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Film & Television vocabulary · Shots and Camera Movements

Close-up

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/ˈkləʊs ʌp/nounCore term

In film & television, close-up means: A shot taken very near the subject, usually showing a person's face or a small object so that the audience can see emotion or detail.

In Turkish: yakın plan

How it is used

Shortened to CU in shot lists and scripts. Related sizes: medium close-up (MCU, from the chest up) and extreme close-up (ECU or XCU, for example just the eyes). Directors move in for a close-up at emotional moments.

Example sentences

  1. Let's finish the scene with a close-up of her hands on the letter.

  2. The director saved the close-ups for the end of the argument.

Common collocations

  • extreme close-up
  • medium close-up
  • in close-up
  • go in for a close-up
  • close-up of
  • medium shotA shot that shows a person from about the waist up, close enough to see expressions but wide enough to show gestures and some background.
  • wide shotA shot that shows a large area, with people appearing small or full-length inside their surroundings, so that the audience sees where they are.
  • shotOne continuous piece of film recorded from the moment the camera starts until it stops, or the piece of it that appears between two cuts.
  • camera angleThe position and direction from which the camera looks at the subject, such as from above, from below or at eye level.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Shots and Camera Movements

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