Establishing shot is an opening wide shot that orients the viewer to a location before the scene begins.
An establishing shot is a wide-angle view, often from a high vantage point, used to anchor a scene's geography before the camera moves closer to the action. The convention was codified during the silent era and the early Hollywood studio system, when audiences needed visual cues to follow rapid scene changes. Classic examples include the recurring exterior of the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) or the long aerial sweeps over Manhattan that open countless American films. The shot does more than locate; it sets tone. Wim Wenders's 'Wings of Desire' (1987) opens above a divided Berlin and the city itself becomes a character. Some directors deliberately omit the establishing shot to disorient — Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' (1980) opens with helicopter shots so prolonged they tip into menace. The presence or absence of an establishing shot is one of the first decisions a director makes about how the audience will inhabit the world.