camera work vol 2 stationary blocking

1/temporal continuity
Just as space continuity was about taking separate shots and create the
illusion of continuous and unbroken space, temporal continuity is about
creating the illusion of continuous and unbroken time. Much of this happen in
editing. But blocking and editing are so interwoven that one can't function
without the other. So let's look athe essentials of editing.
Editing is really a harsh thing to do because nothing in our world resemble as
surprising as being somewhere else, so we usually wanna bring as a little
attention as possible. The ests that flow best are the ones we have something
to follow across the edit because our attention is on that instead of the edit.
As the man sit down, we're following his motion an we ignore the edit. cutting
in the middle of an action is the classic way to bridge cuts. We might
sometimes even reate arbitrary action to bridge two cameras that otherwise
wuld be a hard cut. Here we cut wide as soon he starts walking. At the hand
of the walk we cut close just before he stops.
But in static dialogue, we don't automatically have something to follow across
the edit, an this can easily get shoppy if not kind of random. Here we're
cutting between the characters without any particularly care and every cut is
a surprise. But if we guide the editing with a curiosity and desire to see a
character's reaction. We're following the interaction and we are likely to
ignore the edits. Cutting based on curiosity is very effective because as we
become more interested in the character, our though shift. Which mentally is
already in the edit. This mental editing in the viewers mind is best illustrated
in the situation where the man is saying something of great importance to
the woman but we won't back on the cut to her. As he keeps talking we're
now much interested into her. We actually want the edit. Editing when our
curiosity shifts creates very seemless edits because we already think that
way.
Cutting before or after the natural edit point creates the feeling that we are
either a head of or behind the action. As the man walks to the table we cut
ahead and he catches up, which creates a feeling og eagerness or knowing
something before the characters do. Starting wide we let him walk over, and
cut after the action which creates a feeling of being held back or knowing
something later than the characters.
Cuttinf from a static shot to an action or vice-versa has the effect of suddenly
speeding up or slowing down the pacing of the scene. Here we first start on
the man on the static shot, then cut to the woman walking into the scene. So
starting on him we're rest, but cutting to her the pace suddenly scutes ahead
and makes her appear more dynamic than him. Cuttin in action usually
creates a jault and can be used to that purpose. For instance to open a new
scene on a high note. Here we're starting on the woman and pan with her
into the scene. But suddenly cut to a static shot on the manwhich abruptly

slows down the pace and makes him appear unmoved and rigid in
comparison.
When there is no cation and nothing to follow across in edit, the cut likewise
brings a lot of intention to itself which can be used intentionally. Here the
man is sitting by his desk as we cut wide to make him appear lonely and cut
deliberaly brings attention to that.
In peacing together coverage we're trying to create the illusion that our
cameras are recording the same moment. In this camera the man is looking
straight at the woman. But in this camera shot later, he's looking at the
grown while talking so we're clearly not recording the same moment. We can
only edit when each character look similar on both sides of the cut which
shrinks the edits into those rare moments. And this can sometimes force us
to use a lesser take for continuity reason. So its important for actors to knw
how to do repeatable body movement and we need to be extremely on about
getting it right. But if we're working with an actor who simply doesn't have
good continuity, it's crucial that we make the choice to either simply edit less
or to be absolutely sure to get single shots. In this close up we don't know
what the woman is doing so cutting to her, anybody posture within reason is
believable to have happened off camera. Going back to the man, he couls
have reasonably have tilted his head meanwhile. Close up can litteraly save
a scene and could be otherwise be uncuttable.
Cuttin movement we alco notice immediately if the action on either side of
the cut is at different speed which often lies on the different way of shooting.
When cutting an action we need to follow the laws of physics.
But as long as the action is repeatable we can reasonably sure that simply
cutting it from several angles we cut fine. We only need to be sure that each
camera is rolling well before and well after the part we wanna use,. Not just
have the freedom of editing but to get the actors up to speed before they're
on. And to get any extra reaction.
Finaly, it's important to cover movement from the same side of the action in
each camera. Which ensures that the characters are moving in the same
direction on the screen before and after the cut. This creates the same
spacial continuities honoring the line. Because our lef/right relationship stay
the same. As we cut the man screen direction is left to right on both shots. So
for the record lets put the second camera on the wrong side. The man again
walks from left to right, but as we cut he's now movint right to left. Which is
a little suprising.
2/expanding and contracting time
the ability to skip forward and backward in time in the edit point is what
allows us to control the pacing o the scene.....The second freedom comes
from cutaways. Anytime we cut between completely separated shots we
loose any time reference. And we have to cut back in time on the next edit.
This becomes important as we look at character movement which almost

always wanna shorter or longer. Here the man walks over to the woman, he
walks, and walks. And since we're covering this in just one camera wa ha no
choice but to include the entire movement which ultimately gets dull. So in
order t shorten the movement we place a cutaway on the woman. This gives
us a reason to cut which is essential if we wanna change the timing. So
starting on the man again, he walks, and e cut to the woman. When we cut
back to him we can simply cut ahead in time and make it arrive where we
want to. Unless we break the laws os physics by having him travel too far too
fast. In cheeting time for long walks. It's useeful to notice that it's harder to
make out the character position in the scene from the front that it is from the
side. Doing the same thing from the side, the man travel is much more
visible. So as we cut away to the woman. And back on the man, there is no
way the man could have travel this distance in this time.
The key to stretching time is usually is simply to get more angles of the same
thing and therefore have more reasons to cut. Here the man have a fairly,
shot walk but we cover it in an ewaggerated cocuction of multiple angle,
POVs and cutaways. So starting in a wideshot to a closeup, then a POV, thenn
an nsert on his feet, a cutaway on a woman, back in another close up. All the
time playing the same moment over and over again. Ending in this shot.
A third thing is to change the timing of movement comes from a boarding of
visual references. The first way to do that is to frame camera so we can't see
the area being traveled. Here the man walks from this desk, to this desk. So
we'll place two cameras both shooting from the side. As he walks out of the
first shot he quickly clears the frame. The second shot is also from the side so
we steps in at the last minute. Without covering the movement we have no
way of knowing the disance between the two shots so we are free to make up
the ime in editing. We can of course create a cutaway to put in the middle if
we need a long walk and we don't wanna be part on an empty frame. Startin
on the first camera he clears the frame. We cut to the cutaway on the
woman, stay as long as we want to travel, theb cut to the ending shot as he
steps in.
The second way to avoid visual references is to use a close up of the action
that's in open enough framing that we loose orientation. Here the man has a
fairly long walk whivh we cover by panning with him in a tight shot and end
with having hiim step into a wider shot. Since we 're covering him in a fairly
narrow shot, we have no way of knowing exactly where he is. So we can
again make him arrive where we want to. By cutting to the end of his next
shot.
We only perceive time on a very local level and we only pick up a pair as an
imediate continuity. But we can easily accept cutting at several days of the
story if nothing interestinh happeen because that's how we think. If the man
walks fromt a scene in the forest, to a scene in an office several days later in
the story, we mentally simply bridge the gap. Cutting out long stretches of
time is usually more an issue of writting than directing. But with in the scene

