TEN MINUTE FILM SCHOOL

I am a firm believer that the old rules of cinema that the pioneers such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Sam Peckinpah had established for making a true cinematic work were not to be broken. Sure there were various styles and meanings to their depths of field, rules of thirds, and different framing BUT there were some obvious guidelines that any filmmaker should follow. Many people will also tell you "there are no rules in filmmaking," and that could, maybe, sort of, be true, but there are such things as manners.

That is what we are discussing in this "all you need to know about coverage to post," demonstration. This is a film that kind of pisses me off in a sense.

Here you have a great script, a good camera, a $10,000 budget, decent actors and a DP who knows how to light a set.   These are some of the most important elements involved in making a film.

Here comes the BUT again...

The elements they missed will cost this almost flawless production dearly.

 

RULE #1 - CROSSING THE LINE

It is said and been proven that even the smallest displacement to the eye although may not make you shutter or go cross eyed, it may send some synapses to the brain where you may not conscious notice it, but is there and in the split millisecond, you noticed it.

In film, there is an invisible line through your frame, blocking and set. It is pretty simple. You set up your actors to where they need to be. Then you set up your camera where it needs to be. The line from the lense to you actors is the line.

FOR EXAMPLE: You can move the camera any where on the circumference of the hemisphere you choose where you originally placed you camera. If you Cross The Line it will show. It is a simple and overlooked problem in independent filmmaking. Your Over the Shoulder shots will be your 'against the line shots' from where you established your long shot or establishing shot. If you shoot a long shot from the left, but include a long shot from the right it will be distracting to the eye when editing. Many people will tell you that they don't notice, but trust me. The important people you want to watch your movie... WILL.

Here is a video clip where the proverbial line is crossed.

 

RULE #2 - THE IMPORTANCE OF INSERTS AND COVERAGE

If you have ever seen a movie then you know that besides the actual action or dialogue exchanged between actors there are random shots that build tension, stylize, or well, cover up blemishs in performances. They are inserts. For Example: In this particular case you have a gentleman that walks into a bar. He's suppose to be a mysterious guy and we as the audience don't know him very well. It is suppose to be that way, but they only shot the master shot, which is a wide shot from the back of the bar. We see him walk in... Beeline for the bar and sit down all in one shot. It is very static and in a sense, boring. Any good Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator and Script Supervisor, know the importance of shooting these shots that break up the redundant action. As the man walks in there should be a CLOSE UP of his feet making their way to the bar. Maybe a shot of the two guys in the corner checking him out. As the scene progresses a scotch is purchased where as the man continues to look down at it, which would have made for a CLOSE UP of the sweat from the ice peeling down the glass. At the end of the scene there is a case where continuity issues cause for a headache for the editor, which would easily been remedied with an insert. The bar tender is telling the man that the bar itself has six televisions and they get any channel. A CUTAWAY to one of those TV's as suttle as it is would completely erase the continuity problem of the bartenders. This rule is huge. Shoot coverage and make sure you have plenty of inserts of the scene's surroundings. It will single handedly save your scene, thus maybe saving your film altogether. Here is the scene I am referring to, but I have made some down and dirty storyboards of the shots I am speaking of and although they will look rough cut into the scene, maybe you will understand where I am going with it.

RULE #3 - THE IMPORTANCE OF INSERTS AND COVERAGE-PART 2

Here is a classic example of experienced filmmaking in this clip. As I said in Rule #2, Coverage is everything. In this Scene, the D.P and Director did exactly what they should have done and it made for a great piece of film in the way that it looks, feels and really made it enjoyful for me to cut.

In the Scene, the main character has a flashback to a dinner party he came to where he did not really know the people he was meeting. After a semi-awkward start, the script states in a sentence or two, that the four people continue to drink and become "more friendly" as the alcohol begins to take its toll. This is one action line in the script... That's it. So the Director has the actors improv conversations, jokes, laughs as the CAMERA picks up all the action. Only this time he shot twenty five minutes of it and instead of the normal static shots we have seen so far in this film, he moved around them, racking focus, going tight on wine glasses, smiles, gulps, hands and paying attention to other various details that make up a scene. With that twenty five minutes, I as the editor, was able to pick, choose, swap and toy with all the footage as I spliced together a nicely paced, beautifully lit, montage of time passing. Out of that twenty five minutes of raw footage, I used forty five seconds but it is my favorite scene so far in the movie. WHY? Because the filmmakers did their job.

