While most people know how to read books, few know how to read film. Watching movies without reading film is like looking at the pictures in a book without reading the words. While satisfying, it misses a good deal of the story. Reading film isn't hard and I can give you some of the basics. It will, I guarantee, make watching movies (especially genre films) even more fun.

SHOTS frame the camera's distance from the subject. Anyone who ever looked through the lens of a 35mm camera knows what a shot is. You had to decide what you wanted in the picture, and moved closer or further back depending on your decision, keeping in mind that the further back you stood, the more you fit into the shot. You also had to decide what would and wouldn't be in focus (depth of field). 

An Extreme Long Shot is a panoramic view of an exterior location photographed from a great distance (as far as a 1/4-mile), and is often used as an establishing shot to introduce you to locale, or for later reference for a closer shot. If the demon is going to appear in New York City, or Georgetown, it's likely an establishing shot will be used first, to show that city. But, another thing to read into an extreme long shot is the vastness of the scene being emphasized as opposed to particular objects or characters. Characters in an extreme long shot appear little more than ants on an anthill, if at all. Individuality gives way to the vastness of the scene and that may be what the director is trying to emphasize. Therefore, ELS can also have emotional significance by showing you a characters place in the world. One ant in a mound of millions. Insignificant. Extreme long shots of the earth are usually used in films about world catastrophe. Take another look at Independence Day (1996).

A Long Shot is closer than ELS and emphasizes the immediate scene around the characters and objects. Now that you are closer, the setting gets the attention. The locations, neighborhoods, types of buildings, trees or barren landscape. Emphasis is still on the visual message of the scene and not specifically on the characters yet (you aren't really close enough to them.) If dialogue takes place during a long shot, it usually sounds "off camera," distant, because the director is more interested that you notice the setting and scenery - their element - surrounding the characters. Think of all the long shots of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980), before Jack and his family arrive. What emotions did those shots convey? Think of the use of long shots in Misery (1990) and The Evil Dead (1982) to convey isolation and captivity. The characters will be trapped at these locations. Sometimes, long shots can actually correspond to the distance between the audience and the screen for a sense of reality. If you are sitting in the tenth row center, the objects on the screen are at the actual distance and size they would be from that seat to the screen.

A Full Shot, or full body shot, shows the human body in full, with head near the top of the frame (screen) and feet near the bottom, which means focus or emphasis is now on characters, often in motion or action. Action scenes, gun fights, martial arts, fighting aliens mano y mano usually takes place during a full shot to bring you close to and into the action, making you feel like a participant. Watch the action scenes in The Matrix (1999) again. Yes, there can be action in a long shot, but in long shots, you are observers not participants. Again, it's the director's call, depending on what emotions he wants you to experience.

If a full shot is for action, a Medium Shot, (approximately the human figure from the knees or waist up) is for dialogue. Emphasis is now on character interaction. And you are privy to a private conversation of usually not more than three characters. You, the audience, become the fourth member of this conversation (in theater it's called the fourth wall), so now you, the viewer, are a participant/listener of the conversation. Conversations rarely take place with a character's back to the audience, unless the director wants to deliberately keep you out of the conversation. To get a fourth character into frame, the camera needs to pull back, becoming a full shot, too distant for a private conversation. Watch closely the next film or television show and you'll notice that most, if not all, dialogue takes place at a medium shot to let you into the circle.

Close-up means drama. The camera moves in for a detailed view of a person (any body part) or object, to magnify its importance or suggest symbolic significance. A close-up on a face makes you imagine the thoughts in the character's mind. Director Ron Howard said real acting only takes place during a close-up. Doubles can probably be used for long and full shots, but when the camera moves in for the close-up of a face (blown up to twenty feet in the theater), you can't fool the camera. I thought it interesting to learn that beauty make-up is harder to apply than monster make-up. Acting close-up takes the most talent. Don't believe me? Stand in front of a mirror, close up, and make a sad face . . . but don't make me laugh. This shot is used when a character witnesses a bloody crime or sees the monster for the first time. Their horror must be captured on their faces (without making us laugh).

The closest you can go is an Extreme Close-up - a minutely detailed view of an object or part of a person. For a person, it generally includes only eyes or a mouth, and is used for emphasis and emotional impact. After the close up of a horrified face, the shot goes to extreme close-up of the wide eyes or gasping mouth for extra drama and emphasis. An extreme close-up of an eyeball usually means you are going into the mind or memory of a character. Notice how flashbacks are often preceded with an extreme close-up of the character's eye.

