The YouTube channel CineFix bills itself as “the ultimate destination for true movie buffs & filmmakers.” It also serves as a kind of mini-film class for regular movie fans who may want to know more about what they’re watching. CineFix has already released a video on the five most popular shots in moviedom, and has just submitted its follow-up, the “Best Shots Of All Time – Part 2.”
The next five shots are ones that you’ll recognize, even if you don’t automatically know their names, like the “over-the-shoulder shot,” in which the camera is positioned behind someone who’s looking at someone else, or what CineFix dubs the “dual layer” shot, basically the “over-the-shoulder” with the closer person turned around. The video also uses less-textbook-familiar movies to depict these examples, like a two-person shot featuring Joaquin Phoenix in The Master or a claustrophobic dual-layer shot in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona. Some, like the “group shot” featured in ensemble films like The Avengers, are easier to discern. Still, this quick video might make you think twice about the director’s or cinematographer’s intentions when you spy these types of inter-relation shots in the movies you watch, offering up whole new levels of interpretation.