Glossary: shot size

As terminology about the shot size is not extremely strict (e.g., some people refer to Ozu’s medium close-up as close-up), you don’t have to drive yourself crazy about it. Yet, I think it a good idea to rely on Bordwell and Thompson’s glossary below. (“Full shot” would be somewhere between “Medium long shot” and “Long shot.”) In you shot-to-shot analysis, you can use abbreviation like ELS for extreme long shot, if it is convenient.

From the glossary (p. 477-82) of Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 199”7)

Extreme close-up

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very large; most commonly, a small object or a part of the body.

Close-up

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large; most commonly a person’s head seen from the neck up, or an object of a comparable size that fills most of the screen.

Medium close-up

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large: a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen.

Medium shot

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is of moderate size; a human figure seen from the waist up would fill most of the screen.

Medium long shot

A framing at a distance which makes an object about four or five feet high appear to fill most of the screen vertically. See also plan américain, the special term for a medium long shot depicting human figures.

Plan américain

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is moderately small; the human figure seen from the shins to the head would fill most of the screen. This is sometimes referred to as a medium long shot, especially when human figures are not shown.

Long shot

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human figure would appear nearly the height of the screen.

Extreme long shot

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very small; a building, landscape, or crowd of people would fill the screen.