Close Up Shots, When & How? – FREE Film School
Welcome to this week’s FREE Film School. If you’ve only just joined us, you can check out the previous week’s lessons here.
The different types of shots are the colours on the filmmaker’s palette. And if you’ve ever spent time looking at paintings, you will know some artists use colours in ways that inspire you more than others.
I try not to judge (for us humans that’s a really hard thing to do), so I won’t use the terms good and bad. Like the use of paints by painters, how we appreciate them is an entirely subjective experience. And that experience is very susceptible to influence by all kinds of factors.
Imagine you are walking into an art gallery. Your friend is an aspiring artist and you’ve been invited to the opening night of her exhibition.
CUT TO: WIDE SHOT – INT. LONDON ART GALLERY – NIGHT.
As MOMO BLOG READER (37) enters the gallery by the main door, she is greeted by the sight of about 50 GUESTS: drinking wine, chatting or thoughtfully observing the many PAINTINGS on the white walls.
CLOSE UP ON: MoMo Blog Reader as her face fills with anxiety. In her case, it’s social anxiety. We STAY CLOSE as MoMo Blog Reader fights her desire to turn and flee from the gallery.
MoMo Blog Reader takes a deepth breath. Lets the breath out slowly, calming herself. She nods to herself, having overcome the anxiety. For now.
FOLLOW MoMo Blog Reader as she moves through the GUESTS. She stands by a wall, looking left and right for her friend. But the friend is busy talking to an important looking MALE GUEST (55).
CLOSE UP ON: MoMo Blog Reader as panic spreads across her face once more. FOLLOW her eyes to the PAINTING she is standing beside.
CLOSE UP: PAINTING of a terrified woman surrounded by snarling demons. The colours appear to clash, orange against blue, red against green and so on. The paint on the canvas starts to move around the canvas, wildly, feverishly.
CLOSE UP ON: MoMo Blog Reader gasping for breath. Anxiety overwhelming her mind…
What Is a ‘Close Up’ Shot?
A close up is generally thought of as a type of camera shot size in film and television that tightly frames an actor’s face. But close ups can also be framed on important objects in the story, too. Essentially, it focuses the audience’s attention completely on whatever is happening in the close up.
By going close on an actor to reveal their expression, it allows the actor to establish a greater emotional connection with the audience at that moment. A close up brings the audience into a position of great intimacy with the performer. If someone allowed you to get this close in real life, they would have to know you pretty well.
So, in general, close ups reveal the inner workings of the character more than any other shot. For this reason, many actors hold themselves back when performing wider shots and reserve their most powerful emotions for the close up.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard
Unique to Moving Pictures
It took awhile for the invention of the close up. When cinema was first invented, filmmakers used the camera as a kind of stationary viewer with one shot which covered the whole scene. Actors entered and exited the “stage” in a way similar to theatre.
But by the turn of the 18th century, filmmakers like George Albert Smith, James Williamson and D.W. Griffith started using close ups. And these first uses of close ups can been seen in films such as As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), The Big Swallow (1901) and The Lonedale Operator (1911).
The use of such shots made cinema into a medium very different to theatre. Actors no longer had to exaggerate or “project” their emotions, as close up shots revealed every slight muscle movement in the actor’s face.
For this reason, cinema changed acting techniques forever. In a close up, acting methods developed for the stage appeared wildly over the top and unnaturalistic. Over the next 60-70 years, actors and acting coaches devised techniques more suited to film. And, in general, these new ideas focused on helping an actor create more subtle, nuanced and “realistic” performances.
Variations
There are different types of close up shot. They are often named like this:
- Medium Close Up: framing from the waist up. Can include more than one actor.
- Close Up: Framing on the face, with neck and perhaps shoulders too.
- Extreme close Up: Going in very close, framing only the face. Sometimes only lips or only eyes.
- Insert: frames an object or an activity which otherwise might be missed by the audience.
The Close Up in Storytelling
At what point should we cut to a close up? Essentially, this is a creative decision. This is entirely your choice as a filmmaker and comes down to your vision for the film.
However, here’s some common ideas to think about:
- To convey emotion. During an emotional moment, cut to a close up to allow the actor to portray a character’s innermost feelings.
- To reveal character detail. In general, close ups are used to reveal small details. If an actor winks or smirks, for example, the audience might not notice if the shot is too wide.
- Change of pace/dramatic energie. Increase the dramatic intensity of the scene by moving in close.
- Plot reveal. Specific reactions by characters. Small actions we might not see otherwise. Important objects, signs or props which are essential to let the audience know what’s going on.
- Intimacy. A close up creates a more intimate point of view. The audience find themselves in a proximity to the actor where we in real life only find ourselves when we are emotionally “close” to someone.
This Week’s FREE film School Exercise
So, how can we learn from this? One way is to go shoot a movie and try it out. Shooting and editing is the best way to learn filmmaking. But if you want to practice on your own first, you can also do some theory exercises.
Exercise 1
Find a film you like and either stream it or play the DVD or Bluray. Now, find a scene or sequence in the film and watch it through, observing how close ups are used. I find it helps to take notes as I watch, as this reinforces the thoughts as they come to you.
Exercise 2
If you have a screenplay written already, you can go through a few scenes and think about where you might want a close up. But if you don’t have a script to work with, there are many professional scripts online for you to download for free.
I recommend you print out the script (or at least a portion of it) for the purposes of the exercise. Now, first step is to go through the screenplay and highlight with a pen wherever you see a close up being used. Use the knowledge you gained from watching the film in exercise 2.
For the second part of this exercise, you can create a storyboard of the scene or scenes you choose to practice with. Map out how the shots change, and think carefully about where you will include close ups.
That’s it for this week. Don’t forget you can read previous lessons here.
You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss next week’s FREE Film School:
