Ch1 Response, Watch for Close ups

A director can dramatize a shot by making it a close-up or extreme close-up. In extreme close-ups, the focus is entirely on the subject. This can sometimes be used in comedies when the actor produces an odd face or it can make the focused object more important than usual. Once close up, the shot becomes much more hilarious or serious than it would be in a shot that's farther away.

Sometimes shots can be very close at first. Then the same subject would be shot farther to show something in the background that compliments the mood from the first close up.

Here's an example from "Hot Fuzz" where we see character Angel's face vs. Everyone-Else.

A shot of the object or a place from afar is usually the establishing shot. In the picture, the boring symmetrical and similar looking audience makes the front characters' faces all the more obvious and humorous. This shot has not only established the setting of a theater but also dramatizes the mood.