Do you remember the scene with the girl in the red coat from Schindler's List? It is one of the most iconic scenes in a movie that is widely revered as one of the best of all time. We see the little girl running through the chaos of World War II in Germany. While we can see her from head to toe, we can also see the surroundings, and both her movement and all the terror happening around her tell a very heartbreaking story without any dialogue.
This type of shot, in which we can see the entire subject interacting with the environment from a distance, is called a wide shot. Let's start our journey towards understanding this technique completely with its definition.
Definition
A wide shot is a specific framing technique in which the subject is just large enough for us to see their face and body.
The subject occupies a small percentage of the frame, allowing filmmakers to showcase the environment and let the audience focus on it as the character moves through the location or performs a particular action. In this type of shot, the subject and the surrounding area have a symbiotic relationship, each telling a story.
They are typically used at the beginning of the sequence to establish the setting and provide visual context. Given that the subject is placed in a large environment, they often convey feelings of isolation, scale, or movement.
What are the Visual Characteristics of Wide Shots?
Full-Body Framing
We see the subject in its entirety. If the subject is a person, we can see their face and body movement, showcasing their entire outfit. If we are framing an object, the audience will notice its scale, material, and entire design.
Strong Sense of Space and Scale
The environment is also a character in the wide shot, offering a lot of information to the viewer, helping them understand the character's relation to the world around them in terms of space and scale.
Environmental Context
The main purpose of a wide shot is not to showcase the character's actions, but how they relate to the environment. This means that the surrounding location plays a more important role in the wide shot. The subject is there to interact with the surroundings, providing context to the story.
Wide Shot vs. Extreme Wide Shot
In the standard wide shot, the subject is clearly visible, while the extreme wide shot is so distant from the subject that we cannot distinguish individual details.
Comparison
Wide Shot
Extreme Wide Shot
Framing Range
We can see the subject's full body within the environment.
The subject is either very small or not visible within a vast landscape.
Primary Purpose
Show character in relation to surroundings.
Emphasize the scale and establish geographical context.
Subject Visibility
The subject is clearly visible and identifiable.
The subject is often tiny and very distant.
Common Uses
Establish a setting, show subject movement, show spatial relationships, etc.
Opening shots, scene transitions, creating a sense of vastness, etc.
Genre Association
It is used across many genres (drama, action, romance, etc.)
It is common in epics, adventure, sci-fi, and historical films.
Example
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – The Fellowship walking across the ridge.
Lawrence of Arabia – a tiny figure crossing a vast desert.
The 5 Best Wide Shots Examples in Movies
In this section, we will try to focus on the wide shots that had the most visual impact.
Skyfall (2012) – Shanghai Fight Scene
In this action-packed James Bond movie, there is a choreographed fight scene that uses a wide shot but only shows the two characters' silhouettes as the action unfolds. It is a perfect example of how a static wide shot can be very thrilling and energetic by simply letting characters interact with the environment dynamically and impactfully.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Walking on Walls in the Space Station
When it was released, this movie revolutionized cinema. One of the scenes that amazed audiences was a wide shot of a woman on a space station seemingly walking on walls. This was created using a rotating set. They had to use practical effects, as modern post-production techniques were decades away. This is why this movie is one of the GOATs.
The Searchers (1956) – Final Doorway Shot
In this Western classic, we see the main character, portrayed by John Wayne, in a wide shot recorded from the inside of the house. He has saved the day, but at the end of the movie, he looks at the audience, turns, and walks away. This tells us that this character is a man who belongs outside society, forever roaming the wilderness and trying to survive.
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) – Twin Suns of Tatooine
This is one of the most iconic scenes in sci-fi history. The first ever Star Wars movie featured a wide shot of the main character, Like Skywalker, heading out of his humble home onto a desert landscape where we can see the famous two suns of Tatooine, his home planet. This shot demonstrates how powerful a wide shot can be for worldbuilding and storytelling.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – K Walking Through the Ruins of Las Vegas
The new Blade Runner movie surprised many people, given that the first installment came more than thirty years ago. Although many were expecting a flop, this movie actually turned out to be pretty good, with stunning aesthetics. In this wide shot, we learn about the location while the character moves through it. It is a textbook example, perfect in every way.
