A call to arms for the Extreme Close Up

Often for the first time student music video director, framing a shot can pose as one of the biggest challenges. We aren’t afforded the luxuries of an unlimited professional budget to construct elaborate sets, and consequently we find ourselves shooting in locations which lack the visual aesthetics of our professional counterparts. Without careful consideration to how the shot is framed, we are too often left watching a student’s video where our attentions variably switch to peering over the shoulder of the artist at yet another suburban street or in a drama studio acting as a poor substitute for a live venue. Moreover almost inevitably we have to cast our friends or peers in key roles which demand that they perform with the charisma of professionals with years of experience.

Yet despite these misgivings, there is a solution, its time to get up close and personal and embrace the use of the extreme close-up.

Firstly the extreme close up is a very forgiving shot. With such tight framing, key elements are allowed to exit and re-enter the shot, in fact it’s almost expected. Extreme close-ups mean that we cannot see the fact that the artist’s hands are shouting messages of awkwardness, or that a lady in a pram is walking by in the background because they simply are not in the frame. Mistakes that are glaringly obvious in a long shot do not translate in an extreme close-up.

Secondly extreme close-ups are a visual treat, they offer a way of looking at the everyday in a way that is so unfamiliar to us, and it’s the fact that we are seeing something in a new light that becomes so fascinating. Picture a mid-shot of someone typing on a computer and we could instantly imagine how weak the shot may look: yet now imagine an extreme close-up on just the letter ‘E’ with the sporadic crashing of a finger on the button and now such a simple, mundane act comes to life with all the passion of a drumstick hitting the skin.  

The extreme close-up is the most personal of all shots, and after all, what is a music video if not a personal expression of ideas and emotions. We want to see the eyes, the lips, the exciting tapping of feet and we want to feel that personal connection with those that we admire. As a director, treat the audience to such an experience by bringing them within inches of these moments.

 When you begin to play with these shots you could arguably say you are a true director in the filmic sense as you are fully deciding exactly what the audience could see. Think to when you’ve seen a theatre show. You sit in the audience and your mind is allowed to wander across the stage, it is you as an audience member who is in control of what you view. For the music video director, embracing the extreme close-up means you have the ultimate control over your audience, you have the first and last say as to what they can see and you almost arrogantly decide what they cannot.

So remember this simple rule - the moment you’ve set up your shot and you think you’re happy with how it looks; pick up them camera and move it closer.