The Cross-media Dialectics of the Close-up

Abstract

Theoretical discussions about the origins of the close-up methods as a specific cinematic means of expression, suggest that close-up presentation has a wider application than that in film produc¬tion. According to the American director with Ser-bian background, expert in the area of the “creative editing”, painter by profession, Slavko Vorka¬pich (Славко Воркапић), the approaching, the ap¬proximation and consequently – the zooming, do not have the same or equal role with the dialec¬tic potential of the close-up framing. The meth¬ods of the close-up are rooted in the traditional forms of artistic expression, such as photography and painting, while their genealogy can be traced to the “dramatic”, i.e., theatrical techniques. Ac¬cording to the film theoretician Sergey Eisenstein (Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн) the individu-al arts “converge” in the cinematography through the “method of the magnifying glass”, which gives expression to each individual characteristics of the different artistic disciplines, whereas the com¬mon method, as a common characteristic is consid¬ered as fundamental in all arts (1988: 3). The use of the close-up in different creative contexts notes a cross-media nature of the procedure, through which the ontological structure of each artistic me¬dium is being changed respectively. The analyti¬cal foundation of this research includes mapping the dialectical crossmediality of close-up methods through the elaboration of theoretical analyzes and examples from practical manifestations in various creative fields.