Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. Directed by George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999. All rights reserved.
7.5
PUSH AGAINST FLOW
In any action sequence, a sense of frustration can develop the underlying feeling of tension. This is especially important when there’s a lot of movement going on in the buildup to a fight. In this scene from Léon: The Professional, everybody is running around with their guns, getting ready for a gunfight, and although there’s no action as such, there is excitement and tension. This is an ideal time to put in a shot that feels slightly frustrating.
In these frames you can see that the camera pushes forward at the same time that the actors run through the doorway. One character remains in place, and we can tell that we are heading toward him, but our progress feels impeded by the actors rushing through, and it also feels like we are getting in their way.
This shot is over in a couple of seconds, so this is not a lingering frustration, but a subtle and subconscious feeling that things are difficult. This is enhanced at the end by having the actor we’ve been approaching turn his back to the camera. We’ve pushed all the way through, only for him to turn away. This small detail adds to the feeling that all is not going according to plan.
In the overhead diagrams you can see something that isn’t readily apparent from watching the film, unless studied closely: The actors run forward, then to frame left. This means they can run almost directly at the camera to begin with, but then peel off to their right. Having them run straight off to the right would reduce the impact of their forward rush.
Léon: The Professional. Directed by Luc Besson. Columbia Pictures/Gaumont Film Company, 1994. All rights reserved.
7.6
MOTION CIRCLE
Whether you’re shooting a fight or a training scene, such as this one from The Karate Kid, circling around your characters is a commonly used shot. To make it into something great, a few small adjustments can increase its impact.
The overhead diagram shows the most basic way to move the camera. You arc around the characters, keeping the camera quite low, while they remain in roughly the same place. Throughout the shot, you keep the actors as close to the center of the frame as possible.
This works well enough, but to make it more interesting, you can increase the sense of motion by altering your distance from the actors. The camera keeps the same distance for a while, but by the third frame it has moved away by a few feet. This creates a pulsing sensation within the shot that makes it feel like everything is happening fast.
You can also see in the same frame that the camera goes behind a pillar. Having something pass in front of the camera does a lot to make this move feel fast. When the move feels fast, so does the action. Even if your actors are fighting quite slowly, this will make their move appear faster.
Once the camera is alongside the actors it begins to move back in toward them, further increasing the sense of speed. You will need to use a camera stabilizer for this sort of shot, and a competent operator, to keep the framing stable, while altering distance and circling around.
The Karate Kid. Directed by Harald Zwart. Columbia Pictures, 2010. All rights reserved.
7.7
CONVEYING SPEED
Chase scenes are widely used, but to get them to work you need a good understanding of motion. When you choose your angles carefully, you don’t need to cut rapidly to convey speed. By shooting angles that are near opposites, one quick cut can create more of a sense of speed than lots of fast cuts.
In these frames from The Adjustment Bureau, the speed is conveyed by having Matt Damon run in the exact center of frame. He stays at the same distance from the camera, and remains framed in the exact middle of the shot, as the street closes around him. He doesn’t move within the frame, but the world moves around him, and this is what creates the sensation of speed.
We then cut to a shot from directly behind him. Although the camera is now rushing in the opposite direction, we feel Damon’s momentum down the street, because this shot is a near exact replica of the first.
The angles are not exact, however, and in the second shot the camera is lower. A low camera will always make a shot like this appear faster, because the ground appears closer and we sense it rushing by. With this being the case, it makes sense for the second shot to have a lower camera, as the chase speeds up. If your actor was coming to a halt, then you might want a higher camera. You could even have the camera crane away from the ground during the second shot, to reduce the sense of motion.
The Adjustment Bureau. Directed by George Nolfi. Universal Pictures, 2011. All rights reserved.
7.8
TURN CUT
By combining simple blocking with a quick cut, you can produce the feeling that the action is about to take off. When you’re about to have a character rush off to a fight, attempt to escape, or do something else dramatic, this is a good way to show that the decision has been taken and it’s time for action.
In these frames from The Phantom Menace, Ray Park is looking at a floating droid. Whether you use a droid or another actor, the principle remains exactly the same. At the moment of decision, he turns to his left, while remaining in the same position. At exactly the same time, the droid circles around to his left.
Imagine how different this would be if Ray Park turned to his right. Somehow, that would feel as though he was merely turning around. But because the droid goes to one side, and he turns the opposite way, we get a feeling of things unfolding.
Halfway through this move, we cut to a camera on the opposite side, which immediately dollies backward as Ray Park walks forward. By cutting into this shot, just as the dolly begins, we get the sensation that everything is in motion.
