Uncategorized · Produce (Short) Movies

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)

How to Become an Actor in the age of Electronic Submissions

Posted by Leslie on August 29, 2009 | No comments

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This was a questions I recently received from an actress in LA:

QUESTION: I was wondering when you used to send out headshots to production companies and Casting directors what mainly did you mention in your cover letters?

MY ANSWER: I have heard casting directors say that if you just put a short post-it sticky on the picture and write something like

“Hi, I’m submitting for the roll of Veronica. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Leslie”

That should do it.

I don’t think they have time to read all of that stuff.

When I was casting my projects, I didn’t. I think electronic submission is the way to go now anyway. Cheaper and faster.

Let me know if this helps…

And just to elaborate on the topic of electronic submissions, if you are an actor in Los Angeles, LA Casting and Now Casting are the way to go.

I believe you need an agent to be on LA Casting, but actors can submit themselves on Now Casting.

I also like using the electronic submissions from a producer point of view because you can submit your project for free and with great ease, schedule actors for auditions without having to construct emails or call everyone, you can notify everyone of schedule changes all at once, and you can let the actors know they’ve been cast through these sites.

Additionally, many sites have performance reels (that’s what they’re calling demo reels now) of the actors

And the best feature is that I can make notes in specific actors’ profiles… So if I call someone in to audition and they do a great job but aren’t right for what I am casting right now, I will put a note in their profile letting me know that I should seriously consider them for something they are appropriate for and that they won’t have to audition next time.

Also, I’m the only one who can read the notes I put in their profile, which is good because sometimes I write things like “late for audition” or “didn’t read full script… only prepared scene” and this is important for me to note to myself because these are factors that effect my casting decisions.

There third site that is used a lot is Actor’s Access, but I never use them. I think their interface is pretty confusing, and on the acting side, they were spamming me for a while with roll (like 2-3 a day) notifications. I know that that was a setting that I just needed to shut off, but sometimes I just want one notification every few days, not several per day.

If you have the notices going to your phone and you are really interested in submitting through Actor’s Access, these notices can be a good thing, though, because you have an advantage if you are one of the first people to submit to the project. Your profile/reel will be looked at first, I believe.

I know that many people really like Actor’s Access, it allows the actor to self-submit without an agent, and it’s national, which means there are posts on there for many cities in the United States; not just Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

However, keeping with the theme of this site, when asking how to become an actor, my overall advice would be to skip electronic submissions all together and put that time and energy into making your own projects and movies. Easier, more fun and more fulfilling.

Just my 2 cents.

Comments?

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SouthPark’s First show on southparkstudios.com (unaired until now!)

Posted by Leslie on August 26, 2009 | No comments

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YAY! I always wondered about the pilot. Apparently it got terrible reviews with the focus groups but it is pretty much the same as the original episode that aired: Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.

Personally, I think this ep. is just as much fun as it was when I first saw it. They've definitely gotten more sophisticated with writing over at SouthPark Studio, but I kind of miss the days where they would just stop the relevant action and dialog for a farting moment.

Enjoy.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/pilot/

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AFI has new YouTube channel/ YouTube updates channel possibilities

Posted by Leslie on July 24, 2009 | No comments

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I get AFI’s email as I have been a member for several years and so I already knew about this but I thought it would make a good repost.
As a side note, YouTube has been updating the style in which they are presenting videos. I have a channel up which I post about regularly here (www.youtube.com/firewalkprod) but I have yet to update the channel.

As I have written on a lot on my other pages, the Internet is the new television and you have great access to audiences through the internet. They are smaller audiences, since the choice is so wide now (as opposed to the handful of channels that were available in the 70’s) so audiences tend to be smaller. Even with network television has trouble pulling in the numbers they had in previous decades.

The reason why is because there so so much choice.

I think everyone has turned the TV on and flipped through 800 channels and still found nothing interesting to watch.

So even though you might not find channel 795, The Knitting Channel, particularly interesting, there is someone out there that does. Therefore, the audiences are smaller (but more enthusiastic) because that knitting enthusiast would have settled for something they were only half interested in on network TV in the 70’s when there were only, say, 10 channels.

But I am getting on too many soap-boxes again.

I’ve watched a few of the vids on AFI’s youtube channel. Well worth spending some time there.

New Video Portal For Film Buffs, Powered by YouTube
Attention film buffs!

The American Film Institute (AFI) just launched a new video portal on AFI.com featuring hundreds of videos from its vast archives. AFI is utilizing YouTube’s APIs in order to stream videos directly from AFI’s YouTube channel, as well as other great clips curated from YouTube. In addition to accessing the video content, users can post comments on the AFI.com video site as well as embed the videos on other sites, blogs and social networking pages.

The collection will be regularly augmented with videos selected from the AFI Archive, which contains 10,000 hours of material produced during AFI’s 42-year history, much of which has never been seen by the general public. Be sure not to miss great clips such as “Alfred Hitchcock On Mastering Cinematic Tension” or “Steven Spielberg: The Toughest Thing For A Director”.

We’re thrilled that the YouTube APIs can help unlock such amazing material. Nice work, AFI!

Posted by George Strompolos, YouTube Partner Team