"American shot" is a translation of a phrase from French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 film criticism

Film criticism

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...

, "plan américain" and refers to a medium-long ("knee") film shot of a group of characters, who are arranged so that all are visible to the camera. The usual arrangement is for the actors to stand in an irregular line from one side of the screen to the other, with the actors at the end coming forward a little and standing more in profile than the others. The purpose of the composition is to allow complex dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

 scenes to be played out without changes in camera position. In some literature, this is simply referred to as a 3/4 shot.

The French critics thought it was characteristic of American films

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 of the 1930s or 1940s; however, it was mostly characteristic of cheaper American movies, such as Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...

 mysteries where people collected in front of a fireplace or at the foot of the stairs in order to explain what happened a few minutes ago.

Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks

Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...

 legitimized this style in his films, allowing characters to act, even when not talking, when most of the audience would not be paying attention. It became his trademark style.

In Popular Culture

"The American Shot is a New York-based online magazine of cultural criticism. We publish features, reviews, and essays on diverse media of cultural production. Despite the great and many connotations of our title, we unfortunately do not trade in espresso, alcohol, firearms, or American nationalism. Rather, we take our name from the English translation of the term coined by French film critics to describe a convention in American B movies of the 1930s and ‘40s. The American Shot denotes a medium-long shot framing a group of characters so they are simultaneously visible to the camera. The composition allows for dialogue and discussion to be played out in a single frame. Following this deliberately open and discursive structure, we hope to be a platform for critique that is at once intrepid and irreverent, reflective and playful."

See also

• Aerial perspective
  Aerial perspective
  Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any...
  
  
• Aerial shot
  Aerial shot
  Aerial shots are usually done with a crane or with a camera attached to a special helicopter to view large landscapes. This sort of shot would be restricted to exterior locations. A good area to do this shot would be a scene that takes place on a building. If the aerial shot is of a character it...
  
  
• American shot
• Angle of view
  Angle of view
  In photography, angle of view describes the angular extent of a given scene that is imaged by a camera. It is used interchangeably with the more general term field of view....
  
  
• Bird's eye shot
  Bird's eye shot
  In filmmaking and video production, a bird's-eye shot refers to a shot looking directly down on the subject. The perspective is very foreshortened, making the subject appear short and squat. This shot can be used to give an overall establishing shot of a scene, or to emphasise the smallness or...
  
  
• Bird's-eye view
  Bird's-eye view
  A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps.It can be an aerial photograph, but also a drawing...
  
  
• Boom shot
  Boom shot
  "A Boom shot, Jib shot, or Crane shot refer to high-angle shots, sometimes with the camera moving."-See also:*Aerial perspective*Aerial shot*American shot*Angle of view*Bird's eye shot*Bird's-eye view*B-roll*Camera angle*Camera coverage...
  
  
• B-roll
  B-roll
  B-roll, B roll, or Broll is the supplemental or alternate footage intercut with the main shot in an interview or documentary.- History :The term B-roll originates from the method of 16 mm film production from an original camera negative...
  
  
• Camera angle
  Camera angle
  The camera angle marks the specific location at which a camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles. This will give different experience and sometimes emotion. the different camera angles will have different effects on the viewer and how they perceive the scene...
  
  
• Camera coverage
  Camera coverage
  Camera coverage, in filmmaking and video production, is the amount of footage shot and different camera angles used to capture a scene. When in the post-production process, the more camera coverage means that there is more footage for the film editor to work with in assembling the final cut.-See...
  
  
• Camera Dolly
  Camera dolly
  A camera dolly is a specialized piece of filmmaking and television production equipment designed to create smooth camera movements . The camera is mounted to the dolly and the camera operator and focus puller or camera assistant, usually ride on the dolly to operate the camera...
  
  
• Camera operator
  Camera operator
  A camera operator or cameraman is a professional operator of a film or video camera. In filmmaking, the leading cameraman is usually called a cinematographer, while a cameraman in a video production may be known as a television camera operator, video camera operator, or videographer, depending on...
  
  
• Camera tracking
• Cinematic techniques
  Cinematic techniques
  - Basic Definitions of Terms :Aerial Shot:A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter. Not necessarily a moving shot.Backlighting:The main source of light is behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directed toward the camera....
  
  
• Close-up
  Close-up
  In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
  
  
• Crane shot
  Crane shot
  In filmmaking and video production a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane. The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above or to move up and away from them, a common way of ending a movie. Some filmmakers like to have the camera on a boom arm just to make it easier to move...
  
  
• Dolly zoom
  Dolly zoom
  The dolly zoom is an unsettling in-camera effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception. It is part of many cinematic techniques used in filmmaking and television production....
  
  
• Dutch angle
  Dutch angle
  Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, Dutch shot, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, Batman angle, or jaunty angle are terms used for one of many cinematic techniques often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed...
  
  
• Establishing shot
  Establishing shot
  An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects...
  
  
• Film frame
  Film frame
  In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture...
  
