Reading and Writing

When you finally arrive at filming day, basic sequence and continuity in screen direction are two important steps in the foundation of filmmaking to note. In The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, Tom Schroeppel points out that breaking up a sequence of one long scene into many short shots helps make the story more interesting for viewers (Schroeppel, 48). Wideshots, closeups, and cutaways are described to help breakup the shot so the viewer can more easily see different points of view. One rule of thumb is that “each new shot should, if at all possible, involve a change in both image size and camera angle” (Schroeppel, 52).

Filming each action in a long film can get very tedious and time-consuming. However, using clean entrances and exits will help speed up that process. For example, if you are filming someone walk inside their house and go upstairs to their room, you can create a shot of him entering the house with a clean exit as the door closes. Then you can wait a beat, and have a clean entrance shot of their room and them entering the room instead of following them all the way up the stairs and to their room.

Another tip involves continuity in screen direction. It is important to recognize the imaginary line that determines the direction people and things face when viewed through a camera. If this line is crossed, it can often look like someone is talking to the back of the other person’s head in another shot and be confusing for the viewer (Schroeppel, 62). A solution is to make the change of direction happen on camera such as the actor turning around for the shot to make sense. You can also stop on the line, meaning adding a neutral shot with no screen direction in the middle such as a closeup.

Because there are so many shots in a film and everything must have contuinity, the more you cover yourself with changing the image size, shots, camera angles, and cuts, the more professional your film will look (Schroeppel, 60).

Research to Inform

This scene from the final scene of You’ve Got Mail includes many wide shots and closeups with good continuity. It has many clean entrances and exits as she walks from her apartment and ends up entering the park. It also cuts from a wide shot to a closeup with great continuity featuring the flowers and park background.

This scene from Black Swan also has good contunity with a very complex scene involving many changes in directions. It cuts from wide shots, to closeups and changes direction many times. The shots aim to create a dizzying and intense mood for the viewer without losing sight of the rules of continuity.

The beginning of this scene from Jurassic Park starts with a wide shot in the car and then cuts to closeups of each character and the glass of water. This helps show the viewer each character’s point of view and also builds anticipation of the dinosaur arriving.

In Commando, at 2 minutes, you can see the yellow car with a big dent in it. In the next scene, the car turns with no dent in it. This is an example of bad continuity by seeing the car without the dents in the scene immediately after, or at least it looks like the dented side to the viewer.

Create

In order to create a “how-to” video with many different angles and takes, I did some pre-production and planning and came up with a video on how to do a squat with good form. I had to make sure to find a place with proper lighting and it was challenging to find a place in the gym with no people and a place for my lights and tripod. I ended up using natural sunlight instead and finding the right time of day to film where the lighting wasn’t backlighting me and creating a silhouette.

I had to film the squats from multiple angles with my tripod and it was challenging to set the frame without an assistant to act as a stand-in so I could view the frame without being in it. Once I filmed myself multiple times being careful not to cross the 180-degree line, I ended up getting a bonus workout from the repetition of takes and multiple squats.

Post-production was the most enjoyable for me and utilizing text, graphics, and freeze frames helped elevate my video. I ended up using many text and transparent screens in post-production to create a more aesthetically pleasing frame using the rule of thirds. I found that the freeze framing was very successful in pointing out specific body parts and using graphic arrows helped make the directions visually more clear. It was definitely eye opening to realize how many takes you need to record when using a single camera and important to to make sure you are standing in the same spot/setting for continuity.

Citations:

Schroeppel, T. (2018b). The Bare Bones Camera Course for film and video.