we've of course have the classic method to compact time like when doing the
montage. As we fade between series of situations in the same location, we
understand the intend of perceving time passing rapidly. And again, cutaways
can be used to remove much longer stretches of time.
Here the characters are waitin for an important phone call. We cut to a clock
which may be a little. on the nose. But when we cut back, the fact that the
characters are arranged differently tells us the time is passed.
Finally split changes can be very effective in changing our perception of time.
Shooting at lower frame rate, the resulting motion is higher speed which has
very few uses. One of which is to speed up certain moments in action
sequences. But shooting much slower, the results is timelapse phtography
which depicts a substancial passing of time quickly.
Shooting in a hire frame rate result in a slow motion. It i a poerful way to
stretch out a moment that would have happened too fast in real time. Here
the woman realizes that her neighbour is the murderer, which is a sgnificant
moment. But shooting it at normal speed doesn't really convey the gravity.
Shooting at high speed, we stretch out this crucial moment, which is extremly
effective.
3/transforming cameras.
As we begin to work with moing characters, let's first look at the way to get
the maximum of malleage out of each single camera. The classic hollywod
way to cover scenes is to do very long takes with almost no editing. and have
the characters arranging themselves in front of the camea in sort of theater
on film. Creatinf the framing entirely by use of the characer is the opposite of
how most of us have learn to go back at staging but it's really the most
essential method. So assuming for a moment that we only have one camera,
we can't edit, we need to put the entire blocking in front of how we enrage
the characters.
Here the characters need to stop, but instead of having them to stop
randomly. We'll have them end deliberately into a framing. As the dialogue
continues, we'll have the man walk over here. We'll then have the woman
approach him creating a symmetrical faming right in front of the camera. As a
third character joins them and ends exactly between the character deeply in
the fame; we've got an enormous amount of malleage out of this single shot.
And we seem to always happen on common good framings by chance, which
gives a sense of purpose to the blocking. But the great thing about this is the
ability to transform the camera to one shot type to another. Looking agin at
the first shot, a right angle master becomes an over the shoulder, which is
even clear ass he turns. He lives, the woman walks closer, and we're now on
close up single shot. He walks back in, and we're now flipped our over the
shoulder. Even we don't intend to do long tae like this; transforing a camera
to a different shot types lets us use the camera for more than one thing.
Which is both more economical and elegant.

So in picking coverage for the moving characters, the first thing to look for is
ways to have the camera double functions. And for that le's build a small
repertoire of moves that can be used in most scenes.
The first is a single shot becoming an over the shoulder. Starting in a single
shot on the woman, this is her shot for the first half of the scnene. But when
the man steps in. The shot is now an over the shoulder. The man is just really
stepping in an over the shoulder. But sice we didn't expect the camera to also
function as that. It seems like a lucky coincidence that the framing works. It
also create the feeling of having more cmaeras than we really do. As the man
steps in. It's clear that the camera simply changed in shape.
But when we edit the scene with five such cameras together, they sadly feel
like ten, which theoritcaly cuts the shooting day in half, but is also easier to
deal with. The key to doing this is to know where we're going.
Here we've been cutting dialogue between two single shots. As the red
woman talks we cut to the blue woman. As the red woman now steps
forwards. We've deliberately framed the blue woman single shot so it can
become an over the shouder here. And the shot transforms very elegantly.
Building an over the shoulder with a rear character is just as effective. Here
we are in single shot in both the man and an the woman. Starting in the
woman, we cut a bit of dialogue between them. So having clearly establish
that we re seeing two single shots; the woman walks over into his shot. He
turns, and we have now an over the shoulder and to cover the dialogue, all
we have to do is adding a matching reverse here. Going from an over the
shoulder, back into a single shot doesn't produce the same transforming
feeling because we've already seen it in a completed frame. But having a
more of this shot into a close up as he leaves we've now got three distinct
shots types out of a single camera which makes the scene feel a lot more
complex that it would have been otherwise.
Let's quickly go over some of other transformations that are useful to have
handy. The next one is when using a camera while we're placing our
character. Here the man walks out, and we're now in single shot. After a
while, the blue woman walks in where he stood before transforming the shot
back into an over the shoulder.
Another move is turning an over the shoulder onto another over the shoulder.
So starting one, the man walks outside of the woman, and we've essentially
flipped it. Also a relevant move is having a character isolate himself by
moving close to the camera which we'll cover in more detail later.
Additionally, two particulary framings are useful to arriving as a result of
movement: an over the shoulder, and a right angle master. Here the
characters are walking into an office and we'll at some point start a dialogue.
So we'll have them stp in n over the shoulder in front of the camera. We cous
of course arrive at ay framing but a framing like this is more deliberate and
can immediately become an integra part of the blocking if we had a reverse.
After the man walks out, and the blue woman steps in creating an over the

shoulder, let's do the same with a right angle master. As they talk we 'll have
them meet in a symmetrical shot here. Again we can arrive in any kind of
framing but arriving in mindful framings, the blocking feels more on track.
As we do this with more charaters, the key is to set up shots for whent they
contain the most characters and then have the characters gradually build
that frame by walking to their marks. Here the man is standing opposite the
women for the first half of the scene. Then walks closer for dialogue with red
woman. So lets set up a three-shot for the ending first. We'll arrange it as a
right angle master with the blue woman in the background. If we now move
the man back to one; this would be the shot on the women for the first part of
the dialogue. And this would be our shot on the man. So cutting back and
forth aseems like normal dialogue. But when he wals over; we happen uppon
excellent framing here.
This works no matter how complex the framing is. Here we're covering
several characters inseperate shots for the first half of the scene, but they
will ultimately join each other towards the middle. So let's set up a shot for
that first and have the charaters ensing in this framing. With these positions
memorized, we now use this shot as, the red man is in single shot long before
the ending. For cutting the initial dialogue, we're going back and forth
between the redman shot, the red woman single shot, and the blue woman
shot which is overlapping for spacial coninuity. As the red woman walks over,
she steps into a wide over the shoulder. As the blue woman walks over, she
seps in front of the same shot which has now visibly changed shape twice.
4/covering stops
covering character movement is really about covering all the places where
the characters are stopped. This extremly easy to do and covers the majority
of scenes. Let's start with a simple situation when the woman walks over to
the man. She has a short dialogue with hiim, then walks out, but stops on the
way out, tirns for another dialogue and finally leaves completely. It's usely
easiest too start with the most central character posititions and then work our
way forwards and backwards in time so let's place two reverses and a right
angle master for this dilogue. Before that, this camera works as a single shot
on the man and this camera can cover her initial work. But let's als puttting a
camera for where she starts. When she walks out and stops, we've hinge her
walk so this camera can function as an over the shoulder for this position.
Let's put in a camera for before she turs, which will give us her personal view
when in front. After she turns, this camera can function as an over the
shoulder. But let's also get two close up, one on her and one on the man.So
that took about ten seconds to plan.
We're starting on the woman, the man says something to her. She walks over,
and we cover the rest of her walk in this over the shoulder. His single shot is
now an over the soulder and we can edit this part of the scene to pace using
the two reverses and the right angle master. When this over the shoulder,

she walks out, the man thinks for a bit, then say something to her causing
her to stop. We cut to this over the shoulde for the second dialogue which
right now has her in front., and the close up on the man. Back on her shee
turns and the shot becomes a real over the shoulder. Here we have two close
ups and two over the shoulder to cut the dialogue from. Where in this over
the shoulder she leaves, then cut to the man's close up where he stands for a
bit. Then walks out.
The only other thing to be aware of is to having enough cameras running at
any given time to have cutting options. In the beginning the crossed out
cameras wouldn't be shooting anything useful. As soon as the woman walks.
we can already cut the first camera. And for the next dialogue we're editing
between the twor reverses and the master. As soon as she walks out., the
master and the other reverses being useful, the other camera s aren' t useful
until she stops again. So we depend on the current camera working. For the
last dialogue, all four camera set us for that are good. As she walks out, her
close up is quickly empty but we'll leave the remaining three cameras
running especially the close up on the man which we planned on ending in.
A thing that works well is to frame all stops for when they have the most
characters in them and then allow the characters in them to gradually build
the framing for every each stop. In this scene the man aand the woman are
having some difficulties in the relationship and the woman is trying to avoid
them. So the rough plan is to show her walk over here, he will follow, and ot
getting her attention he walks over behind her, so then walk away again, and
here again follow. The reason we're not being particular is that we want to
stage the scene as two or three framings that the characters will then move
between. So right now we're only interested in the times the framing are
complete. At some point in the beginning both characters will be here, and
we'll frame a shot for that. At a later point, both characters will be here, and
we'll frame a sh for that. Later again, both characters are here, which we'll
place a camera for here. For a last time let's go back to the first framing and
re-use the first camera. But since the character aren't moving at the same
time, we get the effect of them building the framings.
The first shot is complete. But as the womas walks away, she as the next shot
to herself, although it's framed for two characters. The man also has an
incomplete shot, although it's framed for two. As he walks oer to the woman,
he steps into her shot and completes the framing. The third camera right now
is a single shot on the woman with space for the man to step into. So as the
man steps out of the previous shot and enters this one, he completes the
framing. She walks back to the first shot. So this is now a single shot on him.
And the first shot is a single sht on her. Until he walks over and completes the
framing.
As long as we are not creating any line issue, simply covering the stops and
allowing characters to move between them is all it takes. So let's move on to
why ewactly characers move ?

