A camera shot filmed from an airplane, helicopter, blimp, balloon, kite or high building (higher than a crane).

a camera shot filmed in an exterior location from far overhead (from a bird's eye view), as from a helicopter (most common), blimp, balloon, plane, or kite; a variation on the crane shot; if the aerial shot is at the opening of a film, aka an establishing shot Examples: the hunting scene in Tom Jones (1963), the helicopter raid in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), the title card for Dr. Strangelove, Or: (1964) (see above), or the opening aerial shot of Manhattan in West Side Story (1961), of Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), and of American Beauty (1999).

variation on the crane shot; however, only takes place in exterior locations, most often taken from a helicopter (e.g., used extensively in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and used in the helicopter raid scenes in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979)).