欢迎来到“电影场景分镜头大师高端课程”
我们的目标是通过接下来的6 张DVD 开发一套完整的摄影机工作的镜头语言
我们在整个分镜头教学过程中采用三维动画
因为三维动画提供了 摄影机镜头语言实验的最理想的操作环境
它所表达的清晰度是我们无法从真实环境中获得
同时还使我们避开了和图表或故事板的纠缠
我们即刻就能看到每一种技术的结果
绿色的物体是摄影机 简单的悬挂锁定在摄影机的镜头位置
在第三和第四集
我们将在操作的环境中展示 轨道拍摄和升降拍摄的具体方法
在动画教程中 我们会看到许多台摄影机同时出现在同一场景中 这些只是表示摄影机的“机位”
在现实中我们通常只用一台或两台摄影机拍摄
镜头前面出现绿色扇状区域 表示该摄影机正在拍摄
当我们切换到另一台摄影机的时候 绿色扇状区域也随之切换 绿色扇状区域的角度代表摄影机的视角
我们用3D动画模特 贯穿分镜头和场景调度课程的始终
3D模特是与我们在进行场景调度和分镜头过程中 与之共事的最佳演员
他们不仅极具耐性而且面无表情
摄影机运动和人物之间的形体语言结合 所传达出的情感
肯定是来自于摄影机的作为而不会是来自人物
当把摄影机的工作和演员的表演分离之后
我们如何将思想和感情附加到角色身上
以及是如何用摄影机的整体工作 在银幕上创造出情感就变得非常清楚了
这个课程是一个以最高目标创造出来的的雄心勃勃的杰作
本课程是基于这样的假设 即“真正的掌握”不是来自于只知道一些热门的动作
而是来自对每一项技术的深刻理解
所以在接下来的六册中
我们将要做的就是将摄影机分解成 一个个简单的组件
然后再把它们重新组合在一起
制作这样的课程的难度 在于每个人所知道的技术都不尽相同
所以在这个课程中
我们将尝试从基础开始 涵盖文字上关于摄影机工作的所有知识
这意味着我们毫不怀疑你们已经知道了很多 特别是在开始的部分
如果是这种情况那么就当作是一次知识更新
该课程的初衷是 将所有可以想象的到的摄影机技术集大成
每个人都值得反复观看
以达到在驾驭每一项技术的时候 都能驾轻就熟 如同人的第二本能
通常我们一到现场就懵了
原先设计的分镜头计划 变成了一组松散混乱的镜头系列 然后就寄希望剪辑师能将镜头缝合
为了避免这种盲目性 在最后关键的时刻 我们不仅需要知道每一项技术
并且要非常了解他们 以至于我们可以在不加思考的情况下 就能熟练地使用它们
所以建议看完本课程后建要继续一遍又一遍地反复观看
带着声音或者关掉声音反复观看 直到将这些技术镌刻在意识中 直到自如驾驭的程度
第一和第二册 讲述的是固定机位的场景分镜头
我们将尽我们所能不移动摄影机
在第3和第4卷 我们使用摄影机运动技术 开发全面的摄影机运动语言
在第5和第6卷 我们开发了一种有效的方法
可以为绝大多数场景分镜头 和场面调度创造出色的效果
这个课程的最终目标 是尽可能使导演工作变得直观和有趣
略有讽刺意味的是
本课程所具有的非常强大的技术 远远超出了一般的需求范围
本课程的目的决不是要创造一套 必须遵循的僵化或乏味的规则
而是要对以往所有文字记载的镜头语言 知识的深入领会中获得力量
本课程的基本假设是： 你会将所有这些镜头语言的技术 创造性地运用到你的创作之中
让我们从基础知识开始吧
running down some basics during the next number of chapters will go over some
basics of composing shots
starting with shot sizes the various sizes go by names that are meant to make
them easier to communicate the full shot includes the feet in the frame
the medium full shot is a title shot that crops around the knees
the Cowboys shot is frame to include Cowboys gun a carryover from westerns
the medium shot cuts just below the waist after this we have a couple of
close shots for the medium clothes shop which cuts just above the waist and then
the clothes shop which cuts by the characters breast area above this we
have a number of close-ups first the white close-up then the full close-up
then the medium close-up and finally the extreme close-up
too much credit is given these names because they aren't exactly most people
don't agree on what they mean or even use the same words and if the character
needs to move which usually does the terms become meaningless so all shot
sizes are sort of here we're sort of in a medium close a quicker and more
precise way to communicate shot sizes is to simply walk over to the character and
physically show the top and bottom of where the frame should crop
when picking shot sizes a useful convention is to avoid cropping
characters at leg joints here we're cutting him off at the knees which can
make him look amputated
so let's drop them in the middle of the thighs if we need to be any wider it's
better to go to a full shot because cropping them in the middle of the CAF
tends to make him look like he's standing in something and the same
happens when cropping at the ankles when we have the choice this whole area is
police forgiving place to crop and make sense to avoid
we simply pick shot sizes based on how identified our intimate we want to be
with the character if she's deeply personal and open about her feelings we
don't want to be this wide
and if she's talking about something ordinary we don't want to be this close
unless it has very personal meeting
being too close can feel severe if we don't know a character because intimacy
takes time in the course of a story we started out not knowing the characters
so in the beginning will lean towards full shots and medium shots moving onto
closer shots
as we gradually get to know the characters we can better except going
closer without feeling forced we can then save extreme close-ups for late in
a story where relationship with them has become personal
moving out from full shots we become less and less intimate with the
character as she gets smaller in the frame with more space around her she
begins to appear lonely or insignificant
to quickly run down the basic shot types this is a single shot
this is a two-shot
this is a three-shot and so forth an insert is a close-up on a part of the
scene a POV or point of view is seeing the scene from the character's
perspective
the most basic dialogue setup is to matching over-the-shoulder shots and two
matching close-ups and all two cameras on each character the technical names
for these pairs or internal and external reverses because the close-ups are
inside the space between the characters and the over the shoulders are outside
normal editing pattern is to cut between the external shots and then at some
point is we get deeper into the dialogue to move in and cut between the internal
shots
if we want to become less personal again we can go back to the external shots
we can easily have different shot sizes on each character
here we're more identified with a woman unless with a man if we turn that around
we're now more identified with a man
and less with the woman another way to control our level of identification with
the characters is with our distance to the eyeline with a camera out here we're
very far away from the eyeliner more detached from the dialogue as the camera
gets closer to the eyeline we become more involved
the further we are from the eyeline more objective and impersonal the shot is as
we get closer to the eyeline we become more involved saving rubbing against the
eyeline for very personal scenes
an elegant technique can be to place close-ups closer to the eyeline then
over the shoulders so starting in an over-the-shoulder that's further away
from the eyeline as we cut close we're also moving closer to the eyeline and
becoming more personal
with several cameras on a character the shot sizes need to be different enough
to avoid jump-cut here the cameras are too similar
as we cut from the wide camera so the closer camera we get a jolt because the
shots are different enough
so let's make the wide shot wider starting in the wider shot the cut is
smooth because we understand it is a cut
coming from shot sizes that are very different can also be jumpy but doesn't
come across as a mistake
starting in a very wide shot the closest startling but still makes sense visually
is find a place cameras on a character at different angles but his shot sizes
need to be different enough so two angles if we're coming to a camera only
a slightly different angle we get the same type of jump as before the rule of
thumb is that shot sizes wrangle should be at least twenty percent different but
that's a little on the low end
Master shots have several meanings the first is a wide shot that record the
entire scene
so we'll start the scene in the master then cut to the external shot on the man
the internal shot on the red woman and the external shot on the blue woman the
women walk out and we cut back into the masters who remains alone in the room
we can place the master anywhere we want as long as we stay on the same side of
the action is the other cameras but we have potential continuity problems
coming back into a master because the actors performances changed during the
day which is easier to hide in closer shots
it's also a waste of film and the actors energy to shoot masters that were only
going to use the beginning or end so instead of shooting long masters which
is the convention let's treat it is simply another wide shot and concentrate
on the part we know we want to use the second meaning of a master is a camera
to right angle to a reverse shot setup
if a POV is seeing the scene in the first person and over the shoulder would
be singing it in the second person a right angle masters then the third
person in editing much of what we're doing is controlling how we're
identifying with the characters it can be very useful to have a neutral camera
that attaches from them both the third meeting of a master is a carefully
choreographed camera that moves through the scene is the action envelops it in
this shot from a later chapter we push into the scene as characters and extras
weave around the camera here we're counting on the master being the main
and perhaps only coverage for the scene shot size comes from either the distance
between us and the characters are from the focal length focal length resume is