5/motivations for character movement

Unless we're doing completly improvised filmaking. We're the ones deciding
on ccharacter movement and not the actors. ome of us are uncomfortable
having to decide every character movement and some actors also feel
restricted by meticulous walking. But from an audience perspective, well
planned blocking is far more impactful than spontaneous movements which
often produces very random and unexpressive shots. So we naturally need to
plan movement that emphasizes the psychology of the scene. One place to
get an idea is by watching rehearsals and notice when the actors feel like
moving.
But what we wanna do in this chapter is build a list of motivations that we
can use to our blocking that make sense without any imput. Characters move
for the same reasons that people do, and the vast majority of movement
falls into these categories:
_Initiative
_Control/Territory
_Discomfort
_Becoming more personal
_Becoming more private
Initiative is anyhing a character does with a sense of purpose. First of all
characters usually have a very little things to do in a scene which we'll often
witness in the script. Here the script says that the woman grews a plant and
then walks over to the phone while talking to the man. That by itself dictates
where to place cameras and actors and provides a framework to build the
rest of the scene from.
But just as often the script say nothing and if we don't invent some
movement, the characters would be standing still. So continuing with
initiative, one good motivation for movement is when a character gets
excited or pationate about what he's saying. In this scene the CEO of a huge
company is trying to convince his border directors to aprove a marger,
something he's very passionated about. Which would be a good line to start
moving on. So as he gives everybody a pep talk about how this would create
one of the largest companies in the world and benefit all of them financially
beyond belief, he walks.
Anotther kind of iniitiative is when a character is curious or want the finfd
something out. In this scne, she's doing all the talking but to make it more
interesting, we've made the man go to a couple of places in the room to
examine arbitrary things. Curiosity clearly motivates movement between the
characters as well. After some regular dialogue, the man becomes interested
in what the woman is saying. So we'll have him step forwards.The same move
works qually as if he's asking a question.
Initiative is also when a character makes the choice to change the direction of
the scene. Here the man decides to end the conversation. So he begins
walking. Stoping one last time, then leaves completly. Well it usually says in

the script when a character leaves, it can be useful to start the process
sooner and do it in several steps.
Controlling a territory is about a character taking a dominant position by
walking around the room just like he owns it just as animals mark their
territory. Here the man on the suit is an unwelcome guest in the others
character's territory. But as he walks calm into the scene, he demonstrates
his superiority by claiming freedom to move where he wants and stands
where he wants. An effective use for this is to have the character step closer
to another character the right moment in the dialogue just seem imposing or
threatning. Here the man crosses the territrial boundary and invades her
space.
On a less avert level we can use contro to add drama or puncg to a
character's lines. Here the man makes an imortant speech, by moving he
takes control of the scene. Buts his purpose is to get everyone attention and
not necessarily to take over their territory.
Disconfort is a big reason why people move in real life. When we're feeling
uncomfortable, it's like something is noying at us and we wanna move to
check the feeling off or at least avoid standing steal. Here the woman is
uncomortable as she's waiting for the results of a job interview, so she
moves to avoid feeling into disapeing energy. It's easiest to block of what we
planned to have the character move between a set number of stop instead of
moving it random. So we don't have to set up an infinite number of cameras.
Discomfor can bring subtle meaning to a conversation. Here the man and the
woman are talking and has he adresses something she may be liying about,
she walks over here. Which makes her discomfort quite clear. It's very
common for people to cover up discomfort with movements that seems to
have purpose.. In a short from earlier the man could just have being
pretending to be curious about objects in the room, but really be trying to
hide his discomfort.
Discomfort can also be positive. If a character is excited or eager, he has a lot
of bubbling energy he needs to expand somehow. Here the character
receives terrific news, so we can help it moves.
Becoming more personal is when a character moves closer to another
character to become more intimate, more confidential, or more sincere. Here
the man tries to convince his ex wife that they should gt back together, at
least for the sake of the children. So as he becomes more personal and
ungarded he steps forward.
Becoming more personal usually means stepping closer, but it can simply
mean making oneself visible to the other character. Here the man seps
closer, but he woman turns away. So we'll have him go on the other side
ending into another shot. The woman turns back ad the man stes back into
the previous shot again. A lot of scenes have one character trying to become
more personal with the other and designing the movement is continuous
attempt that can bring actions to a scene that doesn't automatically have

any.
Finally, becoming more rivate is the opposite. Here the character walks away,
which can either mean some form of emotional redraw or rejection, or just a
desire to be a little more private. A lot of character movement is really an
alternative dance between what's becoming more personal and becoming
more private. So moving between a couple of marks. It's fairly easy to create
and organise action as long as the dialogue calls for it.
6/motivations for stopping
Equally useful is to look at why characters stop moving. Here we'll work with
five reasons.
_Stopping to end movement
_Stopping to think or feel
_stopping to shiftgears
_stopping for clarity
_stopping for the camera
As with the reasons for movement, none of these exists in the vacuum and
often overlap.
Stopping to end movement seems very obvious. But what is meant by that is
stopping with the motivations we looked at in the last chapter no longer
exists. Here the blue woman is going to packi her bag to go to her boyfriend
whose being working in a different country so that would be highly motivated
initiative. But the red woman knows that the boyfriend hasn't been faithful
and finally brings it to her. The blue woman slows to a halt, suddenly lacking
purpose.
Here the woman is moving away to become less personal, because the man
doesn't want to be opened about something. As he begins opening up. She
no longer has that reason and stops.
Stoppong to think or feel is interesting because as soon as something grabs
our attention we forget to move. Here the character is moving from point A t
point B but suddenly remembers something and stop to think. It seem like
this is almost amusing because it shows how few things are we really able to
do in the same time.
A classic exemple of stopping to think is when a character leaves a dialogue.
Here the man walks out, but suddenly thinks of something to say and
changes his mind about something so we stop as he considers.
Here the woman leaves a conversation, but stops for a moment to feel and
reflect on it. Agai as soon as her attention goes inwards her emotional and
mental world, she looses awareness of the physical world and forgets to
move.
Another esample of stopping to feel is when two characters are walking and
the dialogue suddenly becomes more sincere. So they stop in front of the
camera for a more personal dialogue.
Stopping to shift gears is a momentary stop that happens as prelude to

