Watch any decent movie and you’ll see a variety of shots used to tell the story. One of the first is the Establishing Shot. This tends to be a wider shot that includes the environment in which the story takes place. It’s used to establish the spatial relationship among the films characters, objects and overall setting of the film. 

In still photography, this is akin to the broader scenic images. As the story unfolds, you find the camera come in tighter on the main subject in the story. In a Long Shot, you’ll see the main character almost fill the frame.