the angle of you in this over simplified drawing light enters the lens and is
projected onto a frame of 35 millimeter film when we zoom in what we're really
doing is moving the lens further away from the film which narrows the angle of
view so this is called a long lens a wide angle is created by moving the lens
closer which widens the angle of view so this is called a short lens if we're
fairly close to the character with a short lens we can produce the same shot
size by setting up the camera further back and using a longer lens
as we cut between these two cameras the shot sizes identical but the perspective
is very different focal length makes an enormous difference in the relative
sizes of characters are objects here when a regular over-the-shoulder but as
we pull back and zoom in the perspective becomes much flatter and the characters
seem to have the same size
this is called compression of space and is fundamental choices shot size in the
closer shot with a wide lens the distance between the characters is the
same as the distance from the red man to the camera but with a camera further
back in the longer lens the distance between the characters is only a
fraction of the distance of the camera so in comparison to the distance of the
camera the distance between the characters is almost nothing
the first thing focal length does control the closeness between the
characters
this is a sliding scale if we zoom out and move closer the characters seem
further apart
if we move far back and zoom in the characters seem closer together
secondly it allows us to see the world in a different way than the human eye
does if we want a shot to look like reality will use a lens that has the
same angle of view is the human eye which on 35 millimeter film is around 50
millimeters but we make shots much more interesting by deliberately staying away
from lenses the mimic the human eye here we're using a 25 millimeter lens which
creates more distance between everything in the scene and the illusion of a
larger location here we're using a hundred and twenty millimeter lens which
creates a tighter atmosphere and singles out the characters were interested in
being wider longer than reality is the easiest way to create production value
because the image becomes an interpretation instead of a recording
thirdly long focal length suppress our understanding of the layout of the scene
which can be an effective storytelling tool here were using regular lens and
it's very easy to make out the spatial relationships between the characters
here were further back using a 200 millimeter lens which flattens the
perspective makes the layout of the scene harder to understand this either
makes the situation more disorienting or it makes a single around arbitrary
surroundings disorientation is sometimes a goal because the scene loses its
mystique as soon as we know the entire layout
in choosing focal lengths for normal dialogue irregular lens tends to create
too much difference in size between the characters if we pull back and use a
longer lens the sizes of the characters even out more and the atmosphere becomes
more intimate so the over-the-shoulder is really out here
and close-ups irregular lens can put us uncomfortably close to the character and
it can feel like we're shooting up her nose so again make the shot slightly
longer from further back giving us a flatter perspective and more forgiving
shot cutting back and forth between the two versions the difference in
perspective is very clear
this puts the close-up by the blue woman's shoulder so well sometimes need
to cheat her position cutting between cameras that are very different focal
lengths usually doesn't work well as we cut from a regular lens to a long one
the mood changes very abruptly which is more apparent in live action than on the
simple 3d set as we pan with the characters in a very tight shot with a
long lens the cut to a regular lens seems strange because we're cutting from
a compressed an intimate shot to an ordinary one
the exception of this is that shorter lenses come more naturally to wider
shots because we want to capture more of the scene and longer lenses come more
naturally to closer shots because our goal is to become more involved so going
from a master that might be a 30 millimeter to get more the scene to cut
to an 80 millimeter close-up doesn't feel like a sudden change in focal
length because it happens for a reason
it's really not necessary to go around thinking in millimeters except to
remember that 50 millimeters is about the same as the human eye that higher
numbers are longer and lower numbers shorter but it's useful to notice that
the angle of view skyrockets is the lens becomes shorter so there's an enormous
difference between a 20 millimeter lens and a 10 but almost no difference
between a hundred 90 millimeter and a 200 in this chapter we'll look at a
couple of basic framing techniques that are worth making into a habit
the first is dividing the frame in thirds in this external shot there's
given no priority to any character and we're spending a good portion of the
frame shooting the back of the man's head so let's divide the frame into
thirds and give two-thirds to the woman and one-third to the man will do the
same in the matching reverse as we cut back and forth the character and focus
as the major part of the frame in close-up or internal shots will again
give two-thirds of the frame to the character and focus but instead leave a
third of empty space in front as we cut back and forth between all four cameras
the framing is balanced
dividing the frame in thirds a carryover from paintings and is not as much a rule
is a helpful guide line to create pleasing framings
placing characters at the center looks like a vacation photo because the only
goal is to get a picture of the person
framing in thirds or at least placing the characters off-center is instantly
more picturesque but since we're keeping the characters off-center let's look a
little more closely at the effect of which side of the character we put the
empty space on first of all characters seem were open are available when they
have more space in front of them if we frame our like this instead the frame
cuts off for personal space and we're not being let in
here the frame cuts off the man space so we're again not being led in
if we frame like this instead he might be turned away from the other character
but we're being led into a space
that's one way to look at it but another way is to see it is it for framing
either for the shared space between the characters are for the private space
behind them
framing for the space between the characters creates intimacy as we cut
between the man and the woman they seem normally involved with each other
if we frame for the space behind the woman she seems to reject being part of
the shared space while the man is still part of the shared space if we also
frame him for the space behind him there now both rejecting being part of the
shared space directing whether we're framing for the space inside or outside
the dialogue can create very effective emotional statements
Center framing works best when a character is supposed to be head on and
on the frame here the man is very direct and center stage so the most meaningful
place to put his dead center
another good reason to place a character in the center is when he's a neutral
third party here we're cutting between the women and each have part of the
shared space in their shot as we cut to the man he's equally part of both their
spaces
vertical framing for characters simply involves keeping a bit of empty space
above the head as we get closer we'll have less space above her head than in
wider shots in close shots it's more a matter of where to place the eyes here
can still work to frame in thirds in which case we'll place arise on the
third line
the concern is visual gravity if we put too much space above the characters the
framing can seem to light if we put too little space above the characters the
framing can seem too heavy a little bit of space tends to feel at ease
here the frame is top-heavy by having the contents gravitate towards the
bottom we get a more relaxed and settled framing another factor in framing is
