How+to+do+a+Close+Reading

So, we're on your backs all the time telling you to stop popcorn-watching and start to do close readings on films. You, on the other hand, look at us like we're crazy and nodd your heads just to shut us up. Well, just so that you can stop banging your head against the wall, here is an example of a close reading, using the opening credits of //Inside Man// (2006). You now have no excuse next time you look at one of your teachers and say, "but Miss, I don't know what a close viewing is!"

**Example of Close Viewing Notes ** **//Inside Man //****Opening Credits **


 * No diegetic sound
 * c/up
 * Where? Shows cell – L/S / M/S – midsized crammed into long – creates sense of lack of space
 * Time lapse – cut to’s of game scene but him doing different things
 * Cut back to narrator c/up
 * In black, then zoom in background to show still in / in another cell – black screen zoomed in
 * Non diegetic music acts as a bridge
 * Fade to fun park – L/S man walking
 * Camera vertical track / pan
 * **Interesting that van not in middle of shot – very deliberately does not reach middle of camera – trying to go under the radar? **
 * Remain extreme L/S
 * Cut to bank logo – c/up, centered – establishing this as a focal point
 * Cut to L/S low angle – car still side of screen - drives to us into M/S - as passing, cut into car interior
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to M/S – bank logo
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">M/S detail – owl
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/up – owl
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/up – wolf
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to back of car, driving – probably heading to bank
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to c/up bank logo
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to p.o.v. of road from car
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to c/up montage of bank features
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cut to mid shot car – drives into camera
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">l/s car – centered
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">L/S car left – man walks from front seat to passenger side
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">m/s man getting into car, camera, pans up to bridge
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">cut to low angle est. shot on bridge, looking up – (visual bridge?)
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/up on front of car
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">l/shot of bank
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/up faces on bank
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/up 2 sides – side/front of bank
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Low angle L/S – flag on bank
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">L/S buildings – man in white suit
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Mid shot man – plays with focus of man then on car as drives to camera
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">L/S man and car
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">C/up owl statue to m/s bull statue
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Several L/S’s car driving at diff angles
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">C/ups inside car
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">c/u on side of car – “Perfectly Planned Painting – We Never Leave Until the Job is Done” – precursor for the storyline?
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">L/S of street
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Car driving M/S, panning
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">L/S following car to parking
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bank interior


 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Music throughout is non diegetic and Indian – although it seems that the scene is set in America
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Many cuts in just 5mins of footage
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">What we are meant to look at not always in centre
 * <span style="color: #f20606; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cuts are very much meant to be noticed.

Written by T. Sturrock.