another movement. If we continue with one of the previous exemples; lets

say the man hasn't had the courage to express his feelings . But as he
realises this may be his last chance. He stops to get a courage, then turns
around and begins to come more personal again.
In this scene the redman has being very overbaring. As he walks out, he's
essentially becoming more private. But as one of the other character insults,
he stop to shift gears, then turns around, and walks closer to appear
threatning which is motivated by controlling territory. We're really just doing
two movements back to back, but in serving a little pose to break it up
emphasize the change more.
In this scene, the woman is busy with legitimate purpose, so the movement is
based on initiative. Suddenly the man begins asking questions about
something that makes her wonder if he knows her secrets. So we wanna
switch to discomfort. The extra pose as we sshift gear says it all.
Stopping for clarity serves to emphasize and underly something. In the last
chapter , the man brought extra attention and importance to what he was
saying by moving. Stopping at just the right moment, the man suddenly
becomes very direct which brings particulary focuse to that line.
The exemple from before when the women stop in frot of the camera also
brings clarity. As they stop, the scene becomes more focused and we pay
new attention to what they're saying.
The last motivation is deliberately stopping in front of the camera for the sole
purpose of showing the character to us and deserves its own separate
discussion. As the man walks in, he stops for a moment right in front of the
camera for the only reason of giving us his inside. Then continues out of the
frame.
Here the woman leaves a dialogue and stops to reflect for a moment but it's
clear that the reason she stops in here is that where the camera is. What it
does is giving us an unique perspective, and allows us to know something
about the character or to know that there's something we don't know which
in any case brings us deeper into the story.
The great thing from a storytelling perspective is that we get to see
something that no one else in the scene gets to see. In a corny bu effective
exemple; a government building is under heavy security to protect against
aliens disguised as humans. As the secret service agent walks passed us, he
stops, there's a red glow in his eyes and we suddenly know something the
characters don't which does a great job at drawing the scene.
Last but not least, there's a simple reaction shot where a character stands for
a moment at the end of the scene. Here the man is having a conversation
with the woman who then walks out. The simple fact that he stands for a
moment turns it in a thinking or feeling shot. And there is no need to act or to
be heavy-handed about it. A variation that is very useful is to have him walk
out after a moment of thinking or feeling. Again the woman walks out, he
stands for a moment which adds instant depth. Even though there's no

particular moment of motivation for and then walks out, clearing the frame.
The only difference is ending on a reaction with no movement makes the
character look a little more punched out. And ending with him walking out
makes him look a little more active as if the thinking or feeling only last for a
moment.
7/script staging: motivations for a moment
At this point, let's stage a scene to tr out the motivations from the last two
chapters. This scene is between two attorneys: Jennifer and Damian who
used to be dating, but are now just working together on a case. Damian's ego
is having a hard time with the fact that Jenifer is seeing other people, but he's
not the kind of person who admits defeat, even to himself.
There're plainty of subtle opportunity from motivated movement in this
scene. To start Jennifer's movement comes from a mixture of discomfort
regarding the case and it's hard to be less personal with Damian wh's being a
bit of noxious. In any case she wants to stay busy and the script also says
that she's looking for a deposition. So the first thing we'll do is create a
couple of marks she can move between. We'll put two marks that are either
on the table wich will be the main marks. Halfway through the scene,
Damian essentially says it's OK she wants to have a fantasy about him which
she finds mind buggling, so we'll place a third mark in the middle from
becoming curious or more personal. We'l simply label the marks 1, 2 and 3.
We'll place Damian here which puts him almost on the middle of where
Jennifer needs to walks. So he clearly doesn't care that she's busy. He only
has one movement towards the end when he walks out but stop to shift gears
so that's two marks.
Next let's cover the stops. We'll start with a camera on Jennifer with Damian
in the background. For covering Jennifer's movement between marks 1 and 2,
we can pan this camera to transform it into a flipped over the schoulder, that
we'll cover in more detail later. We'll cover Jennifer's third stop with a camera
here which we'll place here like this to avoid any line line problem which we 'll
also look at later. Back on her first stop, let's also place an internal shot on
Damian which we can again pan to make work for Jennifer's course in second
marks. This camera is in her path so she'll have to move behind the camera
for that take which is fine as long as his eyeline is the same. Towards the
middle of the scene, when Damian's long lines shows that he's completly
misunderstood the situation. This is when his demarch of curiosity is
becoming more personal. So lets add a close up here. As the scene draws to
a close we'll have her back to the first mark which is the best favoured mark.
This is when Damian walks out and stops to think or feel or shift gears. We'll
cover that in the same close up as before. But let'add a matching internal
reverse on Jennifer. He walks out completly and we hold on her as she stops
to reflect for a moment after which she walks out of the frame to stay active.

So as we've covered these stops in five cameras., let's now walk on the
timing of movement between the marks. All I do here is note the movement
between the numbered marks which is an easy and intuitive way to time it to
the melody of the script. In the beginning, we'll have Jennifer start on her
mark 2 in the middle,and walk to mark 1 during her line to immediately make
her look busy. After a little dialogue, let's have her walk to mark 3 timing the
walk end here. As Damien does his long line, we'll have her listen for a bit an
then walk to the middle mark. Here she'll stay for her next line and then walk
back to mark one in time to frown and she take her head. Damien stands
awkwardly for a moment then walks out, just between two only marks. He
stops and turns for a last line. After which he walks out of the room. Finally
we'll have Jennifer stand for a bit to think and fee and then walk out of the
shot and the scene. With that lay down, let's shoot it and cut it together.
8/intimacy, honesty and power
In this chapter, we'll continue looking at reasons for character movement by
looking at how the characters are facing each other. We could just leave this
to the actors but ti very quickly becomes a blocking decision because it
affects how we wanna place cameras. Here we want the woman to appear
reserved, but without turning away, there's nothing else she can do with her
performance to bring that across. If she turns away we'll need a camera over
here to really get the effect. So major body language is a blocking decision
and therefore up to us. The problem is that many of us feel that we are
setting up shot like this because it's very melodramatic. A melodrama is a
drama with exaggerated emotions. In a a real life, these kind of body
language is clearly over the top, but in blocking it's one of the most powerful
means of expression. So the primary purpose of this chapter is to make it ok
to be melodramatic and theatrical because it's still the most effectie way to
show emotions.
The way we look at the direction a character is facing is to see in varying
degrees of intimacy, honesty and power.
Starting with intimacy a woman is facing the man so she's being a 100 per
cent intimate or opened or available. As she turns a bit she withdraws
emotionally a little. And if she turns away, she's been completly closed and
unavailable. This obviously works great for a character who for whatever
reason wants to be more private. But another benefit is that if we are outside
the dialogue, she still allowing us to identify with her. Which gets us personal
and private insight.
This is also great for making a character appear detached or arrogant.
throughout this scene, we'll place the man at a right angle to her, so we
never elet her connect with him. This could be a rejection, but it also could be
that he doesn't want to appear to care. If we cover this in over the shoulder,
he's also standing sideways to us. So we get the same impression. But if we
cover it in right angle cameras, we're getting a completly personal view in

one of the cameras. While he's still detached from her vantage point.
Honesty is similar and then facing another character directly is the mos
revealing and makes it very hard to keep a secret. But as the man turns even
just slightly, his body language shows us that he's less truhful and therefore
less willing to face her. Obviously we're able to ride our body language
intentionally but if we're not paing attention dishonesty or insiicerity will
makes us sliding away. As he turns away completly, he clearly has something
to hide but we are not making our judgment about what it he's hiding. Just
that he is. So the body language is he same whether he's hiding evil scheme,
hiding his true feelings or he's ashamed of something.
Power is a little more complex. Because it can be used two opposite ways.
The first is again when a person is facing another head on, the body language
shows the most confidence and power. If the woman is a strong and dominant
character, the man will tend to turn slightly to the side to show that he's not
challenging her territory. So being direct equals means powerful and being
less direct is less powerful. But power is often creaved into manipulation by
withdrowing intimacy. Which creates the opposite bdy language. As the
woman turns away from the man, she gets the upper hand by shutting him
out and he now have to give smething up to regain intimacy. This is a
powerful ploy which people will do real life but maybe not as expressively.
The only thing that makes this meldrama is exaggerating which tends to feel
very natural on film. But if we simply don't like the melodramatic feeling, let's
look at a couple of ways to get the same effect in aless avert way. The only
melodramatic shot is when a character is facing away completly. If the
woman becomes sad and suddenly turns away, it can come across as very
staged and remind us of old hollywood musical. One way to avoid this is to
combine it with some staged business. So starting agin at the top, something
in the scene causes to the woman to withdraw. Instead of just having her
turn, we'll then have her walk over the table for a reason we don't need to
explain. We arrive in essentially the same shot but it plants much better into
the scene.
Another way is to start with a character facing away. Here the woman walks
in finding the man facing away. Since we're not seeing a turn, it doesn't call
much attention to itself. And it's a plausible way for him to happen to be
standing. Finally a thing to notice when character's aren't facing each other is
that ther's no need to worry about having one or both of them talking in thin
air. If we look at this objectively, the man would actualy have to talk louder to
be heard. But within the scene, the dialogue is conneced to the story, which
creates an intimate atmosphere and even distance between them. So they
can both speak normally.
9/script staging: intimacy, honesty and power.
Let's stage a quick scene to see what kind of subtle these distinctions bring
to the blocking. The scene we'll do is really simple one between a father and

