Choker ShotBCU

The crop runs from above the eyebrows to below the chin, so the face has nowhere to hide. No shoulders, no collar, no room.

It is the size that reads as pressure. Used once in a scene it lands hard, because the audience notices that the frame has taken something away.

The top of the frame cuts the forehead and the bottom sits under the jaw. Headroom is gone by design, which is why the shot feels tight before anything happens in it.

British crews call it a big close-up, and BCU on a shot list means this crop. A longer lens keeps the features in proportion, since a wide lens this close enlarges whatever is nearest the camera.

Use it at the top of an escalation, on a confession, or on the beat before somebody breaks. It works as the tightest frame in a run that started wider.

Do not open a scene with it. With nothing to compare against, the crop reads as a style choice rather than as pressure.

A close-up keeps the upper shoulders. A choker does not, and that missing sliver of shoulder is the whole difference.

An extreme close-up abandons the face as a unit and gives one feature the frame. A choker still shows a whole face. Tightest full face, no shoulders, is the choker.

A bare tight face comes back as an ordinary close-up, because the model rounds to the size it knows best. Name the two crop lines: above the eyebrows and below the chin.

The other result is a distorted face, which happens when the model puts a wide lens this close. Ask for a longer lens, or say the features stay in proportion.