating an action (hands typing, hands cooking, hands assembling).
• The reveal - the moment the subject sees something for the first time.
• First-person narrative or essay video where the voice and the eye are the same.

When not to use it:

• For long durations. POV is a flavor; a 30-second POV shot tires the viewer.
• When the subject's identity is the point. POV erases the subject from frame.

Typical lens range: 24-35mm on full frame. POV usually wants a slightly wider lens to feel natural to the human eye's perspective.

6 - The Dutch Angle

What it is: the camera tilted on the roll axis, so the horizon is no longer parallel to the frame's edges. Sometimes called a "canted angle" or "Dutch tilt."

What it does: signals instability, unease, or stylistic departure. The dutch angle is the one shot type that the viewer reads as intentional - they know the cameraperson chose to tilt.

When to use it:

• Comedic confusion or genre flexion.
• Conflict moments - the world is off-axis.
• Brand-style content where a recurring tilt is part of your visual language.

When not to use it:

• Most of the time. The dutch angle has a strong personality; overuse flattens its meaning.
• For talking-head content. A tilted interview reads as a mistake, not a choice.

Typical angle: 8-25 degrees of tilt. Less than 8 looks accidental; more than 25 looks alarming.

Proportions across a typical explainer

For a 3-minute explainer, the rough budget:

Wide / establishing    ~10-15%    (opening, location changes)
Medium / talking head  ~40-50%    (the spine)
Close-up               ~15-20%    (emotional beats)
Over-the-shoulder      ~10-15%    (dialogue, demos)
POV                    ~5-10%     (action illustration)
Dutch angle            ~0-3%      (sparingly, if at all)

A video that's 80% medium shots reads as a podcast with pictures. A video that's 30% close-ups reads as exhausting. The balance is the point.

Bring it to VideoCue

The platform's shot-list and storyboard tools tag each shot with the type - useful when planning coverage to ensure you're hitting the proportions above. The Filmwiki has entries for each of the six: Wide Shot, Medium Shot, Close-Up, Over The Shoulder, POV Shot, and Dutch Angle. Each one includes a diagram and example footage to make the geometry concrete.