by Gil Bettman
No one in his right mind would ever accuse Quentin Tarantino of being unhip. And yet, to my knowledge, he never has broken Bob’s Rule. Why? Probably because, above all else, he is a writer and a storyteller, and he does not want to distract the audience with cool camera moves when he could be sucking them into the story. Witness the shot of John Travolta (who is high on heroin) trailing Uma Thurman through Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant in Pulp Fiction. This shot has become legendary. It veritably screams of hipness. Here Tarantino uses the Steadicam to do a shot that ranks right up there with the best of Busby Berkeley for length and complexity. It probably covers close to 100 yards and features dozens of actors and extras. The camera gyrates around constantly, whipping up a glut of eye candy (Figure 2.090 to 2.110). For an overhead view of the entire shot see Figure 2.111a. (You can chart Travolta’s path by following the gray arrows and the camera’s path by following the white arrows.)
Every camera move in this shot is externally or internally generated. The Steadicam essentially tracks with Travolta as he makes a very circuitous tour of the restaurant on his way to his table. It behaves much like a handheld news camera “covering” Travolta’s entrance (Figure 2.098 to 2.111). Toward the beginning of the shot, Travolta pauses, turns his head, and points off to camera right (Figure 2.090 to 2.091). The camera glides off his look (and follows a waiter dressed as Zorro) into the right corner of the club (Figure 2.092 to 2.094) thereby becoming internally generated, because it is showing us what he is looking at. This pan to the right gives the director an excuse to then pan from right to left across the entire nightclub taking in the Ricky Nelson lookalike on stage and churning up a surfeit of eye candy (Figure 2.093 to 2.097). Travolta then reappears in the shot (Figure 2.098) at which point it becomes externally generated again. From here to the end of the shot it stays in a three-quarter back angle following him through the club, so that when one of the waiters or waitresses, who are all lookalikes of dead, ’50s icons, such as Marilyn Monroe or James Dean, cruises by and turns his head, we can see his slightly tripped-out reaction (Figure 2.098 to 2.111).
To view a video of this film clip from Pulp Fiction go to this link on the Internet: http://hollywoodfilmdirecting.com/directing-the-camera.html
This is virtuoso camera blocking at its best. Every pan, glide, and gyration enhances the story. It is cutting-edge style in the service of substance. With it, Tarantino both burnishes his image as a master of an overheated moviemaking style and sustains the momentum of his narrative. This is the style of shot making I would urge all aspiring directors to learn if their goal is to make films that last.
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CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY POINTS
● The principle behind Bob’s Rule is that the story is the most important component of a film, and so everything else in the film — be it acting, art direction, music, lighting, sound, editing, or camera movement — should serve the story.
● You should move the camera whenever possible to add visual energy to the film, but only in a manner which enhances the story or at least does not detract from it. Stated simply, all good camera movement is invisible.
● There are three kinds of camera movement that are always invisible: shots which are (1) externally or (2) internally generated by whatever is on the screen — preferably the person or thing which, at that point in the film, is driving the story; and (3) moving, establishing shots.
● An externally generated camera move is when the camera moves to follow something that is moving inside the frame.
● To say a camera move is internally generated is to say that the camera is moving to show the audience what the person who is the center of the story sees or feels.
● At the very beginning of a scene, a director may make a camera move that is not externally or internally generated, but if it is moving to establish the new location, it will remain invisible and not break Bob’s Rule.
● The esthetic of seamlessness is added to the frame when everything in a film is shown in one continuous shot.
● When the camera moves to keep the central object, which is also moving, in the center of the frame, any other object in the scene that passes through the frame blurs or strobes slightly. The more pronounced the strobing or the blurring, the more energized the frame, the more eye candy.
● Moving shots look different from static shots in two key ways. Moving shots have seamlessness and eye candy. Static shots do not.
● Most mainstream directors try to pump as much seamlessness into their shots as time and money will allow because seamlessness gives a film the look that contemporary audiences like.
● The key to shooting in the Spielbergian style is to shoot a master or establishing shot that starts framed up close to whatever is driving the story and then have that person or thing start moving and follow it using an externally generated camera move. This will maximize the amount of seamlessness and eye candy generated in the shot and also keep the camera move invisible.
● A Snoopy Cam shot resembles the POV of an easily distracted, invisible, mute member of the cast, who is in the middle of every scene and looks at whatever it wants to look at, whenever it feels like it.
● The Snoopy Cam style of shooting never follows Bob’s Rule for camera movement, because its very purpose is to break Bob’s Rule. It is a camera move that is intended to have nothing to do with the story, so the audience will inevitably see it.
