Shot Distances, Examples In Film.

Extreme Close-Up (XCU)

In Kill Bill: Vol 1(2003, Tarantino) an XCU is used to convey The Bride’s thought process in a crucial fight scene… As enemies are flooding through the exits and entrances, she analyses all of them before they are all ready to fight. Using the XCU in this situation could also be seen to emphasise the tension and sense of urgency in this scene, giving that message to the observer can make it much easier for the observer to emphasise with The Bride or put themselves in The Brides situation, whether that be hypothetically or not.

Kill Bill: Vol 1

Establishing Shot (XLS):

In Bladerunner 2049(2017, Denis Villeneuve) An establishing shot (also known as an extreme long shot) is used at the start of the movie to establish the scenery and the setting of the movie or at least the setting of the majority of the movie, This shot is very large and contains no characters just scenery, this can be seen to help the verisimilitude towards the viewer as seeing this fiction, dystopian world would be hard to see as real and will there for make the movie worse for the observer since they probably won’t be fully invested into the story because they don’t yet believe this world and its construct.

Bladerunner 2049

Bladerunner 2049

Medium Close-up(MCU):

In Avengers: Endgame (2019, Anthony and Joe Russo) a MCU shot is used as the past Thanos believes he still has the stones and is about to snap his fingers in order to wipe all life from the universe in the timeline(present) the movie is set in, but is unaware that Tony Stark swiftly stole the stones as he acted out he was just trying to take the gauntlet. So the MCU is used to see a few of Thanos’ emotions, him being complacent as he’s about to ssnap and snapping, his initial turmoil as he realises he isn’t feeling any pain and there has been no affect on the surroundings yet and of course the surprise when he realises what Stark actually did. this technique is also used as a tension builder to indicate to the audience that something huge is about to happen, there are left uncertain on whether it’s going to be good for the avengers or bad but there anticipation rises quickly.

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