A group of characters want to discuss something privately amongst themselves, so they form a huddle; the camera POV switches, looking directly upward at the characters' heads and torsos as they talk. This is incredibly common in sports movies, where it appears during "the strategic discussion during halftime". (And in [American] Football movies, it appears even more frequently).
A huddle shot also occurs when a character lies supine and looks upwards, in which case it's a P.O.V. Cam. In a good scenario, the POV-character has overslept on an appointment or has been downed or anything else that justifies their associates to gather around to wait for them to awaken. The POV-character may respond with a freak-out upon seeing loads of people staring down at them but they may also hesitantly ask questions what's happened or going on. In a bad scenario, the POV-character finds themselves surrounded by enemies either as the last thing they see before losing consciousness or the first upon reawakening. These huddle shots tend to involve a lot of slasher smiles.
Examples:
- In the Noonbory and the Super 7 episode "Opposites Attract", Noonbory, Lunabory, Jetybory, and Totobory huddle around the three Dotoris to make sure they're okay.
- Somewhat used (but very dramatic) in the second match again the White Knights in Eyeshield 21. There's literally one second on the clock, and offense is just then switching to Devil Bats. An exhausted Monta catches the ball, and Hiruma calls for a huddle with himself, Monta, Taki, and Sena so that when they break, the White Knights won't know who has the ball.
- The opening to the original Getter Robo starts out with Ryouma, Hayato and Musashi in a huddle.
- In Episode 8 of the Little Lulu anime, Tubby, Wilbur, and Iggy did this in Lulu's presence, when she interrupted their lunch time.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure has one of this during an episode where they had to play volleyball.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey utilizes this shot when Lock, Shock, and Barrel plan their first round of trouble.
- Reborn! has this every now and then, most often before big battles. Normally, everyone except Ryouhei and Yamamoto are less than eager to do it, and tend to find it incredibly embarrassing.
- Smile PreCure! has one with the Cures in episode 6, shortly before their group Transformation Sequence.
- The title screen◊ of Strike Witches 2.
- The Boys:
- Two cover feature this pose, the first issue was of the main cast, and another issue had the original boys.
- In Butcher's origin, there is one of a group of criminals, standing over Butcher after they'd given him a kicking after he attacked them without provocation.
- The Brave Little Toaster, as the appliances gather around the broken picture of the Master.
- A Bug's Life, when they plan to send Flik away on a Snipe Hunt.
- Coco, when Miguel and his dead relatives sneak backstage to Ernesto de la Cruz's Sunrise Specacular and plan to get back Héctor's photo.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
- From the point of view of Twilight Sparkle in the first movie. The rest of the main cast stands over her while she lies gasping for breath after facing off against Rainbow Dash in a one-on-one soccer match.
- In "Dance Magic", it's invoked by Pinkie Pie, who drags all six of her friends and gathers them into a huddle with their heads touching, so that they can brainstorm new ideas for their music video.
- It occurs in Once Upon a Forest after Russel the Hedgehog survives almost being run over by a car, ending up on his back as his friends check up on him.
- In Turning Red, Mei and her friends are seen like this as they decide if they will attend Tyler's birthday party.
- The opening of Angels Revenge. It's boob-tastic.
- The Blind Side: Right before Michael begins leading the Wingate Crusaders' Miracle Rally against the Lions.
- The Covenant uses this after Caleb swims into the side of the pool.
- Used rather threateningly in Fight Club, when Tyler Durden is delivering his We Are Everywhere threat.
- The Goonies had this when they realize they have enough treasure to ensure that they don't need to leave.
- The poster for the movie version of Holes.
- HOTS had one during the strip-football game. Memorably, all the girls are topless.
- There is a very similar shot in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, though from the point of view of the treasure that has just been dug up, instead of from a character. It was parodied with an identical shot in The Simpsons when everyone is searching for the loot of the Cat Burglar.
- The picture is from A Knight's Tale, after the villain is thrown off his horse: "You have been weighed, measured and found wanting."
- The poster for the film version of The Losers has the eponymous characters huddled above, about to shoot you.
- M*A*S*H (the film) has a football game at the end, pretty sure it showed up there.
- Used in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl for a shot where Greg and his parents join in a group hug.
- Midnight Madness: Right after all the teams are given the first clue, the Green team (being all football players) huddle as their quarterback gives them a pep talk to start.
- Used in Mystery Men, where all the members of the team huddle together and say "Zai Gazunt" (a Yiddish phrase derived from the German "Seit Gesund", meaning "Be healthy"), which had not been even slightly alluded to prior in the movie.
- Peter Pan: "We shall build a house around her!"
- Shaolin Soccer just before facing their opponents in the semi-finals.
- Spice World: when Damien the undercover photographer ends up on the floor, he sees the Spice Girls looking at him in this way.
- In the Disney film Superdad after Bob Crane gets conked on the head, there's a shot of a huddle of people over him. One of them was doing How Many Fingers?.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- The first movie, when they're fighting Shredder. "At what point did we lose control here?" "Maybe we should tell him 'we're the good guys.'"
