. Filmmaking: Using Close Ups Extreme, full, wide and medium close-ups Close-ups are one of the director's main tools in their cinematic tool belt. Close-ups of all sorts help to define the style of the director and provide a certain level of intimacy with the audience. One of the major benefits of close-ups is that they give the audience closer access to the actor's facial expressions and eyes. You will learn as a director that controlling and manipulating your actor's facial expressions and eyes is one of your biggest challenges as well as an element that can make a film go from good to great. There are a couple of major elements to consider when you're framing your close-up shots. For starters, audiences generally don't like the look of centered heads. As you've already learnt in the lecture on composition, the rule of thirds plays an important role in creating a sense of informal balance. Generally audiences will like the subjects to be slightly off center. For instance, if you had one actor looking into the distance, you could frame their profile and have them looking off screen to the left. The back of their head could be positioned on the right side of the frame and you could frame the shot fairly close, but ensure that you leave more blank room (negative space) on the side they are looking rather than behind their head.   Another rule of thumb, and a technique which will help lower the cost of a shot is to "tighten the frame". The less work that needs to go into setting up the background, the less a shot may cost to light, design and set up. Framing tighter gives you a smaller space to light properly and can help simplify and organize a shot. Look at the two shots below for example. Notice how by framing the shot "tighter" you were able to subtract distracting background elements, poor background lighting and focus on the proper composition of a small area. It's just something to keep in mind if you don't have the time to create a "set" for each of your scenes. Continue Below... Filmmaking Cinematography Framing Heights: Filmmaking Lesson Filmmaking Tip: Close-up Framing Filmmaking: Cutting on the look / Cutting on the action Extreme Close-up Framing   .

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