Astronomy Common Knowledge Quiz.......
Quizzes & Puzzles2 mins ago
No best answer has yet been selected by Kingaroo. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I thought 'to pan' meant moving the camera about a vertical axis to produce a horizontal motion.
As in 'Pan and Tilt head' on a tripod.
Often used when following a moving object in a scene so that the object remains, say, in the centre of the shot; or to emphasise a great vista by slowly panning across the panorama and thus revealing it a bit at a time.
The earliest recorded uses of 'pan out' in the figurative sense of just 'turn out well' date back to the 1860/70s. This predates any meaningful use of cinematographic techniques such as 'panning' by some time. Indeed, the very first recorded use of the word 'pan' in the filming sense did not appear until 1913, about half a century later.
So, the answer to your question, Kingaroo - which was effectively "Where does this phrase come from?" - is most assuredly "From gold-mining."