The Closeup shot

 The Closeup Shot

This is perhaps the most useful shot in any video. If the character is speaking then a head and shoulders view of the talent focuses the attention on them.

Length of shot

Can be long a short. If it must be long then break the action by cutting to another clip which can be another closeup and then back again.

Requirements 

Camera

The talent 

How to Film it

This shows the importance of the action - it may be a hand doing something, someone speaking. It shows the emotion of the scene.
The camera often needs to be close to the talent, but check that the image is not distorted. A telephoto lens can help here keeping the camera further away from the talent. Keep the shots short because the emotion, thought or object is the only area of focus and it is hard for people to focus on one thing for very long and you want your audience to stay with you. If you need a longer time then look at the shot from different close up angles.

Example

In this shot I want to show how this ball behaves. Getting in close focuses the users attention on the moving objects. The user can see what you want them to see.

Showing some emotion means that I have to get close up enough to the face to see what the talent is thinking. In the distance shot we can see what is going on but we are not focused on what the talent is thinking.