Panning

Focus on a corner of the room, now focus on the adjacent corner. Go ahead . . . . .

Did you slowly turn your head from corner to corner taking in every detail of the entire wall as you went? Of course you didn't . . . . . . . you simply turned towards the other corner and refocused on it. You did that because that is the natural way we look at things. You will probably see lots of panning in home movies but rarely in a filmmakers work.

The general rule for panning is DON'T, because it is not something our eyes naturally do. Rather than pan a scene it is far more effective to cut to different angles of the main focal points of the scene.

However filmmakers do often have a need to pan a large area, usually to set the scene or introduce characters. So they use a technique called the Motivated Pan. This technique pans a scene but it gives your eyes a reason to pan. Following a cyclist along a length of road past shops introduces the streetscape. To introduce a large natural landscape the camera may follow a far off plane or a bird along the horizon. The pan is always done in one direction only, never repeatedly side to side.

Ten people are seated around a table at a restaurant and they need to be introduced to the film. Enter the waiter - the camera follows the waiter around the table. The main characters are the focus of our attention as they have the speaking roles but the silent waiter provides a natural reason to pan around the table.

The aim in the scene below was to pan the industrial waterfront. The canoeists in the foreground are used as the motivators for the pan.

Another effective variation on this is the Swish (or Whip) Pan. The camera is moved rapidly from left to right or right to left, appearing as image blur. Two such pans in the same direction -- one moving from, the other moving to a stationary shot -- edited together can effectively convey a passage of time or change of location.