FILM SCHOOL ABRIDGED - SHOT SIZES

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to start this undertaking off with and I ultimately decided to start with the subject covered in the one and only episode of Lens Cracker. Specifically; SHOT SIZES. This really is the most basic of the concepts on the cheat sheet to understand, as well as among the most helpful in the realm of planning your shoot.

So on your cheat sheet, look on the far right side of the sheet.

Hm, let's lay that out a bit cleaner. Click below to get a larger view.
And below is the same idea expressed differently. Right, let's go through this, eh?

ECU - Extreme Close-Up
CU - Close-Up
MCU - Medium Close-Up
MS - Medium Shot
MLS - Medium Long Shot
LS - Long Shot
WS - Wide Shot



Through these thumbnail descriptors, you'll be able to describe 99% of all shots you've ever seen in every film/video/tv show/comic book/advertizement/poster/video game/logo you've encountered, including your own (whether you used them consciously or not). If you do a search for 'shot size', you'll find every source will have slightly different names but this I find to be the most practical to remember and put into practice.

Now, there's a reason I've got the abbreviated form of each shot size on the Cheat Sheet in place of its full description. Before I talk about each of those in detail, I want to talk about why.

One of the most important elements of directing is going in knowing exactly what you're going to shoot and being able to communicate this with everyone else. This gives a universal short-hand to aid in both. And while many more challenging shots are helpful to storyboard to assist others to visualize, most shots don't need anything more than 'MCU John, deep focus'. Often even a more complicated shot can be described this way, too: 'Dolly back from MCU to LS John; reveal MS Claire (facing camera) on "The world sucks...".' or 'Crane up MCU John to LS overhead, slow clockwise spin.'. This, as you can imagine, saves a great deal of effort; pertinent information conveyed in as little as 2 words per shot rather than taking the time and effort to storyboard an entire project.

Wide Shot (WS)
A good way to think of a Wide Shot is that it places your subject in the full context of their environment. This shot size can be used to make a person seem small and lonely, or just to help to establish location. In fact, it's sometimes called an 'Establishing Shot' for that very reason.

There is no limit on how far back you can take the camera.

EXAMPLE FROM 'YOJIMBO'


Long Shot (LS)
Head to toe. Because this shot shows the full movement of a person, it's often used in sitcoms or broad humor.

Like a Wide Shot, this shot size is good for giving an audience a sense of placement of the characters to their environment and relation to each other. You may notice that many older films use this size of shot quite a bit. Going for a bit of a tangent here, but generally that's for one of two reasons; first because early filmmakers often treated films like stage plays. And second because playing a scene wider meant the need for less coverage as everything can cleanly be seen on screen in a single frame. In many cases this allowed for tighter shooting schedules.

EXAMPLE FROM 'FAWLTY TOWERS'


Medium Long Shot (MLS)
Head to just above the knees. Also called a Cowboy because it was used in westerns to show the gun holster. This is used more often than you'd think.

If you're going to go wider than the knees, as a rule you should jump straight to a Long Shot; it really does feel weird when there's a picture that's framed so it cuts a subjects legs off half-way down the shins. Framing like that generally feels tentative and unbalanced.


EXAMPLE FROM 'COWBOYS & ALIENS'


Medium Shot (MS)
Head to waist. This is the closest shot size most sitcoms will go.

Now we're transitioning into more intimate shot sizes. It's less about the character in relation to the space they're in, or capturing the totality of movements. Starting here and especially moving forward, a closer shot size can capture more subtlety of performance. A medium shot is a good balance of that as it remains far enough away that the character isn't imposing on personal space.

Getting much closer than this during frenetic action scenes will make it difficult to comprehend what's happening and who's doing what. On a more practical level, this is still wide enough to smoothly follow movement with a camera during live events and such. Much closer and there's not much wiggle room.

Most homebrew review shows use this shot size nearly exclusively.

EXAMPLE FROM 'STAR WARS EPISODE I'... OR MAYBE 'EPISODE II'...


Medium Close Up (MCU)
Head and shoulders. Dramas tend to spend a lot of time here. It's more intimate than a Medium, but still allows for breathing room. Used heavily for conversations.

This actually has the most amount of wiggle room out of any of the shot sizes discussed so far save for WS. Framing belly button up still counts as an Medium Close Up. As does framing with just a couple inches of shoulders showing.

In addition to allowing more subtle performances to come through, the closer the camera is to the subject the more intense it feels. This is especially the case when used in conjunction with editing so it gets tighter and tighter. That approach can be seen in many interrogation scenes where the staging has little to no movement.

EXAMPLE FROM 'THE KING'S SPEECH'


Close Up (CU)
The full face. Can be as wide as head and neck. This is a very intimate shot size. A lot of subtlety comes across, and performances are often underplayed because of that.

Generally you're not going to want to have a lot of movement in a close up. It's hard to keep a close up when the actor is running down a hallway. Likewise, there's very little information in a close up alone as to where the character is in relation to the space they're in.

EXAMPLE FROM 'JCVD'


Extreme Close Up (ECU)
A part of the whole. An easy way to think of this is that an ECU is close enough on the subject that it completely fills the screen.

As with MCUs, there is actually a lot of variety for what can be considered an Extreme Close Up. If you get a little closer with a Close Up so the chin is cut off, you've got an ECU. Likewise is a shot where someone's eye is taking up the whole screen such as in this shot from Blade Runner.

Used to call attention to something such as being close on the eyes widening in realization, or close on a clock to establish the time. A shot like this is stylized by its nature. It was used to striking effect in the Dollar trilogy of Westerns by Sergio Leone when he juxtaposed Wide Shots with ECUs.

EXAMPLE FROM 'THE QUICK AND THE DEAD'


That's if from me for now. Next time... General tips! With less pictures! Probably!

Any questions about film technique? Leave a comment below, and I'll try answer them next article.