Movie Directing: Framing your Shots
This post is directed more to those who do not have a lot of directing/set experience…
To be efficient when you get to the editing process, you probably want to get the bare minimum of three shots when you are shooting your project.
The first is the establishing shot. Sometimes it’s a medium two shot. Either way, it’s the shot that lets the audience know where we are and where the actors are in relation to each other.
Lets say you’re doing a basic two person scene. You want to do a couple of takes where you have both actors evenly shown on camera.
Sometimes you don’t even need this shot, because the eyelines will tell the proximity of the actors, but when you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to get this shot.
Next you want to get a close up of each of the actors. This constitutes your two other shots (presuming you’re doing a two person scene).
You want to get these for a couple of reasons.
First of all, in this day and age, most people have been exposed to movies and TV most of their lives. After the wide shot you get first, most people are used to the camera moving in closer for a tighter shot with only one actor on camera (or if the second one is on camera, it is “Over the shoulder” or OTS shot.
Second, it makes the story you are telling much more intimate for the audience. In the wide shot, the audience gets a sense of what’s going on, but when you move in tighter, they are able to experience the ride of the story with the characters.
This is especially important in a lot of comedy movies where the comedy is based on the reaction of the actor. We need to see, close up, the reaction of the actor to what is transpiring around them. This adds the “oomf” in comedy that the audience needs to find the scene amusing.
This is also important in drama, though, because as actors on screen are thinking, we need to know they are thinking and reacting without them wildly gesturing, as they do in the theater.
If they are in a wide shot, they can make their movements bigger, but if the desired impact is for the audience to move with the character emotionally, the camera should be in a close up and the actor does not have to do much to have an impact.
I just found this video on YouTube. Watch Cameron Diaz’s reaction in The Holiday… She does almost nothing, but we can tell she is processing a lot. She’s in a close-up so we are moving with her emotionally (as well as with Jude Law, who is pouring his heart out.)
Another good example comes later in the vid when Drew Barrymore is also having a moment of revelation. Her reactions are small, and the camera even pushes in a little to make the moment more intimate.
This scene from There’s Something About Mary has the establishing shot. As the converse, they move to a close up. After the line, “I work with retards…” The camera takes a moment to get Mary’s reaction (about 45 seconds into the video)… A shift of the body and a scratch of the neck as she looks down… we know she has been affected by his last comment. We know she’s processing his last comment.
Obviously in the faster, more physical comedy, this is not necessary…
This is one of my favorite scenes from the Marx Brothers. Very little dialogue. Comedy is from the action… Thus a wider shot…
So to summarize, as you (director) are making your shot lists, include the basics…
1. Wider “two shot” with both actors…
2. Close up for actor #1
3. Close up for actor #2
If there are other actors in the scene, get close ups on them, too. Even if they only have a line or two, you’ll be glad you did when you get to editing, because sometimes you just need to cut away to them to get a reaction. (I’ll do another post on cut aways and inserts later)
