ABSTRACT
When the aim is to bring an audience into the personal space of a character, few shots can do a better job than the closeup, which allows a filmmaker to showcase facial nuances of an actor’s performance, letting viewers connect with them, and the story, on an emotional level. Depth of field can enhance the sense of intimacy a close-up communicates, because of the way it can mimic human vision in situations when people are so close to an object that our eyes can only focus on a detail instead of a whole figure. Director Bennett Miller’s film Capote , based on the events surrounding the grisly murders of a Kansas family that inspired Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel In Cold Blood , features a scene that uses a close-up with a shallow depth of field that brilliantly captures the essence of a pivotal moment of the story.
