Conveyor
A conveyor camera treats the world as a belt: relentless lateral travel at constant speed, factory or infinite product-line geometry. The subject can stand still while the line delivers the next unit past the frame.
Narrative function
Industry, process, no escape from the line. The shot says labor is a machine: bodies, boxes, or faces arrive and leave at one speed.
Comedy and paranoia both live here. It is the wrong tool for a walker you are meant to accompany.
If the person is choosing a path, truck or track with them. A conveyor that speeds up and slows with emotion is no longer a belt.
How it works
Lateral dolly, slider, or a treadmill-like set, constant velocity, often a wide or moderate-wide so units repeat. Foreground machinery should cross faster than the far wall.
Exposure can be industrial: hard practicals, green or sodium, no beauty key. Prompt: Conveyor move past [Subject], the world sliding on a belt, factory or infinite product line, relentless lateral travel.
When to use it
Use it for a factory, an assembly of faces, a process that will not stop. Do not use it beside a casual sidewalk chat.
Compared with similar shots
Trucking stays beside a walker; speed is human. Tracking Shot follows a chosen path.
Conveyor is the line that does not care. A Dolly can go any direction; this one is lateral and metronomic.
In film
Modern Times turns the factory into a belt the body cannot leave. The Parallax View uses industrial process and test-film geometry as a trap.
Grammar: constant lateral speed, repeating units.
Prompt it
Name the belt and the constant speed. Still: Conveyor move past [Subject], the world sliding on a belt, factory or infinite product line, relentless lateral travel.
Video: The world slides past [Subject] as if on a conveyor, constant lateral speed. Forbid a halt in the middle unless the line jams on purpose.
What usually goes wrong
The usual wrong cousin is a trucking shot with a walker. The tell: the subject is strolling and the camera is being polite.
The fix: constant lateral speed, repeating units, the person as another item on the line.
Questions
What is Conveyor in film?
A conveyor camera is relentless lateral travel at constant speed, as if the world were a factory belt. The subject can be still while units keep arriving.
Conveyor vs Trucking
Trucking stays beside a person walking. Conveyor is industrial: one speed, repeating units, process without escape.
When should I use Conveyor?
Use it for factories, process, and systems that swallow people. Do not use it for a casual walk-and-talk.
How do I prompt Conveyor for AI image or video?
Write constant lateral speed and a belt or product line. Example: Conveyor move past [Subject], the world sliding on a belt, factory or infinite product line, relentless lateral travel.
Melies can generate this Conveyor
Melies is the AI filmmaking workspace. This Conveyor opens with the camera path and prompt already loaded, so you generate the move instead of describing it from scratch.