Medium shot
Also known as: mid shot, medium framing
Framing that shows a subject and enough surroundings to place them, the middle ground between a wide landscape and a close detail.
Updated
What it means
A medium shot is the workhorse framing. The rider fills a good part of the frame and the feature around them is still readable, which is the combination that explains to a viewer what actually happened, the way an Establishing shot cannot.
It sits between the two extremes that get all the attention. A wide shot shows a place and a Close-up shot shows a detail, and most of what an edit actually needs is between them.
On an action camera it is a question of distance rather than lens. The lens does not change, so a medium shot means a filmer standing at the right distance and nothing else.
How it works in practice
It is the shot to get first. A session with only medium shots cuts into something watchable, where a session of only wides or only details does not, which makes it the safe choice under pressure.
Distance is the control that matters. A few metres closer or further changes the shot completely, and finding the position before the run is what separates a filmer from somebody holding a camera.
It cuts cleanly against everything. A medium shot sits comfortably next to a wide or a close-up, which is why a Sequence order built around it accommodates both without jarring.
What to watch out for
It is the easiest framing to leave uninteresting. Nothing about it is dramatic, so a sequence made entirely of medium shots is competent and flat, and needs the extremes around it for contrast.
Too far back turns it into a wide. The rider becomes small, the feature dominates, and the shot stops doing the job it was framed for without anybody deciding that.
Stabilisation crops toward tighter framing. A Stabilization crop of ten percent moves a medium shot in that direction, so framing slightly wide leaves room for the correction.
How RawClip handles it
Medium framing tends to score well during selection, because both the action and enough of its context are visible in the same frame. A session filmed mostly at this distance gives the assembly the most usable material to work with.