A close-up is just a face filling the frame. In one film it freezes you. In another it sells the joke. In a third it makes you trust the person speaking. Same technique, three jobs.

Today you track the close-up across four genre stills written for this lesson, then write a Technique-by-Genre sheet on films you have seen: one technique in three genres you choose, one effect sentence per genre, plus one contrast line. That sheet is the piece you file in your Communication Portfolio. It is module evidence and useful practice for the Audio Visual question on the SEC written examination (not a Key Assignment).

The technique for this lesson is the close-up: the face fills the frame and almost everything else falls away. Read each teaching still. Notice the face, then what the shot makes you feel or expect.

Worked example: Action. A face fills the frame. Sweat and dust streak his cheek. His jaw is clenched. His eyes flick down to his hands on the wheel, then back up to the road. Behind him the street is a smear of headlights.

Model effect sentence: The close-up keeps us on his face at the worst moment, so we feel what is at stake for him before we see whether he makes it.

Hold that shape: name the technique, then say what it does to the audience. Now read three more stills. You will write a line for each the same way.

Still 1: Horror. A face fills the frame. Sweat sits on the forehead. The eyes stare past the camera at something we cannot see. The mouth is slightly open. Behind her the corridor is one soft dark blur.

Still 2: Comedy. A face fills the frame. One eyebrow sits higher than the other. The eyes flick sideways toward someone just out of shot. The mouth is fighting a smile and losing. Behind him a birthday banner hangs half-fallen.

Still 3: Documentary. A face fills the frame. The eyes look straight into the camera. There is no makeup catching the light. A small scar sits above the left eyebrow. Behind her a plain kitchen wall sits slightly soft.

Try the three practice close-ups against what you care about when you watch. It helps you say why one hits harder for you, and back that up when you write your sheet.

Before you write, swap one audience verb with a partner: freeze, laugh, trust, lean in. Then, in the activity, say what the close-up does to the audience in each still, not what is in the frame. Next you do the same for films you have seen.