Focal length

The number that sets how wide or tight a lens sees. Short lenses open a room; long ones flatten it and single out.

Focal length sets the lens's stance toward space: short lengths widen the field and stretch depth, rooms open, gestures exaggerate, the camera feels inside events; long lengths narrow and compress, backgrounds crowd forward, and the frame watches from across the street.

The working scale runs from immersion to observation, and faces live at its centre: portrait lengths render features at the proportion at which we trust them, wide lengths caricature at close range, long ones flatten toward surveillance. Our video plan writes angles of view into every scene brief because this number is a stance, not a spec.