In former usage, the term “bust” was employed to describe any enlarged view, as a watch, a face, a hand turning a door knob.  Now the term has been given a less wide range and has been superseded in its broadest meaning by another technical expression—­the “close-up.”

The bust now means any enlarged object, such as a hand holding a watch, a box of cigars on a table with a note pinned to a cigar, or any object shown close to the camera, where no action is called for.

If Maud comes into a room and sees her sister staring at the window sill, crosses to the sister’s side and stares also, it is natural that we wonder what it is that causes the consternation.  The camera is manifestly too far away to show unmistakably what Maud picks up—­say, a broken-off knife-point.  Suppose that it is part of the plot to have the spectator also grasp the fact that there is a dark stain on the knife-point.  We must get it closer.  So we write the scene up to the point where Maud holds up the object, then we start another scene and say: 

     43—­Bust of Maud’s hand holding knife-point to show
     blood-stain in shape of rude star.

There is no action.  The hand simply holds the object.  A scene of this kind is usually taken before a black curtain or in front of some such indeterminate background.  Later, this bust scene is inserted into the film at the proper point.  A point worthy of notice is that bust scenes are always taken, and close-up scenes are nearly always taken, either before or (usually) after the scenes into which they break have been done.  If the plot demands that a certain character examine his watch at a certain point, and if the spectator is supposed to see exactly what time the watch shows, the director is not going to stop his camera, bring the camera nearer to the player or the player nearer to the camera, as his method may be, make the bust picture, and then resume the taking of the “wide-angle,” or full-size-stage, scene.  Much time can be saved by making the different kinds of scenes separately.  This explains why every scene and every kind of scene in the entire scenario must be given a separate scene-number.  The scenes in a photoplay may be likened to a cut-up picture puzzle, each part of which must be properly assembled and inserted in its proper place to make a complete, understandable picture.

As has already been said, the bust picture in photoplay is like the spot-light in the regular theatre.  It centres the spectator’s attention on a certain object and holds it there until the important object is fully observed by the watcher.  It “not only magnifies the objects, but it draws particular attention to them.  Many points may be cleared in a five-foot bust picture which would require twenty to thirty feet of leader to explain, and the bust picture always interests.  Sometimes in a newspaper illustration a circle surrounds some point of interest, or a cross marks where the body was discovered.  The bust picture serves the same purpose, and answers, as well, for the descriptive caption that appears under a cut."[17]