Many young videographers often ask, "What is a Dutch Angle? What is a 'canted' shot? A canted shot is a shot taken with a tilted horizon.  The old Twilight Zone series used these shots as a signature. A simple way to cant a shot from a tripod is to place the camera on the tripod head and rotate the camera horizontally 90 degrees from the normal position of in a straight line with the pan handle. 

 

Now, if you raise and lower the panhandle, the camera (positioned sideways) will give a subjective shot with a tilted horizon.  Think of it this way:  you know how dogs will also cock their heads sideways sometimes?  The canted shot is the view the dog’s brain will get from its tilted head.  Translation to the viewer:  “confusion” or “the world’s gone mad” or a really bad amateur with a home camcorder is “fooling around with bizarre shots.” See an example in our VIDEO TECHNIQES.

 

A crab shot is a shot obtained from a crab dolly.  A crab dolly is usually a dolly with 4 instead of 3 wheels.  A crab dolly usually has 2 and often has 4 steerable wheels attached to a “steering wheel” type of handle.  Often a crab dolly is placed on a track so the grip pushes the dolly along and the shot is exactly as preplanned.  Often on a crab dolly the camera operator is standing on the dolly as well so the grip moves both the camera on a tripod and the camera operator.  This makes for a very stable moving shot.  Because the track can be either curved or straight, the term dolly or truck doesn’t apply.  Oftentimes, a discerning viewer can not watch a shot and figure out if it is a dolly or a truck.  The shot will look like a dolly or truck to the viewer unless the shot includes both a dolly and a truck,which can usually only be achieved with a crab dolly.