a daughter. The father John, he's found out that his daughter Emy has lied
about where she was today. We'll first shoot a version where whe make no
choices about which way the characters are facing. So lets get the read
through and go straight to a cut.
If we did it like this, probably no one would have question it. But let's try to
make it more espressive by working more into the directions the charachters
are facing. Let' first work on John. If we start the scene with him looking away
from Amy; it first of all means that he knows Amy is coming and is beeing
waiting for her. So he's much more prepared and in control of situation. By
facing away, he's also punishing by withdrowing his intimacy. On the line "you
seem to be doing fine now" , let's have him to turn his face head on. He's
now being completly direct with her and we 're really going for one form of
power to another. Next we'll work on Amy. Throughout the scene, John is
questionning whether or not she's telling the truth. So sh"'ll not wanna face
him head on because that would be too revealing. But in the beginning of the
scene, John is facing away from he, so she' doesn't need to turn away in order
to hide. When Johhn turns directly towards her. Let's have her pretend to be
confident and honest by continuing facing her directly. But since she knows
she's lying, let's have her gradually turns to the side to be less revealing
However the end, when John calls her a treaure, it's easy for her to be direct
because it's the truth that she doesn't like that name.
If we now setup the cameras before and shoot four all takes, we can make all
of the choices in editing. So let's view the cut of this version.
10/managing the line:moving lines part 1
Continuing now with how to cover stops, an inevitable consequence of
moving characters is that with the lines are moving as well. Sometimes this
movement is called a line cross. Line cross is essentially happening when
characters pass in front of or behinf each other. If we set up like this and the
woman move over here, there's no ine cross. But the moment she passes
behind the man we're crossing the line. And if the man passes in front of her.,
we ''re again crossing the line. Anytime a main character passes in front of or
behind another, we should have a red flag go up. Not because line crossining
is wrong, but because we have to be alert for the consequences of it.
The consequence of a line cross is that it can easily cause any number of
cameras to suddenly be on the wrong side of the line. And if we don't
manage this carefully, we risk ending up with an uncuttable scene. Starting
with a simple test situation. We've set up an over the shoulder pair. As the
woman moves to a new stop, one of the cameras is now on the wrong side of
the line .What dertemines which side we're on is which camera sees the
movement. If we're in this camera as she moves, that's the side we're on and
any new camera needs to go on the same side. If we're in this camera as she
moves, the new camera need to go on this side instead. This is pretty step

forward but here is no line cross during the move itself. But when there is one
we crtainly have to be very carefull about how we cut it. To look at that, let's
create a third stop where the man has walked over her and again add an over
the shoulder pair. No matter which way we edit this, we are dealing with at
least one line cross. Starting with this camera we have a couple of choices;
starting from cutting here to here. Ast the man walk, we're almost immediatly
on the other side of the line. Let's pose here because we can't cut to the
other reverse, which is right now on the wrong side of the line. Until the line
cross, the camera too. So if we let the line cross the first camera, we have to
stay there until the line cross the second camera, putting it again on our side
of the line. The other way to cut between these camera is to jump ahead of
the line. Starting in the first reverse, the man barely move before we have to
jump ahead of the line to avoid having it cross us. So the line cross doesn't
actually happen until here. Going to the other reverse, we only have one
option. Right now, it's on the wrong side of the line, so we have to let the line
cross us first. We can edit her to the other reverse. And going from the other
reverse on the original line, there's again only one cutting option. As the man
walks, we have to cut to this camera where we're still on the same side of the
line or we'd end up alone on the wrong side of the line.
So lets cut of forur versions together to see wich ones works better.
In the first version we stayed in the first camera and waited until the line
cross the second camera.
In the next version we jumped ahead of the line. So as the man moved, we
had to jump immediately and waited the next camera for the line cross. Since
the woman looks nearly identical in both cameras this is not a good cut and
both of these options give us the feeling that we are trying to escape the line.
The best of most options are the two last ones. As the man walks, we are
immediately on the right side of the line for the next camera. So the cut is not
motivated by trying to escape a line. Going from the opposite reverse, we can
again do a fairly relax cut as long as we make it into the next camera before
the line cross. Going back again, we likewise have four options. Starting in
the same reverse, the first option again is to skip ahead of the line. So the
line cross doesn't happen until here. If we let the line cross happen, we have
to hold in third shot what we would wait for the next camera to be on our
side. But since the cut is easier and more of a last if we don't have to stress
ahead to avoid the line, let's just have him cross it and cut to this reverse
which then becomes an over the shoulder whenever the time is right.
Again from the opposite reverse, the man walks out. And we can cut to this
reverse when we want as long as we do it before the line cross here.
With this things in mind, let's return to the earlier script staging between the
two attorneys to look at what we were doing in amenaging the line.
The two main cameras with this over the shoulder, and this close up, which

we use to basicly divide the scene in half. So as Jennifer move between her
second and first marks, both cameras stay useful. For the part where Jennifer
need to walk from a third to a first mark, we deliberately set up these
cameras close enough together than as soon a as she cause the line cross we
would have a valid camera to cut to. When she walks to her second mark in
the middle, we made the choice to already be in one o these cameras so that
all we have to do to complete the coverage was to add a close up on her.
Matching Damian continous close up. Since we need to get back into this
camera to get her facial expression as she walks back to her first mark, we
had to get back before the line crossed it. Or we would have no way to get
there. Finally as Damien left, we knew we were gonna be in his close up to
cover him stopping on the way out. Which is why we added a last close up
on Jennifer on this side of the line and at a matching distance.
Unless we complete avoid having moving line cross cameras which of course
works, but also produce very flat blocking; we sometimes needs to enginure
scenes this precisely.
Combined with an hinging and pivoting we have to do the manage the line for
static dialogue, things can start to get pretty complicated. And almost
everybody have difficulty with this. But let's look at some techniques to make
managing moving lines very easy.
11/managing the line: moving lines part II
By far the easiest way to manage the line with moving character is just to
simply follow the line around the scne and place cameras based on which
side we believe we are now in each particular time So if the dialogue starts
here. Let's add two reverses. Putting them at this side of the line. Next we'll
have the woman walk over here, an again add two reverses. As she moves,
we either have to be in this camera, in which case we can cut to this camera
when we want. And to this camera as soon as the line has crossed it. If we're
starting a walk in this camera, we have to cut ahead of the line before it
crosses us or we'll end up on the wrong side. Then the man walks over too,
and for that we'll place a two-shot here. For getting into this camera we'll
have to be in this one for the walk. And as soon as the line has crossed the
new camera, we can cut to it. Finally let's have the woman walk over her for
which the line stays virtually the same. And let's ass add a camera as similar
size and angle as this one for dialogue.
So even though the line is zigzaging throught the scene, it's very easy to deal
with. For who walk, let's be in the camera that needs to cut ahead of the line.
Just before she passes behind the man, we'll have to cut to this reverse. But
we'll have to wait with cutting to the matching reverse until the line has
crossed it. As the man walks over , we wanna cut two the next two shots. And
has the woman walks to a third stop we've set up this camera to match the
man's camera. Which is now becoming a single shot, so we can cut the
remaining dialogue between these two shots.

