Close Up: P.U.!! Get a breath mint!

Close Ups are probably the best known shot and is the one we are drawn to the most.  This shot is all about the character, about getting into their space, feeling their emotions and smelling their bad breath. Backgrounds and other characters become secondary or non-existent.  This is the featured character’s moment. 

Distance wise, we are looking at shoulders and up or an equivalent shot of another body part....is anyone else’s mind in the gutter at this moment? 

With comics, close ups should be used sparingly.  They are your money shot on a page and you want to keep its impact.  If a page is full of close ups they start to loose their power, like when you hear a song over and over again.  It looses something each time.  If you rely heavily on close ups, you’ll end up having to push in closer and closer to re-find that emotion.  Eventually, you might end up with shot of the character’s DNA!

The same is somewhat true for films, but not as a strict rule.  Films have many more images to play with, more time to work with, and other ways to vary up a close up (sound, movement, actors acting).  It would be interesting to see if a short film could pull off telling a whole story with just close ups. 

Next: Extreme Close Up! 

Lovely, Wonderful Dead Trees

Before moving onto close ups, I thought I’d share some of my favorite books on visual storytelling.  

Good starter books for any sequential art:

Comics and Sequential Art

By Will Eisner 

(Considered the Father of Comic Books. It’s sad that a lot of people don’t know of him.)

Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative

            By Will Eisner

From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process

By Marcie Begleiter

Visual Storytelling: The Art and Technique

By Tony C. Caputo

More advanced books:

Film Directing: Shot by Shot

By Steven D. Katz

Comics Above Ground: How Sequential Art Affects Mainstream Media

By Durwin S. Talon

If you can find any used film directing text books, those are usually golden too.

These focus on comics, but are also very good for any visual storytelling:

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

By Scott McCloud

Panel Discussions 

            By Durwin S. Talon

            (Very good book!  In depth interviews with many comic artists explaining their work) 

Artists on Comic Art

            By Mark Salisbury

Reference:

Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know

            By Jeremy Vineyard

            (Good reference book with all the different types of shots)

Random:

Fight directing for the Theatre

           By J. Allen Suddeth 

Medium Shot: Are You Looking at Me?

We’re getting closer now!  The camera is now starting to get into the character’s face.  Mean, evil camera.  We are on medium close up.  Now, as most of you smart readers can suss out, this is a shot between a medium shot and a close up shot (we’ll get to that next post).  Basically, this shot will be from about the chest up…or from the thighs down if you need to see what boots Hero Chick is wearing for some odd reason.  It’s pretty much 1/4^th of your character in shot. 

Like a medium shot, it’s a good mix of character and background, though a medium close up will focus a bit more on the character.  We can really start to see the emotions in the face now.  It’s like having a one-on-one conversation with a person.  Staged any farther back and you’d have to be yelling to hear each other.  Staged any closer and you’d start to get into their personal space…which, depending on the situation could end with a bloody nose or a new human in 9 months.

You’ll see medium close ups used a lot in both films and comics.  It’s just a great every use shot.