Reaction Shot
Close-up of a listener, not the speaker. Reactions are where stories live; most editors don't cut to them enough.
- COINED
- 1910s
- TAXONOMY
- SHOT TYPES
- RELATED
- 4
- TEMPLATES
- 0
A reaction shot is a close-up of the listener, not the speaker. The grammar of editing's most important truth: reactions are where stories live.
Most new editors cut to the speaker, the speaker, the speaker. The reaction shot is the upgrade. Cut to the listener before they speak - let their face read the line we just heard - and the audience writes the inner monologue for free. The scene gets richer without a word changing.
The Kuleshov experiment in 1918 proved this. Audiences read the same neutral face as hungry, grieving, or in love depending on what was cut against it. A century later it's still true. The reaction shot is the cheapest piece of subtext money can buy.
Every dialogue scene. Especially during the most loaded line - cut to the listener, not the speaker.
When the listener's reaction is identical to the audience's expected reaction - you've wasted the cut.
Terms next to this one.
Face fills most of the frame. Used when an emotion is doing more work than a line.
The full conversational pattern: speaker, listener, speaker, listener. Editing's most-used hand of cards.
Meaning lives in juxtaposition. The same neutral face reads as hungry, sad, or in love depending on what you cut to.
Audio from the previous shot continues over the next picture. Twin of the J-cut. Together they hide 80% of edits.