Glossary
What is a medium shot?
By the KeyMo team · Updated
A medium shot frames a person from about the waist or chest up, keeping the face readable while showing some body language and surroundings. In a podcast, it often shows the speaker and microphone. When that wide frame becomes a 9:16 clip, the editor must choose how much of the original shot to crop.
Medium shot versus nearby framings
| Framing | What the viewer sees | Useful for a clip |
|---|---|---|
| Wide shot | The person plus much of the room | Showing the set or two speakers together |
| Medium shot | Roughly waist or chest up | A speaker explaining a point with body language |
| Medium close-up | Chest or shoulders up | A conversational answer with more face detail |
| Close-up | Face or object fills most of the frame | An emotional reaction or a precise visual detail |
The names are guides, not a ruler that every production uses the same way. A camera angle, lens and room can make the same person feel tighter or wider. The question is what information the frame preserves.
What happens when a medium shot goes vertical
A landscape podcast frame gives a 9:16 editor more width than a vertical post can show. If the speaker stays centered, the crop may preserve the face but lose a second guest, hands or a useful prop. Face tracking can keep a speaker in view, but it cannot preserve two people in a narrow frame without changing the composition.
- Keep the face and the speaking direction visible.
- Move the crop when the active speaker changes.
- Check subtitles do not cover the mouth or the key prop.
- Use a wider or two-person layout only when the viewer needs both people to understand the sentence.
Medium shot and KeyMo
KeyMo can reframe a long podcast or interview into 9:16 clips with automatic face tracking. The output is 1080x1920 at 30 fps, and every candidate has a score out of 10 and a reason. That does not remove the editor's job: watch the crop, read the captions and move on from a moment that cannot survive the vertical frame.