Editing Close-up (section)

==History==
Most early filmmakers, such as [[Thomas Edison]], [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]] and [[Georges Méliès]], tended not to use close-ups and preferred to frame their subjects in long shots, similar to the stage. Film historians disagree as to the filmmaker who first used a close-up. One of the best claims is for [[George Albert Smith (film pioneer)|George Albert Smith]] in [[Hove]], who used medium close-ups in films as early as 1898 and by 1900 was incorporating extreme close-ups in films such as ''[[As Seen Through a Telescope]]'' and ''[[Grandma's Reading Glass]]''. In 1901, [[James Williamson (film pioneer)|James Williamson]], also working in Hove, made perhaps the most extreme close-up of all in ''[[The Big Swallow]]'' in which his character approaches the camera and appears to swallow it. [[D. W. Griffith]], who pioneered screen cinematographic techniques and narrative format, is associated with popularizing the close up with the success of his films. For example, one of Griffith's short films, ''[[The Lonedale Operator]]'' (1911), makes significant use of a close-up of a wrench that a character pretends is a gun. [[Lillian Gish]] remarked on Griffith's pioneering use of the close-up:

<blockquote>The people in the front office got very upset. They came down and said: "The public doesn't pay for the head or the arms or the shoulders of the actor. They want the whole body. Let's give them their money's worth." Griffith stood very close to them and said: "Can you see my feet?" When they said no, he replied: "That's what I'm doing. I am using what the eyes can see."<ref name="Lekich">{{Cite news |last=Lekich |first=John |date=October 24, 1986 |title=First Lady of the Silent Screen |work=The Globe and Mail |url=http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2010/03/lillian-gish-first-lady-of-silent.html |access-date=}}</ref></blockquote>