The first shot shows decision, and the second shows action being taken. If you’re working with actors (rather than CGI droids), you’ll need to make sure the timing is identical for each direction, to ensure that the second frame captures both characters. If you can, shoot with two cameras so that the cuts are guaranteed to match.
Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. Directed by George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 8
SHOOTING PERFORMANCE
8.1
OPENING THE SCENE
Scenes with lots of characters can be challenging to handle. This is even truer when the scene involves the introduction of one group of characters to another. In this scene from Laurel Canyon, the couple enter and meet a roomful of people. It would be tempting to cover this from ten or more angles, but this scene is achieved with three simple setups.
By limiting the number of setups, you do the actors a favor. If they know the scene is being covered with two shots, they can put everything into those two shots. When you’re shooting ten setups, the actors may hold back to reserve their energy. If you can shoot a potentially complex scene with a small handful of setups, then you’ll get far better performances. Your choices in editing may be more limited, but this is often a worthwhile gamble.
The scene opens with a low shot of the couple walking in. The whole scene is shot from this angle, but we only cut back to it briefly. This is because the reverse is choreographed to show all the characters’ faces and reactions.
The reverse begins with Frances McDormand in the center of the screen. There is more light on her than any of the other actors, and she is the focus of the shot. As the couple move into place, the camera dollies to the right. This enables us to see McDormand rise to join them, briefly placing herself in the middle of frame. During this section, the couple turn to look at her so we see their faces.
As the camera continues its move to the right, McDormand moves to the left, and we pan with her. This small movement is almost like a new shot, and sets us up to cut to a third setup, which is a basic over-the-shoulder of the couple. With one small camera move, and two other simple setups, you get a beautifully choreographed scene. Each time the scene pauses, it looks like a complete,
perfectly composited shot.
As always, when constructing this sort of master shot, make sure that composition is good through the scene, rather than just at the beginning and end.
Laurel Canyon. Directed by Lisa Cholodenko. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003. All rights reserved.
8.2
BODY ACTING
The best actors know that the emotions you convey with your body are as important as those you convey with your face and voice. The best directors also know this, and ensure that they give actors the opportunity to show how much they can communicate from their posture.
This sequence from Léon: The Professional shows how you can create a scene that enables the actors to perform with gestures and body acting, while also conveying an imbalance of intimacy between them.
The scene is effectively from Natalie Portman’s point of view, and shows her trying to get the attention of Jean Reno. By beginning the scene on her level, with Reno walking past out of focus, we identify with her as the point-of-view character.
The next frame is a beautiful variation on over-the-shoulder, but we look over the top of her head, and Reno is in the exact middle of the frame. This angle and framing make us very aware of his posture, and he can communicate the character’s discomfort with almost no dialogue.
The reverse is not shot from his head height, but from about half his height — otherwise it would feel as though we were looking down on her, and this would make it impossible to see the scene from her point of view. In this frame and the next we get to see her displeasure, partly through her expression, but also through her slouch. A lesser director might be tempted to go for a close-up, but what happens in the body is more important in a scene where characters are struggling to communicate and connect.
The final frame is again a variation on the over-the-shoulder shot, with her blurred head dominating the frame, and Reno quite tiny in the distance. Although he is distant from the camera, we can see all the gestures made through his body acting.
When shooting scenes where strangers meet, or where there is uncertainty between two people, find creative ways to show the gestures they make with their bodies, and be certain to let your actors know you are shooting this way.
Léon: The Professional. Directed by Luc Besson. Columbia Pictures/Gaumont Pictures, 1994. All rights reserved.
8.3
CORE CLOSE-UPS
You could say there is no more basic shot than the close-up. Most scenes, in film and television, feature close-ups, so that we can see the actors’ faces and hear what they are saying. There is no doubt that you’ll use plenty of close-ups in your career, but the trick is to make them interesting while contributing to the story.
In any scene, the instinct of both actors is to face each other and deliver lines. It’s how most scenes are played out, and it’s the comfort zone we resort to. For the director, it’s the easiest thing in the world to point the camera at each of the actors, capture the performance, and move on. If you want to go beyond this, every time you shoot dialogue consider how you could vary this cliché.
The simplest way to generate ideas is to change the actors’ body angles, in relation to each other, and in relation to the camera. The first frame from The Road could easily have been a standard close-up, shot over the shoulder. Instead, we see Charlize Theron facing neither the camera nor the other character. Although she is on the right of frame, by positioning her at this angle her profile is in the center of frame. This is much more dramatic than if she was looking straight at the other character.