Another method that can make dealing with moving line easier is to stick to a
major coverage angle. If we choose to generally cover the scene in this
direction, What, we'll do is always place cameras on the side of the line
that's facing towards us. So for the first stop, the cameras go here. As the
woman walks over here, we'll again place a reverse pair on our side of the
line. Finally, as the man walks over here, we'll put another reverse pair also
on the side facing the major covered side.
We can do this without engaging an heavy though, and it usually ends up
cutting well. After starting on the man, the woman walks. And we go to this
reverse which she steps into a complete. Continuing the dialogue with a
reverse on that line, we go back to the over the shoulder from behind the
man. He walks, crossing the line immediately. And we cut to this over the
shoulder which he steps into. And the other reverse to finish the dialogue.
Sticking to a major coverage angle. It becomes specially important when the
characters are far away from each other. Which can make it harder to figure
out exactly which side of the line we're on.
In this scene, the characters are away from each other. After which the man
walks over here. So let's make a common mistake and set up two cameras
like this which by itself honores the line. But then pan with the man as he
walks to his second mark. If we draw in a line, we've now ended up with two
cameras on opposite sides. What we need to do is make clear choices about
which size we're on. If the line would be moving around this area, we much
safer if we stay on the good side of all position. So let's simply move his
camera over here. From above it's very obvious, but it's an easy trap to walk
into.
As we looked at in the chapter on U,Y an O shape, placing camera so they
work for as many lines as possible is a safest way to keep track of lines. To do
the same with moving lines, let's create some action but draw every
character stop as if they were seperated static character and unmoving line.
And then solve it the same way we did in that chapter. In this unecessarily
messy scene, we'll start with a character ike this. Then have the blue man
walk over here, and after a while have the redman walk over here. In the
beginning, the woman has dialogue with them both, creating two lines. They
might also have dialogue each other,creating a line here. After the blue man
has walked to a second mark, he again has dialogue with them both. For the
stop with the redman who has walked to the woman, he'll of course have
dialogue with her. And the blue man will add some comments.
Treating each stops as a separate character, let's putting cameras starting
with an nternal shot on the woman which will sandwich in between these two
pairs of line, so will basicaly work throughout the scene. Let's add two close
up for each of the man, their first stops, and an external reverse pair to cover
the first half of the scene a litle wider. As the blue man has walkd over here,
we're more interested in these lines. So let's add a close up here. The woman
's close up keeps working and we can cut dialogue between the men with

these two cameras; although the angle gets a little stranct. When the redman
has walked to his second mark, we're now only concerned with these lines. As
with the blue man, we'll add a close up on the redman. And a wide shot to
function as a reverse. While the woman close up works the same. That's it,
and the only other thing we'll do is to take the two close ups on the blue man
stops, which are single shots from almost the same location and combine
them into a single camera to pans. As he walks, we still get the two sshots we
need and have his movement covered as well.
So to quickly cut this together, let's sart in this three-shot. The go to the
close up on the blue man, the close up on the woman, and the close up on
the redman. For more personal dialogue btween him and the woman, we'll
cut between this reverse which is a 2-shot and the 3-shot. The blue man
walks, and we pan with him over to his next stop. When the woman close up
is still good. She turns back to the red man, we go to the reverse 2-shot
again. The man walks. And we cut to this reverse for his arrival which we can
relaw about because we're on the good side of the line and throughout. To
finish the dialogue here, we'll use this camera, the blue man's close up which
is now the result of a pan instead of a lock camera. The close up on the
woman. And the close up on the red man.
So by placing phantom characters in each of the stops and then covering it as
if it were a static dialogue is very straightforward.
A thing we did in the last scene that we'll look at more at it is sandwiching the
cameras between lines. When we generally think that cameras placed into
the middle of the scene would create more line problems but they often end
up working for both sides of the line. In this scene, the man will walk over
here, so we sandwich the close up on the woman between the two lines. And
add a couple of reverses on the man. So starting with one of thoses reverses
we're in the close as the man walks to a second stop. With her camera
between tghe lines, it works for both sides.
This will also solve a situation from before where the characters are away
from each other. If we'd drawn a line, we could've placed a single panning
camera on the man, and sandwich her camera between the lines.
The last thig we'll work is to avoid what we call sweeping lines. So look at
that, let's first look at a character moving between two points covered in two
cameras. As he walks out of the first shot, he simply walks into the second.
We're fine because his walk creates a line here. But if we bring in a second
character. We suddenly dealing with a line going this way and no matter how
we set it up, we're going to have line problems. As the man walks out of the
first shot. There's an immediate line cross and we are on the wrong side. But
more than that we have to holding this camera until the line has passed the
other one. This can become a real. head scratcher. If we try it better by
moving the first camera out here we eliminate the first line and cross but we
still force to holding this shot until the line enters the other camera. We can
try other combinations, but the bottom line is that any arrangments that

causes the line to sweep through several cameras is going to be a headache

to edit.
If we return to the first script staging. We had Jennifer moving between these
two points. And we could easily have one to simply do two over the shoulers.
One here, and one here. If we'd set it up like that, we would have a long gap
and a wall in editing options. So what we did instead is modify the camera for
a second stop to get them close together, giving us a camera too cut to
immediately. As she walks out of the first shot, she could immediatly step into
the second and we wouldn't have to wait fo a line cross to finish.
In order to work more with managing lines, we need to reveal situations. So
let's hold for now and deal with it again in volume 5 and 6.
12/coordinating foreground and background
For the remaining part of this volume, we'll work and create a maximum
amount of depth in the frame. A frame in film is inerately two dimensional
and shots made without any consideration about depth often come across as
flat and not interesting. But depth doesn't come automatically and we have
to work at creating the illusion of it. However it's also extremly a creative
aspect of saging, because it allows us to direct immedtaly the attention in
and out of the frame which gives us all other means of expressions.
Before we get started on that, we need to look at a couple of things. First of
all, depth is created by arranging shot and layers or planes. So well the
characters may be in a middle plane, we're bringing some extras for
background plane, a plant for foreground plane and a third character in even
closer foreground plane. This is a helpful way to look at it because the cay we
create attention between those screen depth is really by sliding planes in
and out. As here were the third character steps and then out. So the plane
actually exists before we slide into the frame. Or by shifting focuse between
planes. Or very often by doing both at the same time.
Secondly shifting focuse or racking focuse is both a necessary aspect of
working with depth because it's usually impossible to keep the entire scene in
focus at the same time. But it's also an aspect that looks so good it's often a
goal in itself.
However, crucial distinction to make here is that all we should be concerned
with these creating layers. When we're blocking, it's much surely to be
concrned with focus. But if we make sure to block with an eye on depth, we
can have focus with the last decision we make minutes before shooting. This
means that if we are imagining a shot where we rack focus from a clock over
on a character, all we should be concerned with its to creating two layers. At
the last minute before shooing we can then decide on how and when to rack
focus. This is better because ensures that we always go for the most
meaningful compositions and racking focus then simply becomes icing on the
cake.
So in the next chapters we'll work exclusively with saging for depth and then

take the discussion on focus afterwards.