perspective there's lots of Therion perspective but to make a long story
short leaning lines in the image create a sense of depth here the angle on the
boxes causes plenty of Leaning lines both into the depth of the frame and
also over on the Left if we instead move over here we're shooting flat against
the boxes all the lines are completely horizontal and we have no sense of depth
so shooting flat against any surface is something to avoid when we can
lines in the image create perspective when they're moving towards the
vanishing point here the vanishing point is inside the frame which creates the
hardest perspective a more relaxed perspective is created by placing the
vanishing point outside the frame causing the lines to lean in that
direction so if we want to shoot a dialogue scene between these two rows of
crates this way of setting it up will give us almost no perspective since the
cameras are not angle completely flat on the crates were getting a bit of
perspective but only a little bit however as we rotate the entire setup to
get more perspective we're running into a typical problem one of the cameras now
has more perspective but the other one is shooting directly into the wall
in this scene and obvious way to get perspective in both cameras is to place
the characters parallel to the crates
now we're getting perspective in both shots another convention from painting
is that perspective lines geigi through the frame here the lines lead us towards
the man
nothing makes this clear than placing the character dead center in the frame
with all perspective line symmetrical around him since photography is about
forcing a three-dimensional world onto two-dimensional film it's important that
we do everything we can to retain a sense of perspective if we take out what
creates the perspective lines we remove any sense of depth
one last consideration is where to place the horizon line which is the ultimate
vanishing point not all shots have a clear horizon line so it doesn't always
apply but when there is one the photographic convention is to place it
on one of the vertical thirds either here or here depending on what's
important in the shot in this chapter we'll look at the effects of camera
height it's a common notion the place in the camera lower makes a character look
bigger superior and placing the camera higher makes the character looks smaller
inferior that's generally true at least one where a round eye level placing the
camera much lower we understand it is being low so we don't perceive him as
necessarily being big but instead perceive it as a creative choice
shooting down on characters we understand our higher vantage point so
it doesn't make them look small
instead being higher up causes us to detach from the scene in this angle were
completely aloof
let's look at a couple of important considerations when choosing a camera
height
the first is that if the set doesn't have a ceiling it's very easy to shoot
off the edge of the set if we plant a shot like this but not asked for a
ceiling it's too late to put one in
here one solution is to shoot where the ceiling is not an issue maybe closer to
a wall
we're looking at this because shooting upwards can produce problems that don't
show up until the last minute so we need to plan ahead
when you're outdoors exposure is an issue shooting against the sky which is
much brighter it's very hard to get good exposure on the character
if we expose for him this guy burns out completely
if we put more light on him to balance the exposure he can have trouble keeping
his eyes open
here we may want to shoot in front of something less brighter something we can
control which of course is easier to find if we stay at eye level
secondly we need a reference to really know that were higher low here were
above eye level as we move to waist level the perspective change on the man
himself is unremarkable and we're actually judging our height by the
position of the far wall
as soon as we put in something to cause perspective lines we get a much clearer
idea of our height
moving back to eye level the perspective tells us much more than the elevation
itself so the more perspective we can create the more we get out of choosing a
height another way to bring in a references with foreground as soon as we
put the woman in the foreground our highest ten times as clear as we move to
around I level the thing to notice is that about the brand new smells you know
it's pretty different here the foreground and the Leaning lines
together create very powerful perspective
one last way to judge our height is by the horizon line if we have one if we're
looking up honor the horizon line will be lower in the frame if we're looking
down honor the horizon line will be higher the effect of this is that when
the horizon line is above the icy appear submersed or suppressed
when the horizon line is below the eye she looks freer and more in command
in choosing a camera height I level is naturally most like reality but it also
produces very ordinary and documentary images so that in itself can be reason
to stay away from my level
but if we're at eye-level were also always tilting downwards
here were pure eye level but in order to put her eyes higher in the frame we have to tell down
a little
so seen from the side were shooting downwards
in order to more naturally place to rise higher in the frame we should be lower and more level
part of the dialogue without having to do hard angles perhaps even more useful
in close shots it allows us to be fairly close to the eyeline without making one
character superior to the other
there's nothing that stops us from mixing heights here we're shooting hard
up on the man but we're level on the woman so she seems relaxed and detached
from the conversation while he takes it more personally
here we're shooting level on the man but down on the woman and close to the
eyeline so she's more directly affected
well he's more detached most people are familiar with the line or the hundred
and eighty degree rules so let's look at it for the record simply put once we
pick a side of the action to be on all cameras to cover that action need to be
on that side the line can be the eyeline but not necessarily here one character
is facing away so the eyeline doesn't apply
instead will say that the line is created by attention either between
characters or between characters and objects
honoring the line is essential to maintaining the understanding of seen
geography that's created in the viewers mind when we cut between shots and it's
a rule that it almost never works to break
so let's look at what happens if we do it wrong we'll put one of the cameras on
the other side so that we're jumping the line every time we cut starting in this
camera we're fine but as we cut to the other camera the characters are flipping
positions and we've lost all orientation
expecting action to be covered from the same side is so ingrained for all of us
that one of the only uses for jumping the line is to deliberately trick the
audience here the woman hears someone by the door so our attention goes in that
direction putting the line here
well then set up another camera on the other side to cover the man walking over
is the woman looks were expecting the man to be entering from the left but as
we pan with him over to the woman finding ourselves on the other side of
the line is startling
with only a couple of characters and no movement it's easy enough to know which
side of the line were on so let's turn up the heat to see why line management
is so important in this scene which is not unrealistic we have a lot of
dialogue crisscrossing the scene as well as several characters moving around
first the red man talks to the blue woman so we'll put into cameras on this
side of the line then he talks to the red woman so we'll put into cameras here
we're in this cameras he walks to the red woman so this camera is now on the
wrong side of the line is the man in the suit joins the conversation the cameras
we put in for that have to be on the side were already on where in this
cameras the red man turns his attention to the blue woman so staying on the same
side we're currently on will create an internal reverse on her as she turns her
