Extreme Wide Shot
A shot where the person looks very small and the surroundings, like buildings or landscape, fill most of the frame. The scale of the place becomes the star, more than the person. It is often used at the start or end of a scene, or as a short shot linking one scene to the next.
How it feels
- Isolation
- Scale
- Grandeur
- Loneliness
- Lingering
When to use it
- Showing the scale of a place, like a desert, an ocean or a whole city
- Making a person look small and lonely against a huge environment
- The opening or closing shot of a film
- A short linking shot between two scenes
In the movies
Eyes Wide Shut 1999
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Yale’s film analysis guide explains that an extreme long shot of the ballroom, taken from very far away, works as a short linking shot between two more important scenes.
Not to be confused with
- Wide Shot
- In a wide shot the person still looks fairly large, with the surroundings around them. In an extreme wide shot the person becomes a small dot.
- Establishing Shot
- An establishing shot is a name for the role of showing the location; an extreme wide shot is a name for size. Extreme wides are often used as establishing shots.
- Bird's Eye
- A bird’s eye view is an angle looking straight down from above. A very wide shot looking down from the sky is both.
Prompt
extreme wide shot
Extreme wide shot. The subject is a tiny figure in a vast environment, the surroundings fill almost the whole frame and location and scale dominate the composition.
Try these combinations
Extreme wide: solitude in the desert
Extreme wide shot, a lone traveler crossing an endless desert at dawn, long shadows
Extreme wide + aerial: a small figure before nature
Extreme wide shot, aerial, a tiny figure standing on a cliff above a stormy sea