How to Use Pans Effectively When Videotaping

A pan is a camera movement, either from one side to another or vertically from one position to another. Pans, if incorrectly used, can detract from your pictures. Correctly used, they can become transitions between one scene and another.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Camcorders

1. Avoid panning just because it is "moving pictures."

2. Make the movement in your pictures come from the on-screen action, not the movement of the camera.

3. When panning, hold a steady shot for three to four seconds, then pan, then hold at the end for another three to four seconds. However, you can use a "swish-pan," or fast pan, to connect two dissimilar subjects.

4. Break up pan or tilt shots with static shots. Pans and tilts should never follow one after another.

5. Use a pan or a tilt to relate one element to another.

6. Make your pans sensible. Don't pan from an exciting subject to a dull one.

Tips & Warnings

• Learn to count in your head as you time out the static shots at the beginning and end of your pan shots.
• Pan from a close-up of a sign and, as you pan, widen your shot to show that it is a sign on a particular building. Or, show your fishing buddy coming out of his tent at dawn, and pan to show the lake waiting for him.