attention to the man in the suit this camera still good and these cameras just
became valid again but we can't cut to any of these cameras as we go on we have
more and more lines to be aware of in each line decides which cameras we can
and can't cut to as we had moving cameras to the equation the scene can
potentially become uncomfortable unless we develop a keen awareness of where the
line is at all times we need to be able to solve situations like this at the
snap of a finger so we'll were quite heavily with line management on these
first two volumes
for now let's take a quick look at the major techniques for managing the line
and then cover them later in more detail the first important distinction is that
the only problem is cutting across the line
it's fine across the line as long as we see it happening there are really only
two ways to see a line cross happening either by moving the characters or by
moving the camera as the man walks he takes the line with him in the line
crosses us
most character movement forces line crosses which in turn decides where
other cameras need to be so unless the scene is extremely simple this is
something we need to deal with the other ways by camera movement anytime we do a
camera move it's very likely that we crossed the line in the process
here were simply tracking across the line
it's important to be aware of which side of the line we end up on because it
would be impossible to cut to any camera on the other side afterwards often both
happened at the same time as we track with a man over to a right angle master
he causes a line cross as well as us or here is the woman walks to a numark we
help with the line cross by nudging in the other direction
an important technique that allows us to cut across the line is called hinging in
this scene with two sets of dialogue first between the man in the blue woman
which is covered in these two matching reverses and second between the man and
the red woman which is covered in these two verses we can't just cut between the
cameras at random
if we're cutting dialogue between these two cameras coming to this one would
cross the line so to activate the other line we hinge the cutting on the camera
for the new dialogue that's already on our current side of the line now on the
other line we can cut to the reverse to get back we again go through the hinge
Cameron were free to cut to either camera on the original line the hinge
cameras are bridge to the other line and we need to go through it to get back and
forth here we've been cutting between the man and the blue woman as we cut to
the hands camera we activate the other line and then travel out the line to the
reverse we then go back into the hinge camera and his back onto the original
line
a less useful but still no worthy way of cutting across the line is to cut
through a camera that's placed exactly on the line as soon as we're directly on
the line we've lost any reference to which side we were on so either of these
cameras is a good cut
starting to left we cut to the camera exactly on the line since we're now
neutral we can cut to any camera
a distinction that perhaps goes without saying is that we only need to manage
the line within the scene
if we're on this side and then cut away to a different scene when we return
we're free to start on either side of the line but then of course have to
stick to that side
besides using these techniques the easiest way to make line management
simpler is to clean up as much as possible before we even get started the
first way to do that is to filter out the characters we don't care about as
soon as the view is less cluttered it becomes much easier to keep track of
which lines we need to be concerned with and it's usually fewer than it looked
like before
the second way is to decide on a major coverage angle if we don't do that will
basically have to put in cameras for every position of every line throughout
the scene
deciding to generally cover the scene in this direction increases the likelihood
of a camera staying useful as the line moves around the extreme of this is
sitcom or soap opera blocking we're all cameras are outside the same pointed in
more or less the same direction which of course is not our goal but first
deciding on a general shooting direction is much easier to build from getting
coverage is the process of putting in cameras for everything we're interested
in or might be interested in when editing the simplest form of coverages
to starting in a master to establish geography and then putting cameras for
everything we know or suspect we'll need an editing here we're covering the
characters but we could also pick shots for the phone for body language or for
any other part of the scene
starting in the master every subsequent cut is really an insert on part of the
scene as we cut between the characters were depending more or less on the scene
geography we got from the master
if we hadn't done a master their locations and relationships could be
hard to work out but covering scene is inserts of a master can make a scene see
more stitch together unless fluid
still it's a very normal way to get coverage though perhaps not the most
interesting this step up from this is to add two shots three shots and reverses
to get variety into quickly shift perspective or scale to the parts of the
scene that are interesting or important at the moment but as we start doing
combinations like this it's clear that we could easily cover the scene in a
hundred cameras at the same time wearing down the actors and shooting rolls and
rolls of film will never use so let's look at some tools to narrow down the
choices in placing cameras for dialogue the number of cameras we need first of
all depends on the length of the scene if the scene is long we need more shots
sizes to keep it interesting and to tell a story and editing if it's short we can
get away with only a couple and having lots of shots sizes can actually be
distracting
it's a common conception the reverse shots have to match but this is really
an unnecessary creative limitation so let's take complete Liberty and staging
this scene will start by leaving one external reverse intact but placing the
other one much lower you be the judge of what it means
perhaps the further distance from the eyeline gives us some more secret and
individual angle on him but it cuts just as well here we are normal on the mound
but we're at a right angle on the woman so the shot on her is further away from
the eyeliner more separate here we are again in a low angle in this reverse and
behind the man's shoulder in this reverse
the point is that getting perfect matching angles is not necessarily a big
deal and this can help us save some cameras
if we make it a goal that instead of covering every possible combination we
select fewer shots that capture more of the action the coverage is not only more
optimized it's easier to deal with here we could easily cover the scene in 10 to
15 cameras
let's instead place for cameras first an internal reverse on the blue man then an
external reverse on the red woman shot that frames the blue man with a man in
the suit and the shot that frames the two women this is extremely compact
staging the shots are framed ideally quote unquote but there's plenty of
coverage to cut a scene from and there's more information in each shot so the
camera stay interesting for longer for a close-up on the red woman were using
this shot which serves double duty for later to include the man in the suit
we're keeping the blue man in the foreground as well for the blue womens
dialogue we're using the same shot as before keeping the red woman in the
foreground the scene cuts just as easily as if we were covering it by the book
and it might in fact be more interesting
a powerful way to select shots is by grouping characters to emphasize
relationships by grouping we shows together and who's not which brings
meaning to the coverage in this scene where in a negotiation the man in the
suit is a businessman the blue characters are a married couple
the red man is the attorney for the businessman and the red woman is
attorney for the couple
since when a negotiation that first of all creates two very clear groups made
up of each team on opposite sides of the negotiating table so let's start by