Before we getting into interesting way to use depth, let's work with
foreground and background planes. Many shots can be helped either by
putting something in the foreground or by finding something to shoot
through. Here we're bringing in a plant but ic ould be anything and it's usually
much less intrusive to what one would think because the focus on the
character will blurr it out.
We call this arbitrary foreground bcause it's almost irrelevant what it is. Here
the characters are at a party. Let's bring some partygowers into the
foreground which helps the main characters blend in as well as enhance the
depth. Here we frame the phone in the foreground as the man walks into the
scene. Here we've placed a lamp into the foreground for no ther reason than
creating depth. But having it continuing outside the frame also makes the
scene part of a real world. As we looked at on the chapter on opening an
closed framings. The more foreground we pu in, the more we get the sense of
hifinf behind something. Here the branch are simply creating interesting
foreground. But i we put them very closed together, we get the classic starker
shot where we're really seeing the scene from the bad guy's POV.
The other way to do this is to place cameras to get objects in the set into the
foreground. Here the characters are having dialogue betwen some columns.
And we could of course frame it like this which is quite flat. So let's move over
here to get one of the columns in the foreground.
Here we're framing the car in the foreground. Or we could move over here to
get the fence in the foreground too. When we're using fixed objects for
foreground, it's best if we can work it out in advance so we can weave into
the camera plot without having to make big changes on the set.
A more explicite way to create foreground is to create frames within the
frame. This is a great framing tool even if we're not using it t get depth it's
here with the character standing doorway on the same plane.
But the same type of shot from outside the room uses the doorway to make a
frame within the frame. The edges of the frame are arbitrary foreground.
creating a seperate layer.
Frames within the frames effectively direct our attention. Here we're shooting
between a door that's barely open and since there's nothing else to look at.
That's where our attention goes. Returnin to the shot with the column in the
foreground,where we're really masking out a part of the frame. If we mask it
out more, we're deliberately direct our attention to the right.
We can use anything to create a frame within the frame. Here we're using
two wharacters to frame the third character in the background.
Here we're framing the man inside the arm of the lamp.
Here we're using a gap into the foreground created by the man to frame the
woman into the background.
Very often very use of foreground is best to plan ahead of time so it's built
under the bocking. But we can very often simply modify a shot to create a

frame within a frame with no particular effect on the camer plot which is
easily doe on the set.
Here we hae a shot on a man working on a panel computers and the screens
are already providing a foreground. But without really changing the blocking,
we can instead frame the shot between the two screens creating a frame and
directing our attention towards the man. The last kind of foreground we'll look
at for now is moving foreground. If we are shooting a dialogue between
characters, it's very easy to create a plane of extras that ocasionally pass
through the shot and bring out a depth. This really works the same with
background, so if we start that plane moving too , we now have three layers
of depth. Two of them are arbitrary. Whether it's foreground or background, it
can be very effective to include extras into the blocking as if they were main
characters except that they have no function. To do that with foreground two
men wil have dialogue deeper into the scene, but we'll place an arbitrary
character on front that gives both depth and ambiance. So the shot is
framed to include her even though she has no function in the scene. however
when we're placing a well framed aritrary character close to the camera we
often seem to apply meaning and significance that might not be there.
But as background, it's very decorative to incorporate extras into the blocking
and use it to feel in gaps in the framing. Here we've set up for two character
dialogue. With that down let's bring in a couple of extras as part of the
framing.
We've already been ths a bit surely in this scene from temporary continuity
when the woman walks in and we cut to the man shot where we've bought
two extras into the framing.
Or in this shot from the same chapter when the man steps into the shot.
Or in this hot from expanding and contracting time where we pan with the
man as he walks in. Having deliberately placed the extras in the background
as part of the framing.
This of course works jus as well with props. In this hot from motivations for
stopping, the woman leaves a conversation, but stops on the way out. We've
placed the piece of furniture in the background to fit with her stop to get a
more deliberate framing. This is very easy and can be a late decision because
after having set up the shot we want, all we have to do is begin decorating
the frame to make it perfect.
Lastly we might not always have control over the background itself in which
case it make sense to frame the most pleasing part of it. In this scene we're
framing for the over the ocean, and a subtle movement from the waves
would add a nice level to the shot.
13/deep staging part I: static
When in the last chapter we have one central plane and use foreground andd
background to create depth; deep staging is creating depth with the
characters and meaningful objects that are actively part of the scene.

Deep staging creates very vivid and three dimensional staging that's richer
and more fun to watch cause the shot takes longer to read so can stay on
screen longer. As the eye scans the frame. We might start by looking at the
man, then at the two characters here, then discover the blue woman into the
background and then discover the red woman facially expression. Our
attention goes to the man as he talks, then to the woman in the backgrounnd
for her dialogue, and we might take a quick glance to the extra. By now we've
gone for half a minute having a single cut without getting bored.
In contrast a single shot has only one layer and gets tire muc faster.
Deep staging shot are much more engaging because we capture more than
one story in the same shot. As the men talk with each othern, the woman is
thinking of somehing else. By layering instead of doing two separate shots as
we're trying to follow both series at the same time; we're participating
instead of just watching.
What makes deep staging dynamic is that we're creating distinct layers of
meaning. If the sun had been a bush our eyes would be scanning in and out
of the frame to read it. We could of course put everything on the same plane,
but by using depth we tell the story more clearly by showing the audience the
distinct layer they need to be concerned with.
There are really two sides od deep staging. The first creating static and self
contained deep staging we jus did. And the second can create attention shift
between depth by having characters or objects moving in and out of shots.
We'll split this over two chapters Starting with static deep staging.
To do deep staging, all we have to do is getting the habit of telling more than
one story at the same time and arrange stories and layers to create
maximum depth. Here two doctors are talking about a patient in the coma.
So an obvious choice is to bring the doctors over here and shoot this as two
layers. As the doctors talk about whether or not to pull the plog; notice again
how the eyes read the frame. This is extremly effective and with just two
layers, the shot is more than twice as compelling. Even more so as the man
suddenly lift his head. He sits up and our attention is torned between the
layers. Until the doctors finally see him mving and turn amasement after
much of the attention is on the back layer. In the meanwhile, we've completly
forgot to edit.
The more we separate the layer with distance, the more distinct the layers
become. Here the characters are alone in the same plane. And at some level
we perceve them as one character or one unit. With the woman out here we
dn't necessarily feel that the characters are necessarily more distant from
each other than before. But we feel their emotions much more individually
which creates more tension or juxtaposition within the frame than if we had
done two separate shots and it's far more interesting.
However the thing about deep staging is that even if we don't have several
obvious stories to combine, simply staging like this actually creates them just
by the fact that we are inclusing multiple things in one shot. Most scene can

first of all been modified to dee staging type sho simply by how we frame
cameras.
A useful habit is to always look for ways to include characters in each other
shots in varying depths. As soon as we get the red man into the background
in the blue man shot, the shot has two layers. Unless the red man is
completly frozen, we're automatically getting two stories just by the fact that
he's standing there reacting to the scene.
Again over here, the red woman is talking to the blue man. But let's frame
the shot to include the blue woman in the background, and also position the
extra to conveniently fill the gap in the frame.
As we cut the dialogue, each soths is far more dynamic and complex. This of
course works the same with getting other characters i the foreground. As in
this shot which is primarily the woman shot, but includes the other character
in n open framing.
Another way is to play with characters in gaps in the frame in the same as
with done with extras. Here the main dialogue is between these two
characters with the blue woman ocasionally participating.
So to pick a mark for her we placed her in the gap in the frame. This is also
what we did with the doctors exept the shot was a right angle master but the
placement of character in the empty space was the same.
On a larger scale a useful way to look at this way of staging is as paining to
frame characters. Here the central characters are sitted around a table.And
we need to find a way to position all the supporting characters and extras
that are occurely standing aphazardly. So we do again stage by filling gaps in
the frane. We ll move the blue man over here. The blue woman over here.
These two extras over here. And this extra over here.
Likewise in this shot, we started with the central characters in the front ans
position the blue characters in depth to fill the gaps in the frame.
A third deep staging technique which is perhaps the most three dimensionally
vivid is staggered staging. It's based on the centuries old idea that an S sape
curve weaving into the depth of the image creates a very pleasing
composition thhat comfortably guides the eye.
How this translates to staging is that we get the same effect by arranging
characters in a stagger to zigzag fashion.
Just as in the picture from before, the S curve guides the eye into the frae and
also does a great job at creating a depth. This scene is mostly theoritical and
maybe a little on the nose. But used like this, the stagger placement of
character creates a very deep and elegant composition.
The fourth technique of setting up deep staging comes from the idea that
the space closer to the camera is the most private or confidential. Placing a
character here allows us to identify much more with her than the others. And
can be useful to set up shot for that specific purpose.
Anytime a character is within this area we get a personal and private view. If
we're with a team of bankrobbers preparing a heist and we know that

