• Usually used as an establishing shot to "establish" for the viewer place, time, characters  in scene, situation, etc.
• Once you leave the full shot (to a medium or a close up), it's hard to come back to it
• Allows use of body language

• usually used for dialogue scenes - esp 2 and 3 person groupings.
• halfway between full & close-up, some amount of facial gestures and some amount of body language.

• intimate and expressive
• audience can be made to feel what the actor feels
• closer than we get in real life. 
• inspection/intrusion/violation
• revealing of details
• allows manipulation of space, illusions through editing.
• must be careful with eye-lines & look direction

• shows detail, quirks, accentuates,

stresses, dramatizes

• distinctively cinematic
• able to insert, reveal what you could not see in real life. Can be useful for giving bits of information for advancing plot. 

Before you choose a shot, be sure you know WHY you want to use a certain shot type over another. Your selection of shots must be motivated. It must be selected for a reason (i.e., use an ECU to reveal a small piece of information that only the audience sees, or use only long shots to show characters' emotional distance from one another, etc). 

The shot type you select is a directorial decision motivated by the need to show something specific to the audiencce -  an object (Hitchcock's Notorious, the KEY scene), an emotional state of mind (Aranofsky's Pi opening scene), etc. 

• Divide the frame into horizontal and vertical thirds - like a tic tac toe board.
• Conventionally, the eyes are placed on the top third line.
• Place important elements on the lines for a more visually dynamic image. 
• Follow the line in the frame to the right.

• This convention helps establish continuity by establishing eye-line continuity --- where characters shown in adjoining shots are positioned in the frame so that they seem to be looking at each other.
• Use Eye-Lines to help establish relative positions of height.

• Gives the impression that someone is looking at something
• Provides a visual question or space that is to be answered in the following shot

• Where the eyes seem to be looking.
• In storyboard frames this is shown with the nose and an arrow.
• Use it together with look space...

• The level at which the camera is placed. 
• This level determines how the viewer relates to the character on screen --- at the same level, looking up or down at him/her

• Asymmetrical compositions are usually more dynamic, allowing your eyes to travel more freely. 
• Symmetrical compositions usually give a sense of balance; they're not very dynamic.

A Viewer's attention will be drawn to: 

• EYES
• BRIGHT SPOT (LIGHT)
• MOVEMENT

This will be especially useful to remember when puting shots together through editing. If you are aware of where your viewer's focus of attention is, you will be able to make your edits flow more smoothly and dynamically.