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Camera Angles and Shots for Storyboards: A Visual Guide

Every shot size and camera angle you'll put on a storyboard, each drawn on the same subject, with when to use it and how to mark it on the board.

Guide · · 4 min read

Over-the-shoulder sketch of a detective in a trench coat looking down an empty train track.

Shot sizes and camera angles are the vocabulary of a storyboard. Learn the names and you can describe any frame in a few words — and anyone on the crew will know what you mean.

Most guides show each shot with a different film still, which makes them hard to compare. Here every example is the same moment: Ada, a detective, waiting on a train platform at dusk. Only the camera changes.

Shot sizes: how much of the subject is in frame

Extreme wide shot (EWS)

Extreme wide shot of an empty train platform with a tiny figure by a bench.
Extreme wide: the place is the subject; Ada is a detail in it.

Establishes location and scale. Use it to open a scene, to show isolation, or to cut to after a close-up for contrast.

Wide shot (WS)

Wide shot of a detective standing beside a bench on a platform.
Wide: head to toe, with enough of the platform to see where she is.

The whole person in their surroundings. Good for blocking — the audience can see where everyone stands.

Medium shot (MS)

Medium shot of the detective from the waist up, checking a pocket watch.
Medium: waist up. Gesture and expression both read.

The workhorse of dialogue scenes. Close enough for expression, wide enough for hands and props.

Close-up (CU)

Close-up of the detective's face as she looks down the track.
Close-up: the face fills most of the frame.

Emotion and reaction. Save close-ups for the moments that matter — use them everywhere and they stop meaning anything.

Extreme close-up (ECU)

Extreme close-up of the detective's eyes behind round glasses.
Extreme close-up: one feature — here, the eyes.

A single detail: eyes, a hand on a trigger, a timestamp. Tension, or a clue the audience must not miss.

Camera angles: where the camera is

Over-the-shoulder shot (OTS)

Over-the-shoulder shot from behind the detective, looking down the track.
Over the shoulder: we share her point of view without becoming her.

Places the audience behind one character, looking at what they see. The standard way to cover two people talking, and a quiet way to build suspense.

Low angle shot

Low angle shot looking up at the detective against the sky.
Low angle: the camera looks up, and she looks powerful.

The camera below the subject, looking up. Makes a character dominant, threatening or heroic.

High angle shot

High angle shot looking down on the detective, small on a long platform.
High angle: the camera looks down, and she looks small.

The opposite: vulnerability, isolation, or simply a clear view of the geography.

Dutch angle

Tilted dutch angle shot of the detective with the platform clock slanted.
Dutch angle: the horizon tilts and the world feels wrong.

A tilted horizon for unease, disorientation or madness. Strong medicine — one or two in a film is usually plenty.

Bird's-eye view

Overhead view of the detective, a bench and the platform edge.
Bird's-eye: straight down, turning the scene into a pattern.

Directly overhead. Turns people into shapes and makes the layout of a scene its subject.

What is the most common shot in a storyboard?

The medium shot, by a distance — it's how most dialogue is covered. A typical scene opens wide, settles into mediums and over-the-shoulders for the conversation, and goes to close-ups for the turning point. If your board is mostly close-ups, the audience will struggle to know where anyone is.

How do you show camera movement on a storyboard?

A single frame can't move, so storyboards use conventions:

  • Arrows inside the frame for movement of the subject.
  • Arrows outside the frame (or a second frame outline) for camera movement: pan, tilt, push in, pull out.
  • Two frames for one shot when a move changes the picture completely — label them "start" and "end".
  • Words in the notes for everything else: "slow push in", "tracking right with her", "crane up to reveal the city".

In Storyboard Room the camera field takes this in plain words — "Two-shot, slow push in" — and it's sent to the image model with the rest of the shot, so changing the angle and redrawing one frame is the fastest way to compare options.

Quick reference

Shot Use it for
Extreme wide Location, scale, isolation
Wide Blocking, action
Medium Dialogue, gesture
Close-up Emotion, reaction
Extreme close-up A detail, tension
Over the shoulder Conversations, point of view
Low angle Power, threat
High angle Vulnerability, geography
Dutch angle Unease
Bird's-eye Pattern, layout

For how these come together in a real board, see how to storyboard a commercial or script to storyboard.

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