When and Where to Use Medium Shots
After covering the definition and examples, this section will focus on movie genres where the wide shot is most common, some creative techniques that pair well with it, and a few professional artistic considerations to help you understand this framing technique better.
Genre-Specific Applications for Wide Shots
Adventure/Epic (Scale and Spectacle)
Wide shots are necessary whenever you are telling a story in a vast setting, which is typical for adventure epics. Think of Indiana Jones walking through a bustling town or the Nazgul running after Frodo in the forest in the first LOTR installment. You need to show the character reacting to this fantastic world.
Western (Isolation and Solitude)
Westerns pioneered the wide-shot technique, often using it to show the sheer vastness of the Wild West and how the character is small and isolated in comparison. This makes it clear how these characters think and feel, even for audiences outside the US who are not familiar with the cowboy tradition and folklore.
Science Fiction (World-Building)
If you are trying to explain an entirely different world to the audience, they need to see the location and understand how it works. It is also important for them to witness how the characters interact with their environment.
Combine Wide Shots with Other Creative Techniques
Pairing Wide Shots with Deep Focus Settings
The deep focus setting on the camera allows you to capture a wide area with everything in focus. This is very important because tiny details add to the meaning of the scene and improve its storytelling capabilities.
Enhancing Wide Shots with Strategic Blocking
A common tactic in creating the perfect wide shot is to add strategically placed elements that are important to the story to the scene to block something that would damage it (or is simply unimportant). This enhances the result.
Transition to a Wide Shot with a Pull-Back Reveal
Wide shots are usually visual works of art. You can take any frame from a well-designed wide shot and place it in a photographic art exhibit. To make the audience gasp, use the pull-back reveal transition to introduce the shot.
A Couple Of Artistic Considerations for Wide Shots
Balance Between Subject and Space
The environment and the aesthetics of the location are very important in wide shots, but they should not overshadow the main subject. They should be an equal focal point in the scene as the rest of the environment, creating a visual balance and letting the audience view both as a whole rather than individual counterparts.
Environmental Symbolism
While creating the scene, it is important to add tiny details to the wide shot to enhance the narrative. You can use this to foreshadow a future event, add an easter egg, or simply add a world-building story element to the scene. Since the characters are in it, they can interact with objects that offer clear symbolism.
Easy Guide to Transform Full-Body Shots to Medium Shots
In any instance, if you want to transform an extreme wide shot into a wide shot, instead of discarding the scene, try a powerful video editor like Filmora, which offers some of the most intuitive advanced video editing features you have ever seen. Let's see how it can edit clips and create a wide shot.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Perfect Wide Shot
We have prepared an easy, three-step tutorial for creating a wide shot from an extreme wide shot clip. Before you begin, download and install Filmora on your Windows or Mac PC or laptop. Then, open Filmora, create a new project, and import your extreme wide shot. When this is done, proceed to the steps below.
Step 1
Drag the extreme wide shot clip to the video editing timeline.
Step 2
Right-click on the video in the timeline and select the Crop and Zoom feature.
Step 3
Adjust the frame according to your preferences and, when you are finished, click on Apply.
Take a look at this quick comparison GIF. Part of the original extreme wide shot can be seen on the left, and the new, standard wide shot that we created is on the right.
How to Solve the 2 Most Common Issues with Wide Shots
Loss of Emotional Detail
Your wide shot was supposed to convey a lot of meaning.
How to avoid
Planning the wide shot is more than 90 percent of the work. A great tip here would be to record several wide shots of the same dialogue but change something in the background, add something else, or experiment. Then, when you begin editing, you will have different shots of the same scene to fit into your project.
Lighting Challenges Over Distance
Your wide shot has been taken outside, using natural light, but the character is in focus, while the background is not very distinguishable.
How to avoid
When recording a scene, you probably have artificial lighting that you need to combine with natural light. This is a tricky concept. You should experiment with different lighting settings for the character, and then pick the best time of day where the rest of the location is lit in the same way to record the sequence and keep the lighting consistent.
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