  

• Filmmaking
  Filmmaking
  Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
  
  
• Follow shot
  Follow shot
  Follow shot or tracking shot is a specific camera shot in which the subject being filmed is seemingly pursued by the camera. The follow shot can be achieved through tracking devices, panning, the use of a crane, and zoom lenses resulting in different qualitative images but, nevertheless, recording...
  
  
• Forced perspective
  Forced perspective
  Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture...
  
  
• Freeze frame shot
  Freeze frame shot
  A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph....
  
  
• Full frame
  Full frame
  In cinematography, full frame refers to the use of the full film gate at maximum width and height for 35 mm film cameras. It is sometimes also referred to as silent aperture, full gate, or a number of other similar word combinations. It is the original gate size pioneered by William Dickson and...
  
  
• Full shot
• Hanging miniature
  Hanging miniature
  Hanging miniature is an in-camera special effect similar to a matte shot where a model, rather than a painting, is placed in foreground and the action takes place in the background. It is thus a specific form of forced perspective.-Description:...
  
  
• Head shot
  Head shot
  A head shot is a photographic technique where the focus of the photograph is a person's face. Headshot is essentially the same as portrait. However, headshot is an image that portrays people as they are and is more of a "mug shot", however simple or stylized it might be. Whereas, a portrait will...
  
  
• High-angle shot
  High-angle shot
  In film, a high angle shot is usually when the camera is located above the eyeline.With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus often get "swallowed up" by the setting....
  
  
• Long shot
  Long shot
  In photography, filmmaking and video production, a long shot typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings...
  
  
• Long take
  Long take
  A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
  
  
• Low-angle shot
  Low-angle shot
  In cinematography, a low-angle shot, is a shot from a camera positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eyeline, looking up.-Famous examples:...
  
  
• Master shot
  Master shot
  A master shot is a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from an angle that keeps all the players in view. It is often a long shot and can sometimes perform a double function as an establishing shot...
  
  
• Medium shot
  Medium shot
  In film, a medium shot is a camera shot from a medium distance. The dividing line between "long shot" and "medium shot" is fuzzy, as is the line between "medium shot" and "close-up"...
  
  
• Money shot
  Money shot
  A money shot is a moving or stationary visual element of a film, video, television broadcast, print publication, etc., that is disproportionately expensive to produce and/or is perceived as essential to the overall importance or revenue-generating potential of the work.-Cinema:Originally, in...
  
  
• Multiple-camera setup
  Multiple-camera setup
  The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, or multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneously record or broadcast a scene...
  
  
• One shot (music video)
  One shot (music video)
  A "one-shot" is any music video which consists of action, continuous in time and space, from the perspective of a single camera — a single long take. In order to be able to make one shot videos several special techniques are used. Most commonly the stage props which are not currently caught on...
  
  
• Over the shoulder shot
  Over the shoulder shot
  In film or video, an over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever the camera is pointing toward...
  
  
• Panning (camera)
  Panning (camera)
  In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
  
  
• Point of view shot
  Point of view shot
  A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at . It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction...
  
  

• Rack focus
• Reaction shot
  Reaction shot
  Reaction shot is a term used in motion picture production and cinematography referring to a basic unit of film grammar. It is a shot which cuts away from the main scene in order to show the reaction of a character to it....
  
  
• Shot (filmmaking)
• Shot reverse shot
  Shot reverse shot
  Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character , and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character...
  
  
• Single-camera setup
  Single-camera setup
  The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, is a method of filmmaking and video production. A single camera—either motion picture camera or professional video camera—is employed on the set and each shot to make up a scene is taken individually...
  
  
• Tilt (camera)
  Tilt (camera)
  Tilting is a cinematographic technique in which the camera is stationary and rotates in a vertical plane . A rotation in a horizontal plane is known as panning...
  
  
• Top-down perspective
• Tracking shot
  Tracking shot
  In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
  
  
• Trunk shot
  Trunk shot
  The Trunk shot is a camera angle used in cinema when one or more characters need to retrieve something or someone from the trunk of a car. Though the trunk shot can be produced with great difficulty by placing the camera inside the trunk of a car and filming the action outside the trunk of the car,...
  
  
• Two shot
  Two shot
  A Two shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a view of two people . The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two-shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background.The shots are also...
  
  
• Video production
  Video production
  Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
  
  
• Walk and talk
  Walk and talk
  Walk and talk is a distinctive storytelling-technique used in filmmaking and television production in which a number of characters have a conversation en route. The most basic form of walk and talk involves a walking character that is then joined by another character. On their way to their...
  
  
• Whip pan
  Whip pan
  A whip pan is a type of pan shot in which the camera moves sideways so quickly that the picture blurs into indistinct streaks. It is commonly used as a transition between shots, and can indicate the passage of time and/or a frenetic pace of action....
  
  
• Worm's-eye view
  Worm's-eye view
  A worm's-eye view is a view of an object from below, as though the observer were a worm; the opposite of a bird's-eye view.A worm's eye view is used commonly for third perspective when you put one vanishing point on top, one on the left, and one on the right....