Framing one camera for the businessman and his attorney and another for the
couple and their attorney cutting between them we show the members of each
group together in that group and opposite the others every shot can be a
different grouping of the same characters if we want to show the couple
is a unit will make them into a group for this shot if the blue woman in the
attorney have a small exchange will make that into a group as well
grouping characters together shows relationship whether it's a positive or
a negative one
let's say that during the negotiation the businessman begins revealing a
secret he knows about the blue woman that creates a relationship here which
will cover into over the shoulders the blue man is disheartened to hear the
truth so let's create a shot to group him by himself
let's create another single shot on the businessman as he enjoys his victory
grouping to show relationships is not a lot because sometimes we just want a
three-shot if that's where the action is
but it can be a helpful and quick way to get meaningful coverage and fewer
cameras after the opening will cut between the group on the couple and the
group on the businessman at some point the blue woman consults the attorney
meanwhile the businessman in the blue man continued the negotiation
the blue woman comes back with a remark the businessman then turns his attention
to her and begins revealing a secret she hasn't told her husband about we go back
and forth for a while the couple's attorney objects but the truth is out
and we cut to the blue man as he takes it in
we cut to the businessman as he enjoys his victory we could go on and create as
many relationships as we need maybe some bickering between the attorneys but the
important thing is that instead of having covered the scene from every
conceivable angle and hoping to work out the meaning later we've chosen the
meeting going in
we don't cover everything and we don't need to spatial continuity is the
technical name for the understanding of the scenes layout that's created in the
viewers mind when we cut between shots from the various cameras to make up the
coverage the viewer depends on being able to mentally stitch the scene
together here the two shots glue together and create the illusion of
continuous space with a woman to the left and the amount of the right
but in this case the choice of angles made us construct the wrong mental model
of the scene the characters are really seated back-to-back so let's look at
some ways to create spatial continuity the easiest ways to start a master
coming from a complete overview of the scene the geography is so clear that it
almost doesn't matter what we do afterwards we can sometimes even cross
the line
that's the classic reason for starting a scene in a master but starting a master
has some significant drawbacks which we'll look at in the next chapter
honoring the line can by itself be enough for the spatial orientation to
make sense when we cut two different cameras on this side it only takes a
moment to deduct from our mental model where we've moved to
so let's look a little more closely why the line works no matter where we place
cameras on this side the red men will always be to the left and the blue woman
will always be to the right
even cutting between tide over the shoulders where our angle is changing
nearly a hundred and eighty degrees the man is to the left and the woman is to
the right
so the mental model is really made up of knowing what's to the left and right
the problem is that if we're suddenly on the other side of the line the
management of the right and the woman to the left
in the few seconds it takes us to rotate our model and figure out where we are
we're not paying attention to the story and we experienced distracting jolt
but in the first example we were honoring the line yet we still
misunderstood the geography the reason is that we were keeping the space in
front of the characters even though they were seated back-to-back we've come to
automatically expect the space in the shot to be part of the shared space
between the characters and since we didn't know better this led us to assume
that they were sitting in front of each other if we instead frame the shots like
this the space really is the shared space and the sea makes perfect sense
without any other eight
an effective way to maintain spatial continuity is to create overlapping
groups here will create one shot the group's the man in the red woman and
another the group's the red man in the blue woman when the shots we pick
contain elements that are visible and other shots as well it's very easy to
mentally piece together the scene
this is called pivoting because the editing revolves around a character or
an object here we're using the plan is a pivot so it's visible both in this shot
and in this shot and again as we cut to the woman in the middle so the layout of
the scene is reasonably clear here we're pivoting on characters in the background
with reference in the first shot it's fairly easy to deduct where we are in
the second hopefully we concluded that the characters are stage like this
in this symbol again forgo a master and first pivot around the blue man to this
shot then pivot around the woman to this shot and then to this shot as we play
through it again even though we're zigzagging through the scene
the layout is clear because when characters always the common denominator
it works the same backwards with no other references in the scene the
spatial continuity is coming directly from the pivoting
depending on how we place the cameras pivots behave in two very different ways
that are important to recognize when we're pivoting around an object or a
character in the middle that object will jump from side to side in the frame here
the object is an inconspicuous plan but if there were a large object that could
get annoying
here we're pivoting around the character in the middle
he also jumps from side to side but since we're clearly going between two
groups it seems to happen for a reason
when rotating around a character were more inclined to keep them in the same
part of the frame here the blue man stays in the right side here the woman
stays in the left side when we have the choice it's better to have the character
stay in the same part of the frame because it takes less effort to make
sense of
returning to the discussion on hinging hinges nearly always also a pivot
starting on the first line as we hinge on to the second line the man stays in
the same part of the frame
after having travel out the second line we're back in the hinge camera as we
hinge back on the first line we can pivot around the man
on our way back the line is here so pivoting into this camera is technically
a line cross
however since we're pivoting on the man the cut is smooth enough that it really
doesn't matter one of the most powerful ways to make a scene interesting is to
control the order information is presented in to do that let's first look
at the concept of open and close framings an open framing is a framing
where we don't have everything we need to understand what we're seeing the real
story the key information lies outside the boundaries of the frame and we're
only seeing a small part of the bigger picture that immediately makes us ask
questions like where are we
what are the papers scattered on the table and whose hand is this by
suppressing that information for a short while we pay more attention
a close framing is self-contained the entire story is within the frame and we
have everything we need to understand it so if an open framing creates questions
close framings create answers as soon as the cats out of the bag we can't go back
to an open frame and expect the same sense of mystery and curiosity
everything is now just an insert and the long slow reveal from before is now lost
most of its punch because we already know the larger hole it's part of
anytime we can make a scene move from open framings towards close framings the
scene as a whole becomes more interesting than if we do it the other
way around and it's a very effective habit to develop
on a slightly larger scale the logic of open and closed framing is key to
deciding the cutting order shots in the scene here we're starting on a single
