by Gil Bettman
This follows the pattern described above which is common to the visual design of most scenes. At the beginning of the scene the conflict is still brewing. As the scene progresses, the conflict becomes more confrontational. This tends to shift the balance of the scene from motion to drama. The master slows down and comes around into a frontal position on one of the parties in the conflict to see both of their eyes as they say a more confrontational line. And then, when that actor stops talking and the other actor responds, this is captured in a separate reverse shot, which requires a cut. Once the visual design of the scene has shifted into this shot/reverse/shot pattern, there will be less seamlessness and there will be much less panning and movement along the X-axis of the frame, which will diminish eye candy. Therefore, Tasks 1, 2, and 3 — Establishing, Seamlessness and Eye Candy — will be eclipsed by Task 4 — Drama.
But the balance has not permanently shifted away from motion. As is often the case in longer scenes that lend themselves to being shot with a moving camera, this moment of peak confrontation from Jerry Maguire is momentary. After getting in Jerry’s face, Avery turns her back on him again and marches away, slapping press kits down on the rows of tables. This shifts the balance back toward motion. Crowe has already got the camera(s) in a shot/reverse/shot configuration — the best place to capture drama: the master shot which brought them up to the table where she slaps down her first press kit has become an OTS on Avery (Figure 3.014 to 3.024), and the matching reverse shot is an OTS on Jerry (Figure 3.025 to 3.027). So now that the conflict has dissipated slightly (momentarily) and the actors are back in motion, he can continue to strike the perfect balance between motion and drama by simply moving both the master and the reverse.
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To do this, Crowe continues with the moving master until the very end of the scene, and turns the reverse over-the-shoulder shot on Jerry (Figure 3.027) into a moving, matching reverse-master. This matching reverse-master is essentially the mirror image of the moving master.
Because the confrontation was momentary and the actors are back in motion, Crowe now has an opportunity to generate more seamlessness and eye candy, while at the same time, keeping the audience focused on the drama. He does it all by having Avery and Jerry continue to argue as they walk into the ballroom and at the same time cross back and forth in front of each other along the X-axis of the frame. Avery keeps slapping the press kits down on the tables and simultaneously berating Jerry, telling him “It’s not love me it’s not trust my handshake. It’s make the deal. Get it signed. There should not be any confusion about that.” (Figure 3.028 to 3.036). But because Avery is, rather unusually, talking while walking backwards, she is facing right into the camera and it can see both her eyes to capture the drama. Crowe has correctly determined that this is one of those extremely rare moments when it is natural for two actors to be confronting each other nose-to-nose while still in motion because one of them is walking backwards. This enables him to have his cake and eat it too. He can equally strengthen motion and drama at the same time. He makes that which by definition is difficult to do look easy and natural. And like all great visual stylists he crams one more prominent vertical object into the frame by having a big extra in a white shirt (portraying one of the workers setting up the ballroom) appear on the left side of the frame and then exit left (Figure 3.028 to 3.031). This increases movement on the X-axis and adds an extra dollop of eye candy to the scene.
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In protest, Jerry stops chasing after Avery and quips, “Jump right into my nightmare. The water is warm.” By implying that she is heartless and by stopping and holding his ground for a beat, Jerry has made the drama a hint more confrontational. Crowe captures this by bringing the reverse over-the-shoulder shot on him to a stop as Jerry delivers the line, and allowing Avery to slide out of the shot frame left (Figure 3.037 to 3.039). So the balance between motion and drama has slipped slightly toward drama and Crowe is able to capture it by reverting to the shot/reverse/shot configuration.
In the next exchange:
AVERY
Oh, so honesty is outlawed here? I can’t be honest?
JERRY
I’ll tell you what. I would prefer loyalty.
Crowe is again able to shift the balance back and forth between motion and drama just as he did in the previous exchange. Avery says her line in motion while continuing to talk while walking backwards. The master can push in on her as she backs up and Crowe can energize the frame and add a little eye candy by blocking Jerry to cross in front of Avery on the X-axis (Figure 3.040 to 3.045). Then the balance can shift back to drama when Jerry comes to a stop and gets off his line impugning Avery’s loyalty. Crowe captures this in the reverse-master (Figure 3.045 to 3.047), again bringing the camera to a halt and reverting to the shot/reverse/shot configuration.
Jerry’s last jab gets a bigger rise out of Avery. She finally stops running away and gets right in his face, reminding him, “What was our deal when we got together? Brutal truth.” She is looking a little off-axis into the lens. Crowe brings the camera to a stop and emphasizes the confrontational nature of the moment by cutting to a tighter version of the master which was shot as a piece of coverage after the master was completed (Figure 3.048 to 3.050). (See Task 5 – Coverage, p. 49)
By shooting a wide, moving master in one direction and a matching, moving reverse-shot in the opposite direction (probably on the following day because it requires reversing the entire lighting setup) Crowe is able to keep shifting the balance between motion and drama as it ebbs and flows in the course of this running argument. A 3D animated depiction of the movement of the actors and the camera in the master can be seen in Figure 3.044a. Figure 3.047a provides the same overhead view of the reverse-master.
