"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it"

What a director most important role? While some may say getting along with the actors, others may say controlling a films artistic and dramatic aspects, and others will even say post production. Nobody can argue a director has a lot of responsibilities in the making of a film, but what makes a director's film stand out from the rest? Along with many other things, the SHOTS he uses to film different scenes have a huge impact in how the story is told to audiences.


I will be discussing one of the scenes in my all time favorite  movie 'The Little Rascals". In one of the first scenes where Alfalfa and Darla are having a date on a boat the director applies what its called "Reverse Order" and starts with a Extreme Close Up (ECU) and ends with a Long Shot (LS).




First shot:  Extreme Close Up Shot (ECU). 
We yet don't know who is singing, all we see is this strand of hair (Alfalfas Trademark). The Director wants us to pay attention to that detail.

Second Shot: Close Up shot (CU) 

We now see Alfalfas Face while he is singing to Darla.

Darla enjoying her lover's serenade her. We know who is there and what they are doing and feeling, but we yet don't know about anything that surrounds them.

Third Shot: Middle Shot (MS)

Here we can see both Darla and Alfalfa in the screen, sitting on a boat in a river having a date.

Fourth Shot: Long Shot (LS)

With this shot we understand that Spanky and his friends caught Alfalfa on his date and are not very happy about it.