Crane Over The Head

Narrative function

Finish by looking down. A body on a floor, a crime, a dance, a figure lost in pattern: the arm climbs and continues until the lens is almost nadir.

A crane-up that eases back into a skyline is a different end: the person becomes geography from an oblique height. Overhead and bird's-eye can be locked.

This shot is the travel that arrives there.

How it works

Jib or Technocrane, start at human height or a three-quarter, boom up and over until tilt is nearly 90 degrees down. A little boom-out keeps the subject from sliding off.

Prompt: Crane over the head of [Subject], the arm rising until the camera looks nearly straight down, a person becoming a map.

When to use it

Use it to end on a downward map of a person. Do not stop at a high three-quarter and call it over the head.

Compared with similar shots

Crane Over travels the arm over an obstacle or crowd without requiring nadir. Overhead Top-Down is the locked top-down frame.

Bird's-Eye View is the high downward view as a size. Crane-over-the-head is the boom that becomes those views.

• Crane OverTurn a scene into a map without cutting.
• Overhead Top-DownTable, crime scene, or dance formation.
• Bird's-Eye ViewTurn life into a board game or a ritual.

In film

The Untouchables uses high downward cranes (the station, the pram, the floor as a map). Birdman booms over theater space until people become pattern.

Grammar: rise until you look down.

Prompt it

End almost overhead. Still: Crane over the head of [Subject], the arm rising until the camera looks nearly straight down, a person becoming a map.

Video: The camera cranes up and over [Subject] until the view is almost overhead. Do not stop at a high three-quarter.

The camera cranes up and over [Subject] until the view is almost overhead.

What usually goes wrong

The usual wrong cousin is a crane-up that stays oblique, or a locked overhead with no travel. The tell: we never look down, or we were already down.

The fix: boom up and over until the lens is nearly straight down.

Questions