Grammar of the Shot, 2nd Edition

Reciprocating Imagery

Our recent example of shots cutting from a wider two-shot to two singles in a medium close-up serves well to illustrate our next point. Whenever you shoot one type of shot to cover one character in a scene you should create the exact same corresponding frame for the other character in the scene. They call this matching shots or reciprocating imagery (Figure 4.16).

Tradition holds that an editor might normally show a scene from the outside in, where the shots of the action start off wider to show environment and characters and then, as the action progresses, cut together tighter and closer shots in order to show more intimate detail by the end. Each new camera setup with new framing should match for object size and object ...