Shot sizes, and what each one is actually for
·6 min read
Shot size is the first decision on any setup and the one that gets argued about least, because most crews already agree on what the words mean. The value of naming them precisely is not artistic. It is that a shot list saying MCU gets built the same way by a gaffer, an AD and a focus puller who have never worked together.
Seven sizes cover almost everything. They are a continuum rather than seven discrete boxes, and no two productions draw the lines in exactly the same place, which is fine as long as one production is consistent with itself.
The seven
| Code | Size | Frame |
|---|---|---|
| ECU | Extreme close-up | Part of a face. An eye, a mouth, hands on an object. |
| CU | Close-up | Head and a little shoulder. |
| MCU | Medium close-up | Head to mid-chest. |
| MS | Medium shot | Waist up. |
| MLS | Medium long shot | Knees up. Sometimes called the cowboy, framed to include the holster. |
| WS | Wide shot | Whole figure, floor to a little headroom. |
| EWS | Extreme wide shot | The figure is small in a much larger space. |
What each one is for
ECU · Extreme close-up. Detail the audience must not miss, or a feeling too big for a whole face. Used sparingly, because it removes all context: the viewer cannot tell where anyone is standing.
CU · Close-up. The default for performance. If a line matters, it usually lands here. Long lens keeps the background soft so nothing competes with the face.
MCU · Medium close-up. The interview size, and the workhorse of dialogue coverage. Enough shoulder to read body language, close enough to stay intimate.
MS · Medium shot. Two people can share the frame and still be readable. Where a scene usually sits before it starts pushing in.
MLS · Medium long shot. Movement within a room. The body is legible, the space still matters.
WS · Wide shot. Geography. Who is where, and how far apart. Establishes a scene and re-establishes it after a run of close coverage.
EWS · Extreme wide shot. Scale, isolation, arrival. The landscape is the subject and the person is the measure of it.
Size is not the same as lens
A close-up on a 24mm and a close-up on a 100mm are the same size and two completely different shots. Size says how much of the subject is in frame. The lens says what the space around them does: a wide lens close to a face bends it and keeps the room sharp behind, a long lens from further back flattens the features and throws the background away.
This is why a shot list carries both columns. Writing CU alone leaves the most consequential decision on the setup unrecorded, and it will get made on the day by whoever is nearest the camera.
Coverage, in practice
A conventional dialogue scene is a wide to establish, a matched pair of mediums or medium close-ups for the exchange, and closer singles for whatever the scene is actually about. Cutting between two sizes that are too similar reads as a mistake rather than a cut, so leave a clear step between them: WS to MCU rather than MS to MLS.
The most useful discipline is deciding, before the day, which shot the scene is for. Everything else is there to make that one land, and knowing which it is tells you where the time goes when you lose an hour to weather.