Film grammar / Shot sizes
Medium Shot
Waist up; the default for dialogue and action you need to understand.
What it is
The medium shot (MS) frames a person from roughly the waist up. Gestures and faces are both readable, so it is the most neutral, "conversational" size in cinema.
When to use it
Because it feels neutral, directors use it when they want the audience to observe rather than feel. Push in from a medium to a close-up to shift from observation to emotion.
How to prompt it
Name the crop explicitly ("framed from the waist up"). Combine with a camera move for life - a static medium shot from a video model often looks like a stock clip.
Medium shot from the waist up, a boxer with taped hands sitting on a bench in a concrete locker room, single bare bulb overhead, low angle, static camera.
26 examples in the library
Before the Bell
staticmedium
Morning Kitchen
staticmedium
The Room
slow push-inmedium
Midnight Diner
staticmedium
Last Train
staticmedium
Set
slow push-inmedium
Eight Seconds
handheldmedium
Posters
slow rotatemedium
Nets
handheldmedium