why are establishing shots used in filmmaking?

Question

what effects does it give? and how do they affect the audience/viewers?

please help!

Dan

Answer 1

The establishing shot is used to let the audience know where the action is taking place. It "establishes" the context of the scene. It also may "wake" viewers up from a long scene that has just occurred, grabbing their attention with new scenery.

(e.g. If a scene simply cut from a room of a hotel, to another room somewhere, the audience would be disoriented!)

Answer 2

I don't know, but it seems to be mainly American series that do this. For some reason, they can't begin any scene without showing the outside of the building where it's taking place. I find it really annoying - especially in a show like Friends, which uses the same three sets all the time anyway (the main apartment, the apartment across the hall, Central Perk) so why do we need to show the outside of each building every time?

Luckily British programme-makers credit the audience with a bit more intelligence. Even a show like Coronation Street, with half a dozen house interiors and plenty of other sets (the factory, the Rovers, the taxi office, the chippy, Roy's cafe, the newsagents, the hairdressers...) doesn't need to do establishing shots. We know where these places are: we don't need to see outside the building first.

Answer 3

They set up the situation and mood to give the viewers a clue about what's going on.