Close-up as a Marker of the Change of Genre Register in the Second Season of the Friends TV series

Abstract

The article examines the possibilities of the close-up as an independent artistic technique, using the example of Season 2 (19951996) of the Friends TV series. The visual norm of the series is medium shots, which is due to the shooting technology; whereas close-ups, as shown in the article, sharply contrast with the norm and are used in a situation of genre shift (as markers of the western, drama, romantic comedy, horror, soap opera, etc.). Each close-up in the second season of the Friends TV series is one of the tools for introducing features of an alien genre, which is mockingly played out and destroyed, generating a comic effect. In addition, in some cases close-ups are also related to the narrative situation of a “film within a film”: They are used in soap operas, music videos, and commercials watched by the characters of the series. Thus, the article proposes a way to analyze the size of shots as a tool for determining genre boundaries.

Keywords

• us television
• us series
• close-up
• sitcom
• narrative levels