character and we don't know that this is an open frame until we cut to reveal
another character also in the scene
a classic comical trick is to play on assumptions is here where the man is
talking about something deeply personal so we assume that he's maybe with a
therapist
cutting to reveal them in the center of the boardroom of a fortune 500 company
completely changes the meaning
a master is usually very closed framing while starting a scene in a master works
wonders for establishing geography it eliminates any visual mystery right off
the bat but we don't need masters per se because all we want is for the internal
geography between the characters to make sense which we can easily achieve by
honoring the liner by creating overlapping groups
masters work best for scenes where we need to deliver a lot of information
quickly because one glance conveys the whole situation
a master close framing also works great to wrap things up for instance after
we've been covering intimate dialogue in close shots
we've been cut to a wide shot to close the scene
but regardless of whether or not we use this to control the order of information
open framings tend to simply be more interesting because they create the
feeling of shooting a small part of a world that's much bigger
close framings on the other hand give the feeling that the world has a
definite size
in this scene were restricted by the size of the set and whether we're on a
sound stage or on location the edge of the set is a realistic concern so the
tendency is sometimes to just barely squeeze the action into the set and
covering the widest possible shot to capture the whole available scene but
after awhile we begin to feel confined as if the world ends just to the left
and the right of the frame which is true the slightest pan reveals the edge
this often makes asset look like a set
what we really want is the feeling of a world that extends infinitely beyond the
boundaries of the frame and we're simply capturing the part that happens to
intersect
so if we resist shooting the set as a whole and we stick to more open framings
we of course don't get to see all the production design but the characters
become much more part of a real environment
but this doesn't have to exclude wide shots we just have to make it appear
that the world continues outside the frame by having the surrounding
environment spill into the frame so we'll rearrange the set or deliberately
bring in things to be cropped starting with a table a counter in the background
some foreground and by placing some extras over the edge of the frame making
the scene part of a limitless world
open framings are also useful when we need to make a few characters look like
a lot here we want to make 15 extras look like a crowd and using a slightly
wide angle lens the framing is about closed with all the extras in the shot
we get the feeling we're seeing exactly 15 extras and not a crowd if we tighten
the shot they spill over the edge but it still feels like we're seeing the whole
thing what we should do instead is create an intensely populated shot with
enough spill over the edges that we believe the environment looks the same
so we'll start by staging the characters deeper and closer together and use a
longer lens which automatically makes the frame or open at the same time
compressing the space we then make sure to fill in any gaps around the edges so
the world is infinite with crowd sound effects added this can be quite
convincing
finally open and close frames can effectively be mixed within a single
shot here the man is waiting to talk to the woman about a serious Aaron some
paperwork so the framing is closed on her in the papers but open on the man
and we don't know what state of mind is in as we crane up we gradually find out
in the next number of chapters will run down some simple geometric shapes to
align cameras and characters by these shapes are not goals by themselves but
they can be an aid in structuring coverage because once we spot a shape
and has seen we have a set of techniques ready to go with that shape placing
cameras at right angles can be a useful alternative to over the shoulders when
the characters are standing at angles to each other
as we cut between the cameras each shot is a frontal view of the character and
focus and a side view of the other making each shot personal to each
character
putting the cameras out here we're doing the same thing but from outside the
action the side view is now the main view on each character whether or not
the station right angles is a style choice but it can be effective when
characters are also arranged in right angles this happened surprisingly often
hear the man is trying to communicate with a woman but she's keeping to
herself so let's put in one camera for her and a right angle camera for them
both
let's do a close shot version of the last camera as well
starting in the single shot on the woman this layout gives us very expressive
coverage to edit from the main benefit of right angle cameras is that they very
naturally isolate characters and can make shots more individual
our cameras are placing cameras outward from a central point this can be
manageable way to cover scenes that easily have many lines like this scene
where the characters are sitting around a table the philosophy is to a mall
cameras out from the center but in reality will be backing up most of the
cameras to get a better framing so starting with a shot on the man in the
suit will put in a camera for the women and one for the men let's also do a
camera on the blue woman and one on the blue man
since we're staying within all lines the coverage makes sense at least in theory
practically cutting between 360 degrees of cameras can sometimes feel like we're
twisting our necks for that reason it can be a good idea to limit the ark and
editing and never cut around in a full circle so we'll avoid cutting from this
camera to this camera
instead will hinge on the man in the suit to get back and forth as he seems
to be the moderator in the scene anyway
as in choosing a major coverage angle starting coverage outward from a central
area is a good strategy because it creates less line issues with parallel
cameras all cameras are shooting in the same direction
this produces very two-dimensional coverage that can be a style in itself
parallel cameras can work great on a limited set that doesn't allow a lot of
freedom to pick angles here we really only need a back wall but since every
shot is from the same angle spatial continuity is harder to maintain
keeping the space consistently in front of the characters helps we're keeping
the moderator in the center which also helps we additionally set up some
cameras to create overlapping groups
in a scene like this where spatial continuity is easily a problem it can be
a good idea to shoot a full master because the ability to cut back into a
master at any time will be useful in editing character arrangements often
naturally fall into shapes that resemble letters of the alphabet like I ALU and o
it sometimes considered a rule to actually staged characters according to
these shapes but that can sometimes seem staged our goal here is merely to have a
library of possible camera plots ready for when we find ourselves and shapes
that are close to them which happens often the eye shape is the simplest one
and has the characters arranged in a straight line to character dialog is
often automatically a nice shape and is easily covered in this election of a
burst shots and perhaps a master when more characters are added to the
straight-line the best approach is to think in terms of creating various
groupings and pivoting on certain characters to help glue the scene
together so let's create some groups starting with a three-shot here and a
reverse three shot to match let's also create two over the shoulders here for
dialogue between the woman in the red man at some point the woman turns and
we'll set up to reverse shots for this dialogue as well let's also add a
close-up on her
we set up the camera so that the woman can be used as a pivot as we cut between
the closer shot she's the common denominator between the two major groups
it's a matter of taste how much coverage to add this scene is over covered as it
