# What does Sargent (1916, Ch. XXXVIII) say a close-up should show: a face and its expression, a reaction, a small action, or an object, and how do his examples handle each?

- id: art_01M5MYWZCREE4H3NBR8Z6VC6TC
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01, T02 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T18:03:19.825Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MYWZCREE4H3NBR8Z6VC6TC

1916 practice: for Sargent the central content of a close-up is expression (he says much of the story is or should be told in facial expression), with a second use of isolating a component (the tied hero's peril) and a third of giving a small action its own stage (the gift of a flower, a nearly slipped foot). In his scripts a close-up usually carries a single player or a pair, one or two beats of business, and a facial or postural cue ('intensely interested', 'sneeringly'). He says some points need no close-up: the audience already knows Gecko is at the rear.

1916 practice: for Sargent the central content of a close-up is expression (he says much of the story is or should be told in facial expression), with a second use of isolating a component (the tied hero's peril) and a third of giving a small action its own stage (the gift of a flower, a nearly slipped foot). In his scripts a close-up usually carries a single player or a pair, one or two beats of business, and a facial or postural cue ('intensely interested', 'sneeringly'). He says some points need no close-up: the audience already knows Gecko is at the rear.

Curator qualifications: Close-up definition, jobs, numbering as separate scenes, cautions and the bounded 'no ratio' negative are verified as Sargent's text. The density figures in -04 are counts of his own printed examples.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt",
      "note": "sar.flat (a3cff7eb) ch. XXXVIII offsets per candidate"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] 1916 practice: for Sargent the central content of a close-up is expression (he says much of the story is or should be told in facial expression), with a second use of isolating a component (the tied hero's peril) and a third of giving a small action its own stage (the gift of a flower, a nearly slipped foot). In his scripts a close-up usually carries a single player or a pair, one or two beats of business, and a facial or postural cue ('intensely interested', 'sneeringly'). He says some points need no close-up: the audience already knows Gecko is at the rear. · locator: sar.flat (a3cff7eb) ch. XXXVIII offsets per candidate · source: https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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