Average plan

Shot of the film “Farewell, weapon!” , Shot with an average plan

Mid Plan is a concept in cinema , television and (to a lesser extent) in photography , describing a camera arrangement that allows the viewer to focus on a particular part of the scene, isolated from a general plan ^[1] . The difference between the concepts of secondary and general plan is blurred and differs in various cinema schools. In most cases, the average plan is considered such a size , in which the frame can see two or three people leading the dialogue . This is achieved when the human figure is shown in a movie frame, knee-length or waist-high: this point of view is generally accepted in Europe . Sometimes the average plan is considered to display a figure in full growth ^[2] .

The average plan allows you to fully display actor's dialogues, as well as display gestures to the same extent as facial expressions ^[3] . Sometimes there are two types of the average plan, received in the Russian film industry the names "first average" and "second average". In the first case, the actor is shown in the frame on the chest, and in the second - to the middle of the thigh. The second medium plan is often called “American”, since such a size was used in westerns to display a hero with a holster of a revolver. The decision to shoot a particular editing frame with medium, general or close-up is taken at the stage of preparation of the director's script ^[4] . When documentary shooting, the operator chooses the size of the plan independently, guided by the basic rules of installation ^[5] .

In American photography, the medium term concept corresponds to the slang expression “ Ten-foot picture ” ( English Ten-foot picture ), meaning the size obtained when using a normal lens for shooting from a distance of ten feet or three meters . The expression was typical for a news photo from the first half of the 20th century and is common among modern wedding photographers ^{[6] [7]} .