But there's more. The Deep-focus (what most people call a wide angle) is used to capture objects at close, medium, and long ranges simultaneously, all in sharp focus, with objects arranged in a layering technique to guide the viewer's eye into and around the scene. Think of film as moving pictures. Now stop the frames and look at one single picture. All the rules of visual art apply. Any good artist will guide you into and through their picture by placing (and coloring/shading) objects to catch your attention. Closer, larger objects get first attention, but after spending a few seconds looking at an object in a shot, your eye will naturally move on. But where? A good artist, director, cinematographer, will make that decision for you. Therefore, it is important to notice how long a specific shot is held on the screen. If it is held, the director probably wants you to wander through the scene. A scene comes to mind from James Cameron's Aliens (1986) when Ripley holds Newt on the elevator platform. The alien queen is coming. Bishop is nowhere to be found. Cameron let's you witness Ripley's predicament with a deep focus shot that first focuses on her and the child, then gives you the time to explore the background facility, which is exploding into fire. The elevator arrives. The queen emerges. Shot of Ripley's face and the line: Don't look, baby. 

However, if James Cameron brings you into his shot using layering and perspective, how does he get you back out? Yes, he changes to another shot or . . . he uses Soft-Focus and blurs the background into a hazy neutrality, forcing your eye to concentrate on the elements that remain in focus, namely Ripley and Newt. So, a deep-focus draws you in, and after capturing you, the soft-focus forces your eye out and to the desired object or subject still in focus.

But SHOTS can be combined with ANGLES (the camera's height during a shot) for an even wider variety of optical and emotional effects. 

Starting with the highest angle, the Bird's Eye (god's eye) is filmed from directly overhead to make an objects seem ant-like and insignificant, suggesting the subject is controlled by fate or will become a victim. Quick note: Being a victim doesn't mean the character must die. A character, victimized throughout the story, might turn on the pursuer and win in the end. But a bird's eye is usually a negative connotation because it implies something will pounce on an unsuspecting character (no one ever looks up!), or in the case of the bug that doesn't see the shoe coming down to smash it. Bird's eye angles are a staple of horror and thrillers. Watch the opening of  The Lost Boys (1987), when the vampires go hunting for prey. We (in the vampires' POV), from a bird's eye angle, fly over the pier with the night watchman walking below, totally at our mercy. He never looks up. Watch how Independence Day uses bird's eye angles on cities and the earth. Watch any film where someone will be victimized and I guaranty a bird's eye will foreshadow it.

A High Angle is not as extreme as a bird's eye, with the camera usually placed on a crane for a sense of overview. High angles are to angles what long shots are to shots because the scene or setting is being emphasized. The director wants an overview for you to take in the surroundings, but it may still mean the character is under someone or something's control. If I want to scare you, I can use a high angle behind Neve Campbell walking down a darkened hallway or alleyway looking for a psycho killer with a scream mask (Scream, 1996). With the high angle, you see the killer before the character to create suspense. Girl, don't you go down that hall! You know what's going to happen before the character. You suffer with every step, knowing what awaits her at the end of her walk. Build music.

Another way to scare you is to put you at Eye Level, with the camera placed about five or six feet from the ground as an observer. This places you in the scene to see as a character. At this angle, you are on the same level as Neve Campbell looking for the psycho-killer. You only know what she knows. Now, when the killer jumps out to scare her, he also scares you and you jump out of our seat. Which angle to use is usually the director's call.

Also important to horror and thrillers is the Low Angle, because psychologically, low angles heighten the importance of the subject, making the audience feel insecure and dominated. Objects loom over you from this angle, making you the bug. There's a wonderfully scary scene in Nosferatu (1922) after all the sailors on the ship have been killed, save for the captain and first mate. After discussing what could be the cause of all the unexplained deaths, the first mate goes above deck. And there, towering above him on a higher deck, you see (through the eyes of the sailor, from a low angle) the figure of the vampire (Max Schreck) looming over the sailor. Before characters enter the Hell House (1999), The House on Haunted Hill (1999), or The Overlook Hotel, you can always count on a low angle to make the house loom over you. Shooting from a low angle also speeds up motion and captures a sense of confusion, so also look for the use of low angles during chase scenes.

Finally, my favorite, the Oblique Angle (think of a tilted scene) suggests a world of imbalance, tension, or anxiety. This is often used to convey the point of view of a character under stress or confused. The scene of the girl chased by Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) will always include oblique angles. Watch George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) for so many uses of the oblique angle, you'll leave the room walking tilted. After all, being chased by zombies trying to eat your flesh just might make you feel a world of imbalance, filled with tension and anxiety. That things just ain't right!

So, adding shots and angles to your frames of reference when watching films will give you deeper insights into the art and craft of film making, and help you enjoy the film at another level, because reading is always a little bit better than only looking at the pictures.