 

 

RULE #4 - MEDIUM CLOSE UPS ARE FOREPLAY TO THE ACTUAL CLOSE UPS' SEXUAL ACT

In a basic two actor conversation with the basic camera set up you have your "basic" shots that go along with it. You have your Master which is the Establishing shot. To cut from the Establishing or Master are going to be your OTS or Over the shoulder shots from each actor's perspective. You are also going to have two Medium Close Ups that are the same as OTS's but well they are directly in front of the actors. Then as the conversation heats up, gets more intimate, etc... You will need to shoot Close Ups and maybe even Extreme Close Ups depending on the conversation at hand. This is not a set rule, in fact, if you put Bobby Deniro and Meryl Streep at a table talking, getting to know each other, you could shoot their feet for ten minutes and they would make it intriguing to watch. When you don't have that kind of budget, you hire actors that are up and coming and sometimes can not carry the weight of the scene in one take and position. Your Close Ups will bring your audience in even if the performance is not an Academy Award Winner. This scene fits the criteria of a scene that needs more than the two shots they cover. In this scene, a woman that has never met the man she's talking to are getting to know each other. The filmmaker used two shots: A slow dolly from OTS of woman moving into a Medium Close Up and vice versa for the man. That is it. It is a great shot and works perfectly for the scene, but they should have also covered a Close Up on both actors, because the scene runs a good four minutes and as they get more comfortable with each other, you don't feel the intimacy that a Close Up would have covered for that last exchange of dialogue. Here is the same scene twice. Once is how it will play out in the film. The second, I put up a rather crude gray box where the Close ups should start. It is kind of jolting to the eye, but just imagine the inside box being the screen, with the actor being that much closer to you.

 

 

 

RULE #5 - THE JOYS OF JUMP CUTS AND THE HAND HELD CAMERA

I am a huge fan of the hand held camera. There is not a movie I have shot nor will shoot that won't incorporate it. With all the "reality" programming you see on television now, the audience recognizes and relates to it. I feel like the effect makes your audience feel like they are right there in it. If that isn't enough, there is always the fact that when you use hand held shots, your continuity does not have to be dead on nor do your edits have to be clean and smooth. With hand held shots, you can perform jump cuts that sort of jot the eye, jot the head, jot the senses and do it for a purpose. Arguments, fights, on foot chases are just some of the more typical scenarios where hand held shots are used. In this particular case, it is a robbery at knife point. The ironic situation in this, is that the continuity of the actors in this scene is better than any of the other static scenes. But anyway, this scene turned out real well with the use of jumpcuts and breaks of continuity. This scene is very roughly put together, but I have just been too busy fine tuning to make everything perfect when needed. This course doesn't pay enough.

 

 

RULE #6 - MAKING CHICKEN SALAD OUT OF CHICKEN S#!*

This scene was the hardest scene to cut in the whole movie. Unfortunately, I can not show you all the takes, or lack thereof. It would fill up my server space, so you will just have to take more word.

This again is the Importance of Coverage, but this is a different kind, so to speak. This scene was not once shot all the way through. The actors kept messing up their lines. People would walk in the door in the middle of the scene and some pesty bird kept singing a song during a Close Up. That is still no excuse, so what the Director did was get lazy and let the frustrations of the crew and cast influence him to shoot snippets of their dialogue which is the wrong way to do it unless you have Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight as your leads.

Basically, They shot two pieces here and there of one actors dialogue. They shot pieces of dialogue from the master. Then where the actors messed their lines up, they just went in and shot the close up of that particular part. This is one way to do it when you get in a clutch, but with that you must shoot reaction shots of the other actors and/or inserts to cover up any holes or blemishes from the piecing together. This scene took twice as long to cut than the rest of the movie day and it still isn't even close to what I had tried to do. I only included the second pass of the scene, but you will notice, even though somehow I managed to polish the turd a little, there are still, like Chuck would say in the scene, "large gaping wounds" as well.