- Also done in the second film where they need to keep the canister of ooze out of Tetsu and the Foot Clan's hands.
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, after Raph and Mikey trick Casey into charging Splinter for shit and giggles, and he gets his ass trounced by the ninjustu master, we get a short shot from Casey's viewpoint, with the Turtles, April and Splinter huddled above him.
- The Brittas Empire: The last shot of the episode "The Last Day" before the credits roll is everyone huddled together and looking down at Brittas' grave in shock as he revives and knocks on the coffin.
- Eight is Enough does it in the opening credits sequence, as the family plays touch football.
- Hawaii Five-0: "Hauoli La Ho'omakai", being a Thanksgiving Episode, starts out with the protagonists, friends and family playing football, and we gets two huddle shots, one for each team.
- The signature image from House has the main cast (from the first several seasons) huddled around presumably the point of view of the patient.
- The M*A*S*H opening has two individual "huddle shots": one of Hawkeye and one of BJ. They're the only ones in the shots though, so it might not count. There was one ep where it was shot from the patient's POV, there was a huddle or two in that one.
- Ms. Marvel: In "Crushed", after Kamala faints at the diner table from a superpower-induced vision, she wakes up on the floor with her family worriedly huddled above her.
- The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Magnificent Ferengi" has one of these, combined with a P.O.V.Cam from Keevan's eyes, though after he is killed.
- That '70s Show has some of these in its "Stoner-wipes".
- The cover photo from the self-titled album by Amon Duul is similar to this, except that the camera appears to be above them rather than below them.
- Jefferson Airplane have one on the cover of their box set, Jefferson Airplane Loves You.
- Played straight with the cover for N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton.
- Played for Laughs in "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Like a Surgeon" Music Video where you see a bunch of surgeons as well as a football player huddled around a patient.
- If the player loses a match in Tongue of the Fat Man, a screen shows what would be this view if it weren't for the speech bubble taking a large part of the screen.
- Occurs in Daughter for Dessert after the protagonist passes out in the diner. He wakes up to find Amanda, Kathy, and Mortelli all looking down at him.
- In the infamous APPLE.MOV My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic parody, Spike and the ponies gather around Applejack after she overdoses on apples and appears to go into a seizure.
- Used in ILoveKimPossibleAlot's My Little Review of the PONY.MOV series. After KP faints from watching the shorts (and finding herself in the same art style), the avatars of her fellow reviewers huddle above her.
- Flander's Company: In episode "Taxe Carbone", after Recycle-Man gets massacred by Gladys, he wakes up in a hospital bed with the Flander's Company people huddled above him.
- Adventure Time: In the episode "James", Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum do this as they debate on the episode's title character. James somehow manages to sneak himself in the huddle.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The teenage villains of Avatar: The Last Airbender do this while getting ready to destroy an opposing volleyball team.
- The Legend of Korra uses the "Spirit of Competition", between Mako, Bolin and Korra when Mako tries to build up confidence for the upcoming tournament.
- Bob's Burgers: In "Hawk and Chick", the Belcher family huddle together planning to reunite Koji with his daughter. Koji himself enters the huddle, scaring everyone.
- In Code Lyoko's "New Order", Jérémie, Aelita, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich all huddle together to the unveiling of Aelita's first cell phone.
- Dinosaur Train: In "Surprise Party", Tiny, Shiny and Don huddle up to discuss plans for the surprise party they are throwing for Buddy.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy have done this. One time they huddled without anything happening because Eddy couldn't think of a scam.
- Kaeloo: Used in the Baseball Episode, where Kaeloo's team discusses strategies to beat their extremely talented opponents.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Done by the Apple family in the episode "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", when debating on whether or not to agree to the Flim-Flam brothers' offer. The brothers somehow manage to sneak themselves in the huddle.
- In "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1", when Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike and Twilight are examining the items that will become the Keys, the point of view is from the floor.
- In the Ready Jet Go! special "Back to Bortron 7", this happens while Jet, Sean, and Sydney are thinking up ideas to improve the presentation.
- Parodied in Sheep in the Big City where General Specific holds his comrades horizontally in the air to imitate this shot.
- Total Drama:
- Owen gets hit with four balls at once during the dodgeball game in "Dodgebrawl". He is knocked down and as he slowly recovers from the impact, he blurrily sees the other Gopher dodgeball players on the field huddle around him to check up on him.
- DJ is terrified to the point of fainting in "The Sand Witch Project". He comes to in a semi-sitting position surrounded by his concerned fellow contestants. Still half-hallucinating, DJ doesn't register them as he talks to his mother in his dream. Heather slaps him to full consciousness.
- In "Evil Dread", the Heroic Hamsters minus Sam, who has fallen off the platform, huddle together to discuss a strategy for finding all seven pieces of their landmark replica. Zoey comes up a plan for each team member to cover a section of the beach, which Courtney counters with the same plan in different wording. Once Cameron points out they're the same thing, the team agrees and does a Team Hand-Stack, which Courtney openly reluctantly participates in.
- Welcome to Tonka Town: Chuck, Boomer, Pete, Hook and Ladder do one near the beginning of “Race Day In Tonka Town”.