A "Dolly Shot" in film is when the camera moves towards or away from a subject. Generally, a camera is placed on a camera dolly which in turn is placed on tracks leading up to the subject a director wants to focus in on.
Director Oscar Apfel of Edison Studios created the first dolly shot in cinematic history in June 1912's "The Passer-by." He wanted to focus in on a passer-by who is escorted into a parlor where several friends want to reminiscence on the past, but need to fill a spot that an associate left empty for being called away. This passer-by, when he begins to tell is story from the past, becomes the director's primary interest. At 3:15 into the movie, Apfel has his camera moves in on actor Marc McDermott, the passer-by for a close-up. A substitution dissolve takes place as McDermott discards the old makeup powder to a younger look. Then the camera dollies backwards to show him with a different group of guys in a separate location. Apfel calls for the same dolly movement near the end of the movie before the reveal takes place.
The director used cinema's first dolly shot to great effect, lending to not only showing the interior angst of McDermott in the beginning and in the conclusion of the film but also eliminates and then introduces a new set of characters (then returning) crossing the timespans dictated by the plot.
Apfel later became known as the director who showed the ropes to making movies to a young Cecil B. DeMille when both joined the Laskey Play Company to film the 1914 feature film "The Squaw Man."
