A platform (made of scaffolding) used to raise a Camera and crew (or lighting) above the ground for high-angle shots.  Often used on Location to film through a window, or to light a room on the second floor of a two-story house.  One of the highest Parallel shots of all time is in Hitchcock’s "North by Northwest" when the Camera looks down on Cary Grant while he waits by the crossroads next to the corn fields... just before the Crop Duster appears.