The Filmmaker's Eye

extreme long shot

The extreme long shot lets you create compositions that emphasize the scale of a location. When human subjects are included in the frame, they usually occupy a very small area, and are dwarfed by their surroundings. Sometimes extreme long shots do not have a character in the frame; in this case they showcase the location itself, and are referred to as establishing shots. It is common to use establishing shots at the beginning of a scene, to let the audience know where the action that follows will take place. Another common practice is to use extreme long shots to suddenly reveal the vastness or character of a location, usually after the use of a close up where a subject reacts to something they can see but the audience cannot, ...