Establishing shot

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In film and and television, an establishing shot sets up, or "establishes", a scene's setting and/or its participants.

It might be a shot at the beginning of a scene indicating where the remainder of the scene takes place. For example, an exterior shot of a large building on a rainy night, followed by an interior shot of a couple talking, implies that the conversation is taking place inside that building. (Of course the conversation may in fact have been filmed on a studio set far from the actual location, because of budget, permits, time limitations, etc.)

Or it might just be a long shot of a room that shows all the characters from a particular scene. For example, a scene about a murder in a college lecture hall might begin with a shot that shows the entire room—including the lecturing professor and the students taking notes.

Establishing shots are not required for every scene in a film or TV program. In fact, they were more common during the classical era of filmmaking than they are now. Contemporary filmmakers tend to skip the estblishing shot in order to move the scene along more quickly. In addition, scenes in mysteries and the like often wish to obscure the setting and its participants and thus avoid clarifying them with an establishing shot.

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