● The Snoopy Cam style is generally used by filmmakers who want to seem more cutting-edge and individualistic. Because Bob’s Rule is the most effective for telling a story, it has been adopted by every great director from D. W. Griffith through James Cameron, and this has tinged it with the aura of respectability, which some filmmakers would prefer to eschew.
● The Dogma rules were invented to refute the validity of Spielberg’s style of filmmaking. If Spielberg used it masterfully, Dogma forbade it.
● The Snoopy Cam style is here to stay because: (1) it is a very cheap way to pump a lot of eye candy and seamlessness into a film; and (2) the success and popularity of TV shows like CSI and 24 have bestowed it with an aura of hipness which makes it attractive to any young director who wants to break through and make a name for himself, as well as older, established directors who do not want to seem over the hill.
FOR TEACHERS
A good way to help students understand and remember the kinds of camera movement that follow Bob’s Rule is to give them the following assignment. Ask them to get hold of the DVD of a film directed by their favorite director (or if they are cinematography students, a film shot by their favorite cinematographer) and to view the film and find an example of an internally generated camera move, and/or a moving establishing shot in the film. Externally generated camera moves are so simple to understand and so prevalent in today’s films that there is not much value in asking a student to find one. Avatar is wall-to-wall externally generated camera moves. Internally generated camera moves and moving establishing shots are rare by comparison. Requiring a student to go hunting through a film by a director (or DP) he admires looking for such a camera move will force him to consciously examine every moving shot in the film, and in so doing, repeatedly test his understanding of the three different kinds of camera movement which are always invisible. Provided his understanding is correct, this should internalize his understanding of this key element of directorial craft.
The best way for the students to “hand in” the assignment is to rip their example of an internally generated camera move or
a moving establishing shot out of the DVD, post it on YouTube and send the teacher a link. The teacher can forward the links to the other students in the class and require them to review and correct their fellow students’ assignments prior to class. This will make for the most productive class session intended to test the class’s understanding of the lessons in this chapter.
If it is not feasible for the students to rip clips out of DVDs and post links on YouTube, then the students can simply bring the DVD to class and the teacher can then play the DVDs in class. If a student’s understanding is correct and his choice accurate, playing the selected scene for the class will provide yet another example of how these three kinds of camera movement only tell the story. The great majority of the movies the students will go hunting through will be contemporary films made by today’s top name directors and cinematographers. Watching additional examples of how these top name current filmmakers always move the camera according to the dictates of this chapter will reinforce the validity of these rules.
If a student gets it wrong and picks a shot that is not internally generated or a moving establishing shot, then the teacher can correct this misapprehension in class and in the process solidify all the students’ grasp of the principles governing how good camera movement becomes invisible by telling the story.
CHAPTER 3
THE GOOD MOVING MASTER
OVERVIEW
The master is the shot that logically lends itself to camera movement because it is almost always the shot with the biggest scope. You might shoot a piece of coverage, or a sub-master, which also moves, but it will not last as long or move as far as the master. In addition, the movement of all coverage and sub-masters is dictated by the master. All pieces of coverage must cut smoothly into the master, so the key to understanding how to move your camera is learning how to shoot a good moving master.
When it comes to shooting a good moving master, the good news is that, in theory, it’s simple. In theory, the best moving master does five “tasks” and does them in a way that works best for the scene.
1. It shows the audience everything it needs to see in order to understand and believe what happens next.
2. It generates an esthetic of seamlessness by curtailing the need to cut.
3. It generates eye candy.
4. It concentrates the audience’s attention on the center of the drama.
5. It picks up some coverage.
That’s it. Now you know everything you need to know about shooting a good moving master. In that respect, it’s easy. But when it comes to applying those five simple principles to the very specific and unique requirements of each scene in a film, it becomes tricky. Every scene in every film is unique. The way the drama unfolds is unique to that scene, and every scene is shot in a different place at a different time. What makes Spielberg, or Cameron or Iñárritu a great visual stylist is that their application of the Five Tasks to the unique demands of each scene yields the best moving master for that scene. This is the standard to which all professional directors must rise — to create the very best moving shot. It takes talent and experience to always be able to come up to this standard.
The other reason it is a difficult skill to learn is because Task 4 — focusing the audience’s attention on the center of the drama — is the most important Task and it is best achieved by not moving the camera. Every moving shot becomes a tricky balancing act between motion and drama.
