Wide Shots and Bobby-Boy’s Gun

With all visual storytelling, the first question to ask yourself is: “Do I have enough munchies on hand?” (I suggest Hot Tamales, mmmmm Hot Tamales.) The second question is: “Where should the camera be?”  By camera, I mean either a-soon-to-be-real one with storyboards or a virtual one with comics.

This breaks down in the simplest terms of distance and angles (though some might call on angels to help too). 

Let’s look at distance first.

First, we have the farthest away shot called a wide shot where the camera is far, far away from the characters. It’s all about the place, the mood, the setting.  This is where you let the location speak. 

Wide shots are about the big details. If you need the audience to see that Bobby-Boy is holding a gun, don’t use a wide shot.  The gun will be a teeny-tiny widdle line that your audience will never know is a gun (unless that’s already been established earlier). But this shot is not about his gun, it’s about the location, and his location in the location. It’s about how close he is to our Hero Chick. Is she close enough to kick the gun out of his hand or far enough that she could dodge the bullet; or is she fully screwed and in that sweet spot that is making Bobby-Boy a very happy boy? It’s also about the environment, the creepy warehouse our characters are currently in.  Are there boxes Hero Chick can hide behind? Are things lurking behind those boxes? Will she get tetanus from the rusty, ugly nails that are sure to be littering the ground is this worn out, abandoned warehouse or is the warehouse so clean and modern that she might slip on the floor as she tries to run?

Often you’ll hear of an establishing shot.  This is usually a wide shot that is used as the first image of a story. This tells the audience where your lovely story is taking place.  It orientates them, grounds them in the world you are creating. It’s your tour guide greeting the tourist.

If what you need to convey in the shot is the location, location of your characters, the mood, or the big details, a wide shot is your friend. 

Please Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Keep in mind that shots cannot be thought of alone. They are social creatures. They like their neighbors; they like to know what their neighbors are doing.  Did wide shot’s neighbor to the left (assuming we are reading left to right) establish who the two figures in the warehouse of horrors already were? Or is wide shot the first house on the block and therefore these two tiny blobs of figures are a mystery to the audience?  Or is wide shot pissed off at his neighbor for mowing the damn lawn at 9am on a Saturday?

Next, we move a bit closer with full shots. Yahhhhh!