How to Use establishing shot in a Sentence

establishing shot

noun
  • So, no, the establishing shot of the lot isn’t meant as a jab at cinema.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 4 Dec. 2020
  • Or your friend hires you to take an establishing shot for his short film.
    Veronica Ramirez, USA TODAY, 16 Oct. 2017
  • After the last establishing shot of Baldwin was in the can, lunch was called.
    Meg James, Amy Kaufman and Julia Wick, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Nov. 2021
  • One establishing shot lingers on a raven cawing on a tree branch.
    Scott Phillips, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2023
  • Rohmer doesn’t film a lot of big establishing shots or give the viewer a tour of Biarritz in montage.
    Christine Smallwood, New York Times, 14 May 2018
  • The episode featured an establishing shot of Big Ben with the joke thrown in of it now having a digital face.
    Mike Bloom, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Nov. 2022
  • From there, forget a long establishing shot of a spaceship.
    Joey Morona, cleveland.com, 15 May 2018
  • While keeping the plot vague, the trailer provides a sense of the show's epic scope, with one impressive establishing shot after another.
    Brendan Morrow, The Week, 14 July 2022
  • The latter settled for filming a handful of establishing shots in Baltimore before sending star Oprah Winfrey and the rest of the cast to Georgia.
    Hannah Yasharoff, baltimoresun.com, 14 Apr. 2018
  • Between the dramatic reenactments and the slick-looking establishing shots, Bagans plays and replays any scrap of footage that seems provocative or freaky.
    Noel Murray, latimes.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • There are establishing shots galore of Tokyo’s streets and public spaces — the Ozu influence is strong with this one — that are matched by the toilet cleaner moving through them with the greatest of ease.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 7 Feb. 2024
  • In Aniq’s rom-com version of the event, a majority of the action is shot inside the vehicle, with a minimal establishing shot of the car leaving the driveway.
    Wilson Chapman, Variety, 3 Mar. 2022
  • Betts’ original cut opened on an establishing shot of a tree in a grassy field, which is later revealed to be an unmarked burial ground for America’s enslaved Africans.
    Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
  • After an initial establishing shot, the camera pays less attention to the friends and more to the musically inclined Nelly and Johnny.
    Alison Willmore, Vulture, 22 Feb. 2021
  • Other moments that would leave baseball fans shaking their heads included when the marquee outside Chicago’s Wrigley Field is shown as an establishing shot for a road game.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Sep. 2019
  • Over this establishing shot a girl is heard whispering a strange incantation.
    Maria Garcia, latimes.com, 25 June 2019
  • The director, Julius Onah, plays with the image of a box more than once in the establishing shots of Luce’s school, a rectangular building with darkened windows, and also in the rows of student lockers that figure into the plot.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2019
  • Second unit directors lead a crew to capture additional footage, such as establishing shots and stunts.
    Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Even some of the establishing shots (including the Aqua Tower with its distinctive exterior) are slightly more interesting than your run of the mill b-roll.
    Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 15 July 2019
  • That opening montage of establishing shots, all desolate prairies and lonely roads, offers a hushed tour of the community's more scenic rural stretches.
    A.a. Dowd, Chron, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Often classroom scenes are blocked so that children aren’t needed for more than an establishing shot, and those classrooms are designed to resemble real classrooms as closely as possible.
    Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Either some poor editor painstakingly erased Mike from the establishing shots, or some poor editor plopped his Photoshopped spectral form into some random footage.
    Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 19 June 2018
  • An astonishing establishing shot of the prairie at sunset is particularly Zhaoesque.
    Jeva Lange, The Week, 5 Nov. 2021
  • Season 2 will return for three days and be directed remotely, due to the security risk, but will shoot several scenes featuring key Ukrainian cast, including star Kseniya Mishina, as well as some establishing shots.
    Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 20 Feb. 2023
  • International locations are teased with on-screen chyrons and overhead drone establishing shots, but without a hint of on-the-ground authenticity or production values.
    Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Apr. 2023
  • Speaking of forced nostalgia, the movie frequently and distractingly cuts to retro-chic pixel art animations, both for establishing shots and to illustrate historical flashbacks from the characters' point of view.
    Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Wide shots, for those unfamiliar with the lingo of cinematography, are spacious, open compositions, often full-body views of characters and their surroundings (frequently used for broad-scale action or establishing shots).
    Jason Bailey, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'establishing shot.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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