Whenever the drama dissipates and Avery turns her back and walks away from Jerry, shifting the balance on the side of motion, Crowe is ready to move and continue to add seamlessness and eye candy to the shot. And whenever Avery stops moving and comes in nose-to-nose with Jerry to give more weight to what she is saying (Figure 3.048 to 3.055), Crowe draws the two moving, reverse shots momentarily to a halt and beams the full force of both the actor’s eyes to the audience in two matching, full-frontal, static close-ups — the ideal shots for conveying drama and telling story.
This strategy to shoot a moving master and, after the first confrontational moment in the scene, intercut it with a moving reverse-master is a good general plan of attack for shooting longer scenes with a moving camera.
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Like in this scene from Jerry Maguire, the confrontational moments come and go. By shooting using this strategy, the director can stay flexible and know that between the master and the reverse-master he will be able to strike the right balance and get the right shot.
In the scene from Jerry Maguire, Avery keeps running away from Jerry throughout the entire scene. For this reason the master and reverse-master move in one direction — from the door to the ballroom toward the opposite wall. This blocking is appropriate given the dramatic context of the scene.
But in many longer scenes like this, which lend themselves to being shot with a moving camera, the blocking can flow in two or more directions. The actor who is chas
ing — in this case Jerry — can turn the tables, and, out of indignation, or spite, or some other appropriate emotion, walk away from his opponent(s). If this were to happen in this scene from Jerry Maguire, then Crowe could have easily reversed the direction of the master and reverse-master and picked up all the shots he would need to cover Jerry leading Avery back toward the door to the ballroom through which they had previously entered. Before they reached the door, they could have veered off at a 45-degree angle to the right or the left. The master could have led and the reverse-master could have followed them as they made this 45-degree turn. In all these instances the strategy of shooting a moving master and a matching, moving reverse-master would have allowed Crowe to favor Task 4 — Drama — at the more confrontational moments, and tip the balance on the side of Tasks 1, 2, and 3 — Establishing, Seamlessness, and Eye Candy — when the actors were in motion.
This strategy also makes it easier for a director to allow his actors the freedom to determine their blocking organically. Almost all actors are trained in The Method and therefore want to be able to spontaneously decide exactly when, in the course of a running argument, they will get in the other actor’s face and when they will turn and walk away. If a director knows he is going to shoot a moving master and a moving reverse he can wait and decide during rehearsal exactly when the actors and the cameras will move and when the actors will go nose-to-nose and the cameras will draw to a stop.
Task 5 — Coverage
Task 5, which requires that a good moving master pick up some coverage, is a natural by-product of Task 4 — Drama. This is because, as was explained above, the best way to convey drama on screen is in the shot/reverse/shot configuration. Therefore, whenever the balance in a scene shifts from motion to drama, in order to do a better job of satisfying Task 4, the master will tighten up and swing on-axis (on-axis means the actors are looking almost directly into the camera). The more the master swings on-axis, the more it tightens up on the eyes of one of the parties in the conflict, the better a job it will do of becoming one of the tighter shots which will be used in editorial to give a dramatic build to the scene. After the master and sub-masters are shot, these tighter coverage pieces comprise the work that must be completed before the crew can move on and shoot the next scene.
By designing his moving masters so they become coverage the director is able to complete the day’s work doing fewer setups. This saves time and money. If a director can shoot a moving reverse-master (or a series of moving reverse sub-masters) which also become coverage he will save even more time and money. This is yet another reason why it is a good general plan of attack to shoot a moving master and a moving reverse-master that starts after the first moment of peak confrontation.
So in the breakup scene from Jerry Maguire the moving master, which favors Avery, and the moving reverse-master, which favors Jerry, comprise at least 80% of all the work required to shoot this scene. This is because every piece of coverage is simply a tighter version of these two, matching, on-axis over-the-shoulder shots.
For example, the second time Avery stops running away from Jerry, she gets into his face reminding him, “What was our deal when we first got together? Brutal truth.” Crowe knows that in the final edit he will want her to say this in a tighter shot than the master (Figure 3.048 to 3.050). This tighter shot is a valuable piece of coverage. Because Crowe designed the master with an eye for becoming coverage, by the time the camera has moved into the OTS on Avery in Figure 3.044 it is in the right spot to pick up this piece of coverage. All Crowe has to do is put a tighter lens on the camera and repeat the same camera move as he used for the master.
Crowe designed this master so it would continue to satisfy Task 5 and pick up coverage in this same way again and again until the end of the scene. So when Avery gets in Jerry’s face for the third time during the next exchange:
JERRY
I think you added the brutal.
AVERY
Jerry there is a sensitivity thing some people have. I don’t have it. I don’t cry at movies. I don’t gush over babies, and I don’t tell the man who just screwed up both our lives, “Oh poor baby.”
