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Extreme close up:
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The subject framed by the camera fills the screen. This can create a sense of intimacy with a character, make the audience aware of the importance of an item or moment, or divert the audience's attention away from important information.
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The Quick and the Dead
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I Origins
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Close up:
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A detailed view of a person or object. A close-up of an actor usually includes only his or her head and tends to emphasize the emotion being felt by the character, the importance of the moment or the relationship between the character and the situation. A close up of an object implies the object's importance.
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Apollo 13
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Mission Impossible 3 (Warning: Violence)
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The Untouchables (Warning: Violence)
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Medium Shot:
(Mid Shot) |
A Medium Shot frames a character from the waist, hips or knees up (or down, technically - but it's rare to need a medium shot of someone's knees and shins). The camera is sufficiently distanced from the body for the character to be seen in relation to her or his surroundings (in an apartment, for example).
The Medium Shot is the workhorse of films. It does a whole heap of stuff and generally doesn't get much credit, but take it out and the techniques you've got left are all over achievers desperately stealing attention from each other. Here's why: The Medium Shot isn't obvious. Close Ups have a pretty clear purpose, Wide Shots have a fairly restricted range of uses but the Medium Shot can be highly versatile. It certainly allows the other shots to stand out, but it can also express quite a few meanings itself, often dependent upon the other items visible around the featured character. Why no example? Because they are everywhere. Check the other video excerpts on this site and you will find one pretty quickly. |
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Long Shot:
(Wide Shot) |
The subject of the shot is kept at some distance from the camera. While not as wide as the Extreme long Shot, the wide shot makes it difficult to see facial expressions and therefore tends to highlight emotions via other means. It can help distance the audience from an event or character, or show the character being distanced from others. Naturally, it can also emphasise the distance between objects and/or individuals.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
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The Thing
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Extreme Long Shot: (Extreme Wide)
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A panoramic view of an exterior location, photographed from a great distance. the effect can be to exaggerate the space around an individual (Flight of the Phoenix), or as an establishing shot (Star Trek: First Contact, which zooms from an extreme close up to an extreme wide shot). The Extreme Wide Shot tends to , at least temporarily, make the environment more important than the character.
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Flight of the Phoenix
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Star Trek: First Contact
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Point of View:
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Any shot that is taken from the vantage point of a character in the film, showing what the character sees. In the case of the movie 'Jaws', that character is the shark. Sometimes a POV shot makes the audience more aware of the perspective of the "seeing" character, sometimes it makes us more aware of the character being watched!
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Enemy at the Gates
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Lock, stock and Two Smoking Barrels
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Jaws
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