“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.” These famous words were spoken by actress Gloria Swanson in the movie Sunset Boulevard, and they've echoed through the decades. But are you ready to shoot your close-up? Not so fast. Here are a few ideas on when it's really time for those close-ups. (For this article, I will only be discussing single-camera shoots.)

I have always found it best to start with the widest shot possible. Not necessarily the widest focal length, though, because using a 600mm lens on the moon shooting back to Earth would be wider than using a 5.8mm lens from 3ft. away. So by wide shot, I mean the widest area of the set you want to cover. There are a number of reasons to start wide. First, it usually takes the most instruments and the longest time to set up the wide shot. Second, by beginning with the wide shot, you give your actors or onscreen talent a chance to become more familiar with the physical arena and to block their actions and the movement of your camera.

Also, wide shots are the most forgiving. Unless you are planning to use only this focal length for the entire scene, the wide shot can be edited in sections, cutting out any mistakes. So if there are camera bobs, missed cues, or flubbed lines, they won't have a great effect on the final program. That's not to say you shouldn't strive for perfection, it's just that perfection can be to a lesser degree in the wide shot.

Once you've established the wide shot, you can start moving your camera closer to the action, and as you do, you can adjust your lighting accordingly. I have always found that it's easier to move lights into an area than to move them out. With the wide shot, all of the lights are outside of the action area or hung from grids. As the camera moves closer, I begin to move my lights and reflector cards, gobos, and other lighting tools closer to the actors or objects being photographed to get more pleasing angles on the faces, to remove shadows, or in general to make the scene more pleasing to the camera — and ultimately to the eye.

Remember, as you move closer, the camera (and audience) is less forgiving, so here's where perfection really needs to be perfection. That's why I don't shoot as many takes of a wide shot as close-ups. A big mistake young directors make is spending hours on the wide shot, only to be left with too little time to get the important close-ups. I can't tell you the number of times I've been forced by a client to re-shoot and re-shoot a wide shot only to use the first three seconds of the shot in the final edit.

It's also a good idea to map out a shooting plan beforehand. Nothing irritates the crew more than to shoot a wide shot, then go in for the close-up, and then go back out and re-shoot the wide shot because you forgot to get Cecil tipping his hat as he walked through the front door. It also wreaks havoc on your budget — and cuts into your lunch break.

So now, Mr. (De)Miller, you are ready to shoot your close-up.