Zoom
Changing the focal length of the lens during a shot to make the subject appear closer or further away.
In depth
Unlike a tracking shot where the camera physically moves, a zoom magnifies the image. A 'Dolly Zoom' combines both for a vertigo-inducing effect.
Example
“The slow zoom in on Michael Corleone's face in 'The Godfather'.”
Origin and history
Practical zoom lenses arrived in cinema in the late 1950s and were heavily exploited through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in television, where the technique became identified with news, sports, and rapid-zoom action sequences. The 'crash zoom' — a sudden, fast push-in — became a hallmark of grindhouse and martial arts cinema. Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and the Wachowskis all use zooms as deliberate stylistic homage to that era.
Why filmmakers use it
A zoom feels different from a dolly because the relationship between foreground and background changes only with the dolly, not the zoom. A pure zoom flattens space and isolates the subject; a dolly preserves natural perspective. Combining the two in opposite directions produces the dolly zoom (or 'Vertigo effect'), which is one of cinema's most psychologically charged camera moves — used in 'Vertigo,' 'Jaws,' 'Goodfellas,' and 'Lord of the Rings' to externalize sudden inner realization.
More examples in cinema
- Steven Spielberg's beach moment in 'Jaws' (1975) uses a dolly zoom on Sheriff Brody to capture the shock of seeing the shark attack.
- Edgar Wright's films use rapid crash zooms as a comedic punctuation mark.
Common confusion
Zooming and tracking are often used interchangeably in casual speech, but they produce very different optical effects. A tracking shot through a doorway feels like walking; a zoom through the same doorway feels like the doorway itself is being magnified.