Going To An Extreme Closeup

Through a lot of my recent learning I've found that going into big close ups can be a dangerous thing to do without true motive. A close up is a very strong statement on screen and is used primarily to demonstrate an emotion felt by a particular character.

The problem I find with using close ups is that once you've gone into a closeup the only way is to bring the shot out again, this can make a badly put together scene work even less. But today in our story lecture we watched a short film from New Zealand about two children sat in a couple of cars outside of a shady motel.

Through the film the two characters begin to develop a friendship and in the final moments they're sat in the front seats of a car and very quickly we see a close up of the boy and a close up of the girl, after each of those close ups the camera relaxes to a profile two shot. I was trying to think why the film maker had chosen to make those cuts and on my second viewing I saw something that has given me a clearer insight on how to use extreme closeups effectively.

In each of the close ups each character makes a small gesture of affection to each other, very subtle and very quickly but its enough to warrant the use of a close up. Your being brought into their head space for only a little moment but you understand at this point both characters have developed a liking for each other. I think it works and its given me a bit more of an understanding of that size of shot.