Long shot

"The size of the image is used for dramatic purposes, and not merely to establish the background.

Just the other day I was doing a television show and there was a scene in which a man came into a police station to give himself up. I had a close shot of the man coming in, the door closing behind him, and the man walking up to the desk; I didn't show the whole set. They asked me, 'aren't you going to show the whole thing so that people know we're in a police station?'

I said, 'Why bother? The sergeant has three stripes on his arm right next to the camera, and that's enough to get the idea across. Why should we waste a long shot that may be useful at a dramatic moment?'"

(Alfred Hitchcock)

in Hitchcock, François Truffaut