I've been meaning to come back to this topic for a while, so here we are talking about cuts once more :-) I'll go through the different shot sizes and some advice for cutting between them. Basic stuff, but it's good to know a bit about it.
Shot sizes
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| establishing shot |
There are different kinds of shots for different purposes. At the start of a scene there is often an establishing shot, a shot that shows the whole setting establishing where the event will take place.
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| long shot |
Next comes the full shot which includes the whole character. Then there is the medium full shot, that starts with the knees and the medium shot, which starts at the waist.
Of course this is rough, because the definition of the limits is not always so tight and the names may vary slightly. The images I'm including to illustrate this are from gettyImages.com.
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| Full shot | Medium full | Medium |
The close shots follow, medium close-up, good to show head motions and how head punctuates what you say. In the face close-up you'll see lots of details in eyes, mouth movements, head motions. Extreme close-ups only show a part of the face. They are reserved for more intense emotional reaction.
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| Face close-up | Medium close-up | Extreme close-up |
For the shots that are not too close – from full to medium close-up - it's good to include some head room, the empty space above the head. It's important to match this room from wide to medium shots.
It's good to think about how much the character will move. If he's going to run, he may need more space on screen and if he's sitting still, it's enough to see him only from his waist up and so on.
The head room leaves room for another discussion involving framing: leaving empty space around the character can have different effects. For example, if you leave a lot of empty space in front of a character, he/she can seem more open, if there's more space in the back, we're being kept at a bigger distance. But I guess I'm losing my focus here ;-)
It's also good to mention that usually we keep a bigger distance from the character while we don't know him. So in the beginning of a story we will see the character further away, in a medium or full shot. As we gain intimacy with that character, we get closer to him. Something similar applies to over-the-shoulder cameras filming two characters talking. If they don't know each other yet, the camera won't be so close to the eyeline (an imaginary line from the eyes of one character to the eyes of the other). Once they know each other, we get closer to that line. Check the images below for a more visual example:
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| closer to eyeline |
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| away from eyeline |
Cutting between different shot sizes
When you cut from one camera to another, there are a few things to observe. One of them is you shouldn't cut between camera sizes or angles that look similar, that's called a jump cut and could look like a mistake to the audience: they should understand it's a cut.
Also, when moving from one shot size to the other, if something is moving, it's important to keep the perceived speed the same. So maybe someone is being seen in a full shot leaning forward extending the arm to grab something. When we move to a medium shot, the hand should seem to be moving at the same speed as it was in the other shot. The trick is to know that sometimes the actual speed you'll animate won't be the same in both shots, since when we're closer it seems that the object/character is moving faster.
Ok, this was a quick overview of shot sizes...I will probably go back to cameras sometime soon as they are very interesting ;-)
Ok, this was a quick overview of shot sizes...I will probably go back to cameras sometime soon as they are very interesting ;-)
