Shot Sizes

Wide/Long Shot

Example of LONG SHOT used to stress the aftermath of the Civil War. Gone With The Wind (1939)

Long shots are used to emphasize a sweeping location around the subject.

Long shot and wide shot are interchangeable terms.

This frame from Gone with the Wind (1939) emphasizes the tragedy of the Civil War and its death toll. Can you find Scarlet O’Hara in the picture?

Wide shots are more easily captured with wide-angle lens.

Long shots and establishing shots (which we will go ever next) can sometimes be similar in nature. The main difference between the two is that establishing shots will be wide enough to show all the characters and objects necessary for the drama, while a wide shot will be wider than that, focusing more on the environment. Compare the frame from Gone With The Wind above to the frame from Little Miss Sunshine below, and try to guess how far the camera is from the action.

Establishing Shot and Master Shot

ESTABLISHING SHOT in Little Miss Sunshine (2006) shows the entire family.

An establishing shot and a master shot are not the same per se. But they were combined under the same subheading because the framing and composition are usually the same for both of them.

An establishing shot introduces a new location – a church, a city street, a rooftop, a hospital room – from a vantage point that allows the audience to see all the relevant characters in the filmic space. A master shot would probably be recorded from the same position, with the same lens, also showing all the characters. The difference is the duration. A master shot records the entire action, a complete run-through from that same camera position. This way if a tighter shot is forgotten or messed up during coverage, the director knows her editor will have enough material to show the scene in its entirety by cutting back to the master shot. In most movies, an establishing shot will last a few seconds before the editor cuts to medium shots and close-ups. However, if for someone reason the director decides that the cuts are not good enough, he may use the master shot of a scene to show the action unfold, in which case there would few to no cuts in that scene, which can a be a pleasant style.

Notes

Further reading

• This article contains a rundown of different types of lenses (i.e. wide-angle, telephoto, etc.)