technique · 11 recipes
Close-Up & Shot Sizes
A head-and-upper-shoulders view prioritizes facial expression while retaining a small amount of body context.
Selected recipe
Choker Shot
Choker Shot is a variant of Shot Size and Subject Scale. It retains its own complete execution recipe.
Free short AI video prompt
A starter line you can copy. The full timed recipe, still-image and production prompts are on the shot card.
Prompt rule: Honor the selected crop landmarks and subject-to-frame scale throughout the essential action. Choose focal length and camera distance together; no single crop or focal length applies to all size variants.
Close-Up: A head-and-upper-shoulders view prioritizes facial expression while retaining a small amount of body context. Keep the subject readable; motivate camera and light.
Technique guide
- When to use
- In close-up, read subtle expressions; in medium shots, retain gestures; in full-body shots, read posture; in wide and extreme long shots, read movement paths and environmental scale.
- How it works
- First clarify whether the information this time requires the eye area, the whole face, shoulders and chest, waist and legs, or the environment, then choose the shot type. Adjust the distance according to actual shooting or generated cropping, leaving edge margin for complete actions, and do not use focal length numbers as a guarantee of shot type. Compare the boundaries and scale of the beginning, middle, and ending frames to ensure the shot hasn't unintentionally pushed or pulled into another shot type.
- Common mistakes
- Using the same chest-up composition to pretend to represent all shot types. Cutting off hands and feet that should be kept during action, or enlarging or reducing them without reason.
How to read this page
Close-Up & Shot Sizes is one technique in Framing. The definition states the single mechanism the frame has to show. The technique guide covers when to use it, the steps, the usual mistakes, how it differs from the neighbors, and what a successful take looks like.
The clip above is one reading, made with a third-party video model. Another model, or the same model on another day, can land on a different frame. It is an example, not a promise that a prompt will match it.
The free short prompt is a starter sentence. The shot card is the timed recipe: scene, start and end frames, action, light, and color. Three sample cards are free on the site. The rest are part of GrokCine Pro. A second name for the same shot keeps its own URL and points back at this definition.
When you write a prompt, keep the one mechanism in the definition, then name the subject, the motion, and why the light is there. Do not stack a neighboring technique into the same sentence. If the name or the example is wrong, send this page's URL from the contact page.
Recipe
8 seconds · single take
A flooded subway maintenance tunnel at night: a bomb-disposal technician in her thirties, sweat beading on her forehead, silently decides which of two wires to cut; the dim concrete wall behind her is out of focus.
Shot cards
The full recipe for Choker Shot is a shot card
The full recipe for Choker Shot is a shot card. The start and end frames, timed action, lighting and color specs, a camera parameter table, copy-ready still-image and video prompts and negatives are open to GrokCine Pro members on the web.
Seen in these film styles
More in Framing
References
Sources we studied for this technique. External links; we don't embed them.
Articles & definitions
- Wikipedia: Close-up
Wikipedia · Web
A close-up frames a face or object tightly to show detail and expression.
- StudioBinder: Close-up shot explained
StudioBinder · Web
Close-up shot explained.
Videos
- Dune: Part Two and its reaction shots
@Darren_Mooney · 2024-03-11 · X
"Dune: Part Two… how much of the film is reaction shots": faces responding to off-screen events.
Images & stills
- Michael Kahn's rule of three for reaction shots
@jonnyelwyn · 2020-09-09 · X
Michael Kahn (Spielberg's editor) on cutting to reactions.