is there's no formula for which groups to create because it depends on what the
scene is about but the sooner we can make the selection the less will have to
shoot the shape is the same regardless of which way the characters are facing
so if we face them outwards we should be able to use the same coverage with no
change here were first cutting back and forth between the reverses in the first
group we pivot on the woman as we go to the second group and the other reverse
the eye shape appears within most other shapes so anytime we want some local
coverage we can treat that part of the scene as such
here the three lineup characters are an obvious i shape so we'll go in and
create some subgroups of the parts of the conversation that were interested in
whether or not to deliberately stage in a shape like this is optional but doing
so makes planning shots extremely easy here two characters are together in one
is at a distance
still we place them in a line to make coverage very straightforward the a
shape consists of three characters arranged in any kind of triangle and is
a shape that appears in one form or another in the vast majority of scenes
so it's extremely useful to have camera plots at hand for it
the easiest way to cover this is a series of reverse shots in various sizes
starting with an external reverse covering all three and a matching
reverse here let's also do an internal reverse on the woman an internal rivers
tow shot on the men and a closer for each of the men
for now we're really only using one line and since all the cameras are on the
same side we can cut freely between them the only two cameras that don't cut well
together the close-ups on the men because they're nearly identical we're
trying to distract attention from this by having the background be different in
each shot but it's still a fairly jerky cut
simply bridging the cut with a different shot solves it
so we're basically covering it is regular dialogue except one side has two
characters but we don't have to be stuck on one side of the line if the matter to
have dialogue will put in a reverse pair for that which creates another line here
this camera is easy to get to because it's out with the other cameras but
cutting to this camera across any number of potential lines and we need to hinge
in and out of it
starting in the original cameras the most logical choices to hinge through
the reverse that's already on our side of the current line as soon as we've cut
through it going to the Far camera seems logical
for getting back out all of these cameras are technically on the right
side of the new line but since we still remember the previous line it's better
to hinge back as well so starting in the Far camera we go back to the hinge from
where we can cut to any of the original cameras
but the scene actually has some built-in hinges already if we forget about the
woman for a moment both the internal two shot on the men and each of the
close-ups are already in a master relationship to the second line
so for coming from external dialogue and we want to go to the far camera the
two-shot could be just as useful a hinge an issue here though is that in this
shot the line were coming from is still fresh in our memory and we need to wait
a little as we get used to the new line before cutting to the Far camera so
using the new reverse to hinge is still the better solution
with the a shape a little wider were likely to want to do dialogue between
the central character in each of the other characters the simplest way to get
them covered is to place three internal cameras outward from the center which
will allow us to cut the scene in any order but doing external reverse pairs
is a little trickier will first put in a pair for the red man and the woman
replacing the pair on this side of their lines so the internal cameras can work
as close-ups but also because it keeps us inside the action if we put the
cameras out here we separate the two characters in the dialogue would be more
private out here we wouldn't be able to use the internal cameras
let's place another reverse for the two men also inside the action the easiest
way to connect all the cameras in the scene is to use the red man's clothes up
as a hinge from here we can get to all the other cameras we could easily into
the external shot on the woman the reverse on the red man and back into the
close-up we get easily into the external shot on the Blue Man the reverse on the
red man and back into the close-up since these two cameras are on the same side
of both lines we can also go directly between them cutting between them the
red men switches sides in the frame but since we understand it is to overlapping
groups that makes sense
going between the two other external reverses naturally won't work starting
the first one the jump across two lines is very distracting
let's go ahead and look at what happens if we place one of the reverse pairs
outside the dialogue here we have almost no way to get into these reverses so
this camera is the only choice for a hinge from the hands let's look at the
two only cutting options starting with this one will then be pivoting on the
red man to the similar reverse on the woman he stays in the same part of the
frame and the two other characters simply replace each other this can get
jumpy if the shots don't look different enough so let's bring in some background
fitting back the cut makes more sense but can still be a little on the edge
because the shots are so similar hinging to the other reverses a smoother cut but
causes us to leave around more which can sometimes be startling as well as we go
from one reverse 21 on a different line we're still pivoting on the man there's
no preference here because both work and it's a choice we can make an editing our
only concern when shooting is to make sure to build in a hinge
if we want some master coverage of the a shape a thing that works great is to
place one line straight down the center and position the master on it and also a
mirror on the other side cutting back and forth both cameras are exactly
centered and each shot is a mirror of the other which can be interesting
coverage by itself but the beauty is that just as with a close-up on the man
we can get to and from any camera the scene from these masters the l-shape is
a variation of the a shapewear two characters are lumped together and one
is further away
given everything we've already looked at this should be extremely easy to cover
with the main conversation being between the women will put into reverses their
on this side of the line to be near any conversation with the man this camera
will probably be our hands so we'll put in an internal shot on the man on this
side of the line let's also create an internal two shot on the women to mirror
when the conversation turns to the man if the red woman is mainly doing the
talking will put in a close-up on her to mirror his close-up directly
if this is a short scene we've already over covered it but let's top it off
with an external reverse here and an external reverse here
so starting in the external reverses between the women were cutting back and
forth since this is the main dialogue
out in the hinge we suddenly cut to the close-up on the man as he makes a
comment in the two-shot on the women they turn to Him here we do a bit of
external reverse dialogue between the two groups at some point the
conversation becomes more personal between the man and the red woman so we
cut between his clothes up again and her close-up back in this external reverse
the women stand for a bit then again turn to each other we cut back into the
hinge and then the reverse on that line back in the hinge we cut to the man's
clothes up again for a silent reaction
with the l-shape let's introduce a unique way of cutting across the line
since the l-shaped closely resembles the a shape the main difference is that the
dialogue centers around two characters with the third occasionally
participating in this case the blue man with two internal reverses on the red
man and woman will put a third camera for the blue man out here still on our
side of the line and a close-up on him as well obviously will be able to cut
