From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Understanding shot sizes

Understanding shot sizes

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Understanding shot sizes

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- Few cinematography concepts are more basic than shot size. Shot size refers to the amount of a character being seen in the shot. As we frame characters tighter, we feel more intimacy with them. Having a wide variety of shot sizes allows editors to regulate the emotional connection the audience has with the character. We typically have a few standard shot sizes that we use, now standardized shot sizes are important for a few reasons, first it makes it much faster to communicate to the rest of the crew what you're looking for, if you say, "hey, we're going in for a close-up," for example, everyone has a basic idea of what that means. Also, in the edit, if you cut between shot sizes that are too similar, the result will be jarring to the audience, so standardized shot sizes make it safer for the editor to cut between shots. Let's take a look at some of the most commonly used shot sizes. Now if the whole character is being seen in the shot, this is referred to as a wide shot, or…

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