The framing of Viggo Mortensen is more conventional, because if you string together five original framings, you might end up with a scene that’s difficult for the viewer to follow. The next frame, with Theron in an embrace, is a more inventive way of showing her face in close-up than moving the camera closer.
The second set of frames shows an approach where both actors’ faces appear in medium close-up, in the same frame. When shooting this sort of scene, the challenge is whether to shoot in profile (as they look at each other) or have them face camera (which means that they are facing away). If the story justifies it, the approach shown here is the best; you get the actors to show profile and face camera.
The key to all these close-ups is the position of the actors, rather than the camera. When shooting close-ups or dialogue, you might want to position your actor before you even think about where to put the camera.
The Road. Directed by John Hillcoat. FilmNation Entertainment, 2009. All rights reserved.
8.4
EXTREME CLOSE-UPS
Extreme close-ups are often considered a stylistic choice, rather than a way to shoot performance, but so long as you let the actors know that’s what you’re shooting, you can get great results from these shots.
You need to use an extremely long lens, close enough to the actor that you focus on only the mouth, hands, eyes, or other feature. When using a lens this long, you can widen the aperture so that only one part of the image is in focus. In the first frame from Léon: The Professional, the focus is on the tip of the cigarette. When shooting extreme close-ups, actors will often switch to a subtle acting technique, but let them know if they are going to be out of focus, as they will need to raise the performance slightly.
The second frame, on the eyes, is the sort of shot that a good actor will respond to well. You are not simply getting a shot of the eye. You are shooting the whole scene in extreme close-up, to capture the reactions and emotions that are shown in that one eye.
The third frame shows that when shooting this close and tight, you can create an air of mystery by dirtying the frame briefly. This can be achieved by having the other actor move his hand, or some other object, into the frame. It will be so out of focus, we won’t know what we’re seeing, but we’ll try to look through the blurring to see who’s beyond.
The fourth frame shows that if you’re shooting an extreme close-up of somebody wearing sunglasses, you have to do something inventive with the reflection in those glasses to make it worthwhile. We can’t see his eye, and although he can convey something through his head movements, the shot would be quite flat if we weren’t able to see the poker game reflected in the sunglasses. The beauty of this particular close-up is that it enables us to see a wide shot of the room, and thus the game, without cutting to a wide shot, meaning we stay with a sequence of close-ups.
Extreme close-ups should be used only when there is extreme tension, concentration, or when people are waiting for something to happen. They are used to make us wonder what a character is thinking, and rarely work well if the characters are talking.
Léon: The Professional. Directed by Luc Besson. Columbia Pictures/Gaumont Film Company, 1994. All rights reserved.
8.5
ANGLED TALK
When actors talk, you want to see their faces, but setting up good dialogue shots is a challenge. So much so that Master Shots Vol 2 is dedicated entirely to shooting dialogue scenes. In a chapter on performance, however, it is worth looking at one more way to capture dialogue.
In so many films, the actors stand facing each other and deliver their lines. As an alternative, you can position the actors so that their bodies are both facing one way, which forces them to turn their heads to look at each other. This way, when they do turn their heads, it makes a big impression. We know they aren’t looking at each other casually, but deliberately. It also makes it easy for them to avoid eye contact should the conversation become difficult.
In Blade Runner, the two actors sit side by side and turn their heads right around to look at each other. They are framed hard to the side of the screen. Even though they are looking directly at each other, we get the feeling that this is a strain, an effort, something they’d rather not be doing. When you use this setup, make sure you put a decent distance between the actors, otherwise it seems discomforting for them to make direct eye contact.
The frames from Never Let Me Go show a creative way to position the actors’ bodies in the same direc
tion. Rather than sitting on the seat normally, both are turned toward the distant ocean. The choice to position them alongside each other, rather than facing each other, turns a conventional sequence of over-the-shoulder shots into something much more dreamy and remote.
You can break away from a moment like this, and have the characters turn to each other directly, but be aware that this will change the feeling of the scene dramatically.
Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. All rights reserved.
Never Let Me Go. Directed by Mark Romanek. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2010. All rights reserved.
8.6
SLIDE INTO SCENE
How you introduce characters to a scene can have a great effect on the performance that follows. Actors rarely like just walking up to their marks and saying their lines. If you can create a shot that moves everybody into place with some visual style, it can give the actors more confidence in their performance, and gives the audience something more interesting to look at.
This scene from Laurel Canyon ends up with the two actors delivering their lines in a conventional set of over-the-shoulder reverses. This works because the introduction to the scene is so full of motion, and we feel like we’re watching a lively, well-blocked scene, rather than two actors standing still and exchanging lines.
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