Conveyor

The camera slides past a row of subjects at one unchanging rate, and each one passes through the frame in turn. Nobody gets more time than anybody else.

That equal treatment is the effect. A constant rate makes a line of people or objects read as an inventory, which can be funny, cold, or both.

A straight lateral move at a fixed speed, held from the first frame to the last. No easing at either end, because the moment the rate changes the shot picks a favourite.

The subjects are staged on a line parallel to the travel, at roughly even spacing, so the rhythm of them entering and leaving frame stays regular.

Distance stays fixed too. If the camera drifts nearer or further as it goes, the sizes change and the line stops reading as a line.

Use it for a lineup, a catalogue, a set of before and afters, and any sequence where the comparison between items is the content.

Skip it when one subject matters more than the rest. The form refuses to emphasise anything, so the important one goes past like everything else.

Trucking is any straight lateral move, and it can change speed, ease, or travel past a single subject.

A conveyor holds one rate across a row. If the move eases at either end, or if it dwells on one item, it has become an ordinary trucking shot.

The model eases in and out, because smooth starts and stops are what it has learned motion looks like. Say constant speed with no acceleration at either end.

The second failure is a camera that rotates to keep somebody in frame. Say the lens angle never changes and each subject leaves frame on its own.