Crowe can cover this more confrontational moment in the perfect shot/reverse/shot configuration (Figure 3.048 to 3.055) without doing additional setups. Again, all he has to do is redo the master after the image in Figure 3.044 and the reverse-master after the image in Figure 3.047 with a tighter lens on the camera. Figure 3.044b represents how the over-the-shoulder shot on Avery seen in Figure 3.044, which is part of the master, can easily be redone as the close-up piece of coverage on Avery seen in Figure 3.048 to 3.050. In Figure 3.044b the camera position in the OTS, which is part of the master, is labeled #1 and the camera position in the close-up, which is a piece of coverage, is labeled #2. Similarly, in Figure 3.047b the OTS on Jerry seen in Figure 3.047 which is part of the reverse-master is labeled #1 and the close-up seen in Figure 3.051, which is a piece of coverage, is labeled #2.
The key to fulfilling Task 5 — Coverage — is to accurately distinguish the moments of peak confrontation in the scene and bring the moving master into a tighter, more on-axis position so it can see both eyes of one of the parties in the conflict. This way one of two things will happen. Either the master will actually metamorphose into one of the needed pieces of coverage. (See pages 64-67 below for a description of a master which metamorphoses into coverage). Or, as in the scene from Jerry Maguire, the lighting setup and/or camera setup used to shoot the master can immediately be reused to shoot the coverage. This will save a significant amount of time and money.
This very practical concern is the basis for Task 5 — Coverage. Tasks 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all about motion and drama. They enable a director to energize the frame and simultaneously tell the story. Task 5 is all about time and money. It enables a director to make the film for the money in the budget and thereby insure that he will get hired again. At the start of every director’s career, time and money will be in short supply. Spielberg had fourteen days to complete his first feature film, Duel. James Cameron made his first feature, Terminator, for under a million dollars. As it was for them, it will be for every director on their first feature. Making a great film will be a necessary but not sufficient condition for continued success. On top of that, it must be made for a price. The bean counters will demand satisfaction.
THE DEFAULT PATTERN FOR DESIGNING THE BEST MOVING MASTER
Tasks 1 through 5 are numbered in that order because this is the order in which they are usually fulfilled. Therefore, there is a default pattern for designing the best moving master for a scene. Because in most scenes the conflict and drama peak toward the end of the scene — the climax — a director is usually able to favor motion over drama at the beginning of the scene in order to satisfy those Tasks which are best fulfilled using a moving camera — Tasks 1, 2, and 3 — Establishing, Seamlessness, and Eye Candy. Then, as the drama becomes more confrontational and head-on, as the scene drives toward a climax, the master can slow down or come to a stop and draw up into a tighter more on-axis shot, which sees both of the eyes of one of the parties in the conflict and therefore does the best job possible of focusing the audience on the center of the drama and fulfilling Task 4 — Drama. The better a job the master does of satisfying Task 4 — Drama — the better a job it will do at satisfying Task 5 — Coverage.
The moving master that Cameron Crowe designed for the breakup scene from Jerry Maguire fulfills the Five Tasks in sequential order according to the default pattern. Similarly the default pattern works well for most scenes that lend themselves to being shot with a moving camera. But every scene in every film is unique and the default pattern must be altered slightly or a great deal to conform to these unique characteristics. Every location is unique. There is one superior way to establish each location and each location contains a unique array of opportunities and obstacles for generating seamlessness and eye candy. More important, the way the conflict and drama unfold in every scene is unique. The mo
ments when the conflict becomes more confrontational or dissipates will determine the optimum position of the camera in relation to the actors and how much it should be moving. These moments occur at different junctures in every scene and the exact nature of the conflict is unique to that scene.
In order to design the best moving master for a scene, the director must tailor the way he applies the Five Tasks so the resulting shot best meets the unique needs of the scene. The ability to do this is not easily learned. It requires a great deal of raw talent honed through years of experience. It is what makes a great visual stylist great. This ability to meet the unique stylistic needs of each scene is what makes a film by Hitchcock or Kurosawa or Kubrick or P. T. Anderson a joy to watch.
The default pattern for designing the best moving master by fulfilling the Five Tasks worked almost perfectly when Cameron Crowe applied it to the unique needs of the breakup scene from Jerry Maguire. Essentially this was because the ballroom where the scene took place was a big box and Crowe and his production designer had complete control over everything that went into the box. Not all locations are equally uniform or obstacle free. If the location contains stairways, hallways, counters or takes place outside on a sidewalk, a road, or a path, the camera cannot go anywhere, as Crowe’s camera could. And the director will not have complete control over what passes in front of the camera, as Crowe did. These restrictions on motion and what passes in front of the camera will require a specialized application of Tasks 1, 2, and 3 to generate seamlessness and eye candy and establish the location. Furthermore the confrontational nature of the drama in the breakup scene from Jerry Maguire mounted steadily from the beginning of the scene until the end. This enabled Crowe to wait until toward the end of the scene to focus on satisfying the needs of Task 4 — Drama — and Task 5 — Coverage.