between these three cameras bringing in the blue man with this camera using that
as a hinge we can cut to the close-up back into the hinge and out to the
reverse dialogue that's doing it by the book but the unique thing about this
setup is that we don't need the hinge starting a reverse dialogue between the
red man and woman will be skipping the hinge and cutting straight to the
close-up on the blue man as we cut it makes just as much sense as it would
have using a hinge even though we're jumping the line cutting back into
reverse dialogue the blue man was looking at the red man so we'll cut back
to him
the reason it works is that in the close-up we really don't know how far
back we are we could produce almost the exact same shot by being back here with
a longer focal length so even though we're jumping the mainline we don't
necessarily know it
this is useful because it allows us to do close-ups on all the characters on
the other side of the line here we are again cutting back and forth in Reverse
dialogue between the red man and woman but the close-up will be on the blue
woman deeper into the scene we cut to her for a comment but the close-up is
likely to be perceived as being on our sideline even if it isn't it's close to
being legal and if we previously established geography with a master will
get away with it
this technique doesn't look pretty on paper but it works and is invaluable
when we're dealing with a lot of characters in this chapter we'll look at
the UW ino shapes which are very similar and can be handled using identical
techniques
the u-shape has two rows of any number of characters and one Center character
to complete the you if we remove the center character were left with 2y
shapes across from each other if we bring him back and a character at the
other end of the table we have a full circle oro shape the main difficulty
here is that we're dealing with a lot of characters and with dialogue
crisscrossing the scene we need a way to manage what is easily a very complex
seen a thing to notice is that it's generally easier to cover the scene from
inside and out words if these three characters are having dialogue this
creates three lines and staying within them we can cut back and forth as we
please
as soon as we move outside and do over the shoulders will be crossing lines in
every cut and we'll have to work out a plan for hinging
the second thing to notice is that with a master of the scene getting covered in
managing lines becomes much more forgiving because the geography is fresh
in our minds and if we later find ourselves entangled in lines of lost
orientation there's no faster way to get out there with the master even if it
means crossing a line on the way out
a third thing to notice is that doing groupings that include more than one
character is much better than doing single shots on each character not just
because we have less cameras to shoot but because overlapping characters and
scenery make spatial continuity easier to maintain this means that even if the
red man is mainly doing the talking we frame the shot to include the extra next
to him and this will also be her shot if she is dialogue last thing to notice is
that the dialogue is usually between very few characters and the rest
function as extras so if we remove the others we can easily cover the scene
using techniques we've already looked at hear the dialogue centers around the man
in the suit and the blue woman with occasional comments from the others
so let's try the line crossing l-shape we looked at the last chapter will
simply put into reverses for them a master and insert on the blue man in the
red woman and an insert on the red man in the surrounding extras starting in
the Master will cut to one reverse on the main dialogue and the other then
sneak across the line to this shot and to this shot back in Reverse dialogue
and so on finding a shape based on the characters that really matter quickly
give structure to the coverage and adding all other cameras according to
these lines gives us more than enough to cover most scenes with
but let's look at a different technique that can handle any scene regardless of
how complex it is when the dialogue is all over the place and no simple
technique will solve it the trick is to draw every conceivable line the scene
and then place cameras the work for as many lines as possible
this will temporarily make the diagram like overwhelming the obvious lines come
from dialogue here the CEO at the end of the table talks with the blue woman he
also talked with a red man and with the red woman who also talked with each
other at some point the blue woman comments on something the red woman is
saying and at some point the blue man comments in something the red man is
saying after which the CEO as a remark other lines come from reactions or from
anywhere there's attention between characters this extra will have a
reaction to something the red man says which creates a line here and this extra
will have a reaction to something the red woman says for the beginning of the
scene where this line is active we'll start with a wide over-the-shoulder on
the woman a close-up honor and a close-up on the CEO which we place like
this so it'll work for dialogue with the other characters as well for the main
dialogue between the CEO and the red man and woman which happens within this
triangle will add two more outward cameras and all three will cut smoothly
as long as we're inside the triangle
for the dialogue between the red man and woman will also add a pair of external
reverses which will need to hinge in and out of because we'll be crossing these
lines
for the remaining cameras let's try to be a little wider to build an overview
of the scene while the red man is having dialogue with the red woman the blue man
makes a comment so that camera will need to be between these two active lines
will put it far enough back to capture the CEOs comments which follow
immediately after
again back in the dialogue between the red man and woman the blue woman makes a
comment and with these two active lines the camera will need to be somewhere in
this area will again make it wide enough to also get some facial reaction from
this extra which would otherwise have been a separate shot
finally this extra makes a few grimaces during the conversation and since we're
coming from the red man's dialogue will put a camera here on our side of both
lines
if we now take out the lines every cameras carefully place to be as useful
as possible this staging layout is completely tailor-made to the scene and
if the dialogue were different we have to reblock it after we've cut dialogue
between the CEO and the blue woman the CEO talks to the red man after which she
talks to the red woman
the red man makes a sudden comment and the woman turns her attention after this
we cut between the external reverses which shows their seating arrangements a
little clearer now we want to get back to the CEO is he listens to their
conversation but we need to get back inside the main triangle first
the CEO listens and over on the woman now the blue woman makes a comment
the red man says something to the red woman now the Blue Man injects a comment
the red man turns to him in response the extra shot from before sends a secret
signal to the blue man
the red man makes another comment the extra the end of the table frowns from
here the red woman makes another comment
the CEO turns to the blue woman
and on it goes the technique of drawing all lines in the scene and picking
cameras that fit with as many lines as possible allows us to cover scenes with
even an absurd number of lines the u-shape is a very typical shape but the
way we covered it had more to do with the fact that we had a lot of characters
this is why if we take out the CEO and are left with a double eye shape another
typical shape the method is the same or if we occupy both ends of the table in a
no shape when the characters are very close together we have no choice but to
cover them from outside the action
what will look at here applies equally well to any shape but will work with the
O'Shea because it's completely enclosed if we removed one character it would be
a u-shape and we would have a much easier time getting inside the dialogue
maybe start