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Shot Types Explained: 9 Camera Shots Every Editor Should Know
By George · October 22, 2026 · 2 min read
Shot types are the vocabulary of visual storytelling. Directors choose them on set; editors choose them again in the timeline. Knowing the nine core types — and what each does to an audience — makes you faster at both shooting and searching.
The nine
- Establishing shot — the wide that opens a scene and answers “where are we?” before anything happens.
- Wide shot — subject in full, environment in context; geography and scale.
- Medium shot — waist-up; the workhorse of dialogue and demonstration.
- Close-up — a face or object fills the frame; emotion and emphasis live here.
- Extreme close-up / insert — the detail: hands on a keyboard, a key turning, rain on a leaf. Inserts are B-roll gold — they cover edits anywhere.
- Aerial — from above via drone or aircraft; scale, arrival, transition.
- POV — the camera as a character's eyes; immediacy and immersion.
- Overhead (top-down) — flat-lay geometry; food, desks, processes.
- Two-shot — two subjects in frame together; relationships and reactions in one beat.
Searching by shot type
Brollvia tags footage with shot type, camera movement and time of day, and the search parses plain language — “aerial coastline at dawn” is a shot list in a sentence. The help guide lists every filter.
Coverage is a set, not a shot
Scenes cut together from a wide, a medium and a close-up of the same subject. When you find a clip you love, check its continuity set for the matching angles before you move on — future you, mid-edit, says thanks.
cinematography editing shot types