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A close-up or closeup in
filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
,
television production
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...
,
still photography, and the
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
medium is a type of
shot
Shot may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Shot'' (album), by The Jesus Lizard
*''Shot, Illusion, New God'', an EP by Gruntruck
*'' Shot Rev 2.0'', a video album by The Sisters of Mercy
* "Shot" (song), by The Rasmus
* ''Shot'' (2017 f ...
that tightly
frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and
long shot
In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surrou ...
s (
cinematic techniques
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.
Basic definitions of terms
;180-degree rule
:A continuity editorial technique in which sequential shots of two or more actors within ...
). Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene. Moving toward or away from a close-up is a common type of
zooming. A close up is taken from head to neck, giving the viewer a detailed view of the subject's face.
History
Most early filmmakers, such as
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
,
Auguste and Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers (, ; ), Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948), were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their ''Ciném ...
and
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
, tended not to use close-ups and preferred to frame their subjects in long shots, similar to the stage. Film historians disagree as to the filmmaker who first used a close-up. One of the best claims is for
George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith Sr. (April 4, 1870 – April 4, 1951) was an American religious leader who served as the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Early life
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territor ...
in
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
, who used medium close-ups in films as early as 1898 and by 1900 was incorporating extreme close-ups in films such as ''
As Seen Through a Telescope
''As Seen Through a Telescope'' (AKA: ''The Professor and His Field Glass'') is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an elderly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. ...
'' and ''
Grandma's Reading Glass
''Grandma's Reading Glass'' is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a young Willy who borrows a huge magnifying glass to focus on various objects, which was shot to demonstrate the new technique of ...
''. In 1901,
James Williamson, also working in Hove, made perhaps the most extreme close-up of all in ''
The Big Swallow
''The Big Swallow'' (AKA: ''A Photographic Contortion'') is a 1901 British short silent comedy film, directed by James Williamson, featuring a man, irritated by the presence of a photographer, who solves his dilemma by swallowing him and hi ...
'' in which his character approaches the camera and appears to swallow it.
D. W. Griffith, who pioneered screen cinematographic techniques and narrative format, is associated with popularizing the close up with the success of his films. For example, one of Griffith's short films, ''
The Lonedale Operator
''The Lonedale Operator'' is a 1911 short American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet and written by Mack Sennett for the Biograph Company. The plot of the film involves a girl who takes over a telegraph station af ...
'' (1911), makes significant use of a close-up of a wrench that a character pretends is a gun.
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
remarked on Griffith's pioneering use of the close-up:
The people in the front office got very upset. They came down and said: "The public doesn't pay for the head or the arms or the shoulders of the actor. They want the whole body. Let's give them their money's worth." Griffith stood very close to them and said: "Can you see my feet?" When they said no, he replied: "That's what I'm doing. I am using what the eyes can see."
Practical application
Close-ups are used in many ways and for many reasons. They are often employed as
cutaways from a more distant shot to show detail, such as characters'
emotions
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
or some intricate activity with their hands. Close cuts to characters' faces are used far more often in
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
than in
movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
s and are especially common in
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s. For a director, deliberately avoiding close-ups may create in the audience an emotional distance from the subject matter.
Close-ups are used for distinguishing main characters. Major characters are often given a close-up when they are introduced as a way of indicating their importance. Leading characters will have multiple close-ups. At the close of ''
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in t ...
'' (1959), the main character, a faded star under the delusion that she is making a triumphant return to acting, declaims melodramatically, "All right, Mr.
DeMille DeMille or De Mille is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Agnes De Mille, American dance and choreographer
*Beatrice deMille, English-born American playwright and screenwriter
*Cecil B. DeMille, American film director
*Constance A ...
, I'm ready for my close-up."
Close-up shots do not show the subject in the broad context of its surroundings.
Low-budget film
A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...
s may use close-ups to avoid the expense of
set construction
Set construction is the process undertaken by a construction manager to build full-scale scenery, as specified by a production designer or art director working in collaboration with the director of a production to create a set for a theatrica ...
. If overused, close-ups may leave viewers uncertain as to what they are seeing. Close-ups are rarely done with
wide-angle lens
In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows more of the scene to be included in the pho ...
es because perspective causes objects closer to the lens to be unnaturally enlarged. That may convey a sense of confusion, intoxication, or another unusual mental state.
Close-up types
There are various degrees of close-up depending on how tight (zoomed in) the shot is. The terminology varies between countries and even different companies, but in general, these are:
* Medium Close Up ("MCU" on camera scripts): Halfway between a
mid shot
In a movie a medium shot, mid shot (MS), or waist shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance.
Use
Medium shots are favored in sequences where dialogues or a small group of people are acting, as they give the viewer a partial view of th ...
and a close-up. Usually covers the subject's head and shoulders.
* Close Up ("CU"): A certain feature, such as someone's head, takes up the whole frame.
* Extreme Close Up ("ECU" or "XCU"): The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.
Ask The Cameraman: Shot Sizes: The Extreme Close-Up
* Lean-In: when the juxtaposition of shots in a sequence, usually in a scene of dialogue, starts with medium or long shots, for example, and ends with close-ups.
* Lean-Out: the opposite of a ''lean-in'', moving from close-ups out to longer shots.
* Lean: when a ''lean-in'' is followed by a ''lean-out''.
When the close-up is used in the shooting, the subject should not be put in exactly the middle of the frame. Instead, it should be located in the frame according to the law of the golden section.
Example of close-up
Close-ups
See also
*Macro photography
Macro photography (or photomacrography or macrography, and sometimes macrophotography) is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is grea ...
*Micrograph
A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an object. This is opposed to a macrograph or photomacrograph, an image which is also taken on a mic ...
*Shot (filmmaking)
In filmmaking and video production, a shot is a series of frames that runs for an uninterrupted period of time. Film shots are an essential aspect of a movie where angles, transitions and cuts are used to further express emotion, ideas and mov ...
References
Sources
*
External links
{{Cinematic techniques
Cinematic techniques
Television terminology
Photography by genre
de:Einstellungsgröße#Nahe Einstellungen (close-ups)