Camera Shots

When planning your graphic novel adaption you should consider the kinds of ‘camera shots’ you will use and ensure you have some variety. Think of it like a film. If you saw a movie and every shot was mid-shot it would be pretty boring. The effects camera shots have in comics is the same as in movies. 

Extreme long shots: Shows setting and landscape.

Long shots: Good for showing action, movement and characters interacting with each other and their environment.

Mid shots: Help convey character relationships and help you understand who the character is, as you can see more than just their face.

Close ups: Good for conveying emotion or thinking.

Extreme close ups: These are often used to emphasise emotion or reinforce that an object is important.

Low angles: Make a character or object seem powerful, intimidating or threatening.

High angles: Make a character seem weak, vulnerable or small.

For example here are two uses of long shot. The first is used to help us understand setting; the second is used to show actions – two characters fighting.

While here is an example – from the same Scott Pilgrim series – which shows how the ‘camera shots’ of a graphic novel can tell the story just as effectively as dialogue and the artwork. 

Here the camera is used conventionally at the start with close-ups to allow us to focus on the emotions of the two characters. Judging by the facial expressions, it is obvious something awkward and probably sad is going on. The camera pulls back to mid-shots/mid long-shots and the characters are placed at the extreme edges of panels. The point behind this is to convey the crushing nature of these emotions. This is reinforced through the female character’s (Knives Chau) speech bubbles which become wavy and the font increasingly small. The contrast in the background colour also helps convey the – emotional – distance growing between the two characters.