The center of the drama in a scene is almost always in the eyes of the person who is talking. It has been scientifically proven that when we look at a movie screen, if a character is talking we instinctively look at that character’s eyes. The shot that gives us the most information about what is going on in the story is the shot in which the eyes are the largest and we can see both eyes — the full, frontal close-up. The close-up has attained its status as the most effective way to convey drama because of this scientific fact.
Drama is conflict. Nothing is more boring than watching two people agree with each other. Human beings who are in conflict face each other. They get in each other’s face. This also is instinctive. When two human beings are squared off, eyeball to eyeball, the most effective way to tell the story is to be framed up in a full, frontal close-up on the character who is talking, and when he stops talking to cut to the reverse close-up on the other character as he responds. This shot/reverse/shot visual design is the most effective way to focus the audience’s attention on the center of the drama and to achieve Task 4. But the only way that two actors can be facing each other like this and moving is if one of them is walking backward. This is uncommon. (Although it happens extensively in the shot from Jerry Maguire discussed on the following pages.) So generally the moments of peak drama in a film are shot in two matching static close-ups that are intercut with each other. Because people who are in conflict with each other square off face-to-face the best way to tell the story is usually with a static shot, not a moving shot.
Only when the conflict and the drama dissipates enough to allow the two characters to walk side-by-side and carry on their debate, or only when one character in frustration or out of disrespect or disinterest, or out of some other natural human impulse, turns his back on the person to whom he is talking, does it become possible to fulfill Task 4 — Drama — while shooting with a moving camera.
Then the actor who is talking can turn and walk toward the camera backing it up in front of him. The other actor can follow alongside, in which case it becomes a side-by-side moving two-shot. Or the other actor can trail along a step or two behind or stand his ground, in which case the shot becomes a split two-shot with the actor walking and talking in the foreground, and the actor not moving or not moving as quickly receding in the background. In any case, both actors can be facing the camera as it backs up so all the eyes of all the actors involved in the conflict are framed in the shot. The camera is moving but it is also doing an excellent job of telling the story by concentrating the audience’s attention on the center of the drama — the eyes. Therefore the key to designing the best moving master for a scene is to accurately identify these moments when the nose-to-nose, head-on nature of the conflict dissipates slightly. Because then the camera can both move and also do an excellent job of showing eyes and satisfying Task 4 by focusing on the drama.
This is important because the camera must move to satisfy Tasks 1, 2, and 3. It can move in a wide arc and thereby show the audience everything they need to see to understand and believe what happens next: Task 1. Because all the actors who are involved in the conflict are facing the camera as it moves there is no need to cut. This generates the esthetic of seamlessness and thereby satisfies Task 2. And while the camera is moving any static object or any object moving in a different direction or at a different speed that passes through the frame will produce motion blur. This generates eye candy and satisfies Task 3.
In truth, Tasks 1, 2, and 3 fight Task 4. Tasks 1, 2, and 3 require camera movement and Task 4 — Drama — is actually best fulfilled in the shot/reverse/shot configuration of two static close-ups or two over-the-shoulder shots. There is a push-pull trade-off between the first three Tasks and the most important Task — Task 4. The more dynamic your camera movement, the weaker your drama, and vice versa. It is best to confront this head-on and understand that the key to designing the best moving master for a scene is striking the perfect balance between motion and drama.
In most scenes this balancing act is achieved by focusing on motion at the beginning of the scene and drama toward the end of the scene. This is facilitated by the fact that most scenes have a three-act structure with a beginning, a middle, and an end. What makes the end climactic is that the conflict intensifies throughout the scene and peaks toward the end. This is why the most important Task — Drama — is the fourth in number. So the needs of Task 1, 2, and 3 — Establishing, Seamlessness and Eye Candy — the three Tasks which require a moving camera — are usually satisfied first, at the beginning of the scene, when the conflict is less
head-on so the actors can be turning their backs on each other and walking and talking. Then when the conflict intensifies at the end of the scene and the parties in the conflict stop and get in each other’s face, the camera will draw to a stop in front of one of the parties in the conflict so it can frame up a tighter, static, over-the-shoulder or close-up.
A MODEL MOVING MASTER AND COVERAGE:
JERRY MAGUIRE
Director Cameron Crowe’s visual design for the scene at the beginning of Jerry Maguire in which Jerry (Tom Cruise) breaks up with his heartless girlfriend, Avery (Kelly Preston) provides a number of very good examples of how the key to shooting the best moving master for a scene comes down to identifying the moments when the drama is sufficiently dissipated to allow one actor to turn his back and walk away from another actor.
