The Reveal Shot: A Video Tutorial
The most interesting films use all different types of shots to tell the story. This year I’ll be sharing how you can start to incorporate these different shots to make your home video clips even more interesting. Hopefully your eye will start to naturally see where you can easily incorporate some of this information!
My most favorite type of shot is called a reveal shot. This is used to gradually reveal the subject of the video to the audience. I love these particularly when my kids have no idea that I’m taking video of them. Think about when your kids are doing something sweet in a room and you quietly peek around the door frame to see what’s going on. Now put your phone in your hand and voila - a reveal shot! Below my kids were experimenting with all kinds of bath bombs and dyes to make…science creations I think?
A reveal shot can be easily accomplished by moving your phone slowly in the direction of the subject or scene you want to reveal. For example, if you are filming a person sitting at a table and you want to reveal the person's face, you would start the shot by filming the person's back or the table and then slowly pan the camera around to reveal the person's face. Or in the case below - my dog lying on all the clean folded laundry.
Another way to achieve a reveal shot with a phone is by starting the shot with a close-up of an object or detail and then gradually moving the camera back to reveal the full scene or subject. Here I took some b-roll one Christmas Eve of my computer using this method (also great for doing transitions in IG reels!)
But my most favorite reveal shots are the ones my clients submit. I’ve talked about this type of shot before on my Instagram account and this client did her homework. So much of her Disney film uses the tips I’ve shared and the result was freaking phenomenal (watch the whole thing HERE!). Here is my most favorite reveal shot from a film so far:
Have fun and play around! And if you end up posting any of your videos to social, I’d love to see them - tag us @filmsoflife_co!
