dolly (shot)

  refers to a moving shot in which the perspective of the subject and background is changed; the shot is taken from a camera that is mounted on a hydraulically-powered wheeled camera platform (sometimes referred to as a truck or dolly), pushed on rails (special tracks) and moved smoothly and noiselessly during filming while the camera is running; a pull-back shot (or dolly out) is the moving back ('tracking back') of the camera from a scene to reveal a character or object that was previously out of the frame, dolly in is when the camera moves closer ('tracking in') towards the subject, and dollying along with (or 'tracking within') refers to the camera moving beside the subject; also known as tracking shot, trucking shot, follow shot, or traveling shot; contrast with zoom shots.

  Examples: the first eight minutes of Robert Altman's The Player (1992) was filmed with a sustained dolly shot, similar to the famous opening sequence (shown here) of Welles' Touch of Evil (1958); or the opening shot in Boogie Nights (1997) that tracked into the 70s disco, or the shot from the dressing room to the ring in Raging Bull (1980)