someone may be uninformed. Having on walk over here, where we only can
see his face is very telling. Even if it just for a moment. So of course this type
of deep staging is a natural part of intimacy, honesty and power because we
get to see what nobody is really supposed to see.
But regardless of how we compose deep staging shots. The question is how
to integrate them into the blocking. Usually a scene will have only a couple
because they're the most complicated. They need to go in first. Returning to
the scene with the doctors, w'll assume that there's more action than just this
shot. But we'll plan out this first and build out the scene around it. Before that
we'll have the blue man preparing some intruments on the small table, so
we'll set up a single shot for that. Let's have he woman start over here facing
away instead of a second deep staging shot with him in the far background.
While there are in these positions, the firs deepstaging shot only countains
the patient. We'll have the man to be the first stepping in that shot and cut
some dialogue between these two cameras. As the woman alson teps into
that shot this is now our only camera. As the patien suddenly wakes up , we'll
have them walk over to the bed. And a little later having the woman walk
over to the desk to call someone in the innercam which we'll put on a
fansome character in order to frame a staggered deep staging shot like this.
Before she walks to the last mark, this shot is a two shot on the man, So we'll
put another camera to mirror pivoting on the patient.
This really show how easily deep staging can create sophisticated blocking.
Starting on the man in the coma we cut to the blue man as he prepares to
pull the plog. The woman is facing away, so she's presumably having second
thoughts. The blue man walks over and stops in a half complete right angle
master. After some dialogue here, the woman walks over, completing the
original deep staging shot. As they talk, the patient suddenly comes out of his
coma, creating two stories in one frame. They see him moving and rush over.
And we cut to this shot as the blue man steps in. Pivoting on the patient the
woman walks over the innercam turning the previous shot into a staggered
deep staging shot which seems like a lucky conicidence. When she's done she
walks closer still filling the gap in the frame. So that's an enormous amount of
malleage from just five cameras.
Another very clever aspect of deep staging is placing characters or objects in
a background or foreground before they needed. We've already been doing
this a couple of times. And what is does is again create the perception of a
lucky coincidence. Here we're having dialogue between red characters and a
woman in the background doens't seem to be a part of the scene but just an
extra. Back in the first reverse, the blue woman suddenly turns enjoying the
dialogue. The fact that the framing already include her seem surindepedous
is because we didn't expect her to be important.
Doing the same with foreground, here two detective are scanning a crime
scene and looking for evidence. And trying to find something they can take
for fingerprints. Suddenly the woman discovers the soda cans. Then the man,

and they both walk over. Already having soda cans in the foreground creates
the feeling of a scene that knows where it's going, and enhance our sense of
being told the story.
14/deep staging part II: shifting depth
In this chapter we'll look at compelling aspect of deep staging which is
creating attention shift between layers. When actors or objects are moving in
and out of shots? Our attention suddenly move to that new level of depth
creating a vivid three dimensional experience. These shifts grab our attention
and create a great sense of production value. And can be areal showcase of
directive ability. For these types of shots racking focus adds enormously to
the experience. As here where we rack focus side on the character that steps
in. And it's sometimes the primar ireason for setting up shot like this . But a
key distinction is again that if we put our entire effort on simply creating deep
shots, the shifting effects will be automatically a buy product. And we actually
get many more of them.
Shifting deth id fare more easier to create than it looks. If we consider each
layer or planes that exists before sliding into the frame, the surprise is really
just to the audience and not to us.
One wa to do this just have one character step into the foreground or
background of each oter shots. Here we've set up a deep stop as reference.
Though we started with the man outside of the frame. So to beginning with,
the shot belongs to the woman. When the ma steps in, we get the attention
shift. When we add focus racking_which we'll do in a couple of hapters_ this
can be very effective. We can even have the man exit the frame as continues
talking off camera, shifing back to the woman's depth. Until he steps back in
again.
Here we've set up a deep staging stop as reference but the man almost start
out sitting down. So we're starting on a wide shot of both. We go on a closer
shot of the woman for a line which is a deeps stop. When the man stands up
we get a very nice shift.
Here we are in a scne in a hospital. And the blue man is standing near the
patient. At some point the woman steps into the foreground. This current
staging was the reference we built in from but only we knew that.
It's the sama when characters step into the background of each other shots.
Here we're in over the shoulder between the red characters and we
ultimately have the blue woman step in between them to fill the gap iin the
frame. For her first mark, we'll had a single shot. But starting in the overt the
shoulder, the shot is just the two red characters. We cut to the blue woman
single shot , she walks out, and we cut back to the over the shoulder where
she steps in, creating a shift.
Another technique is to create the inserts. Here the man is holding a
pendulum, and to get an insert of that, we might as well get the woman in
the background. So starting in that insert, we assume that the background is

out of focus. As the man lifts the pendulum up slideing that pane out, our
attention goes to the woman. If this is instead where we start our attention
goes t the pendulum a it lowers into the frame.
One more technique is to create deep reveals. Here we assume that the man
is the only person in the shot, but when he walks out, our attention goes to
woman in the background.
This works even if the background is just a set. As the man walks out, our
attention still goes deeper into the frame as he clears it.
All these shifts are effecive and it can makes sense to set up shot for that
reason alone. But we can actually create them as an automatically buy
product to deep staging. By setting as many deep stops as possible. And then
let simply the characters move between them. Here we'll create the first
deep stop with the man in front of the woman. For the next deep stop, the
man has walked over here, and we'll create a shot for the blue man into the
foreground . Over n the woman we'll create a stop after she stood up frames
with the extra in the background. She walks over the red man and we'll frame
a right angle master. Prepaired as a deep stop for when the blue man steps in
the middle of it.
With each of the stop set up to be deep, it's really just the editing which
decides whether we get to see the shift. Starting on the sot of the woman,
the red man steps in. He walks out. We cut to the shot on the blue man, and
the red man steps into the background. For the stop when the woman stands
up, we'll start it blank with the extra in the background, and let the woman
stand up into the shot. She walks out, and enter the shot by the red man
which is not deep in itself. Until the blue man steps in causing another shift.

15/depth of fiels in depth

16/manging focus and rack focus
Choosing where to place focus is really really very easy and can be done as
one of the last decisions beforee shooting which is why we've held it until
now. Since we're in a 3D environment, the type of focus we'll use in this
chapter is a rough computer simulation and not a real optical focus. But for
making focus decisions we'll be fine.
For static shot we naturally want to keep the character who is the subject of
the shot in focus. This is very straight forward when ther is only one.
With several characters as in this shot, a wide depth of field will keep both
women in focus as long as we're focusin on the general area. So if we don't
want the actors to worry about hitting marks precisely, a wide deth of field is
more forgiving. But with a more narrow depth of field we might not be able
to keep them both compeltely sharp as here where the woman in blue is
about to go out of focus. Acommon solutio is to split the difference and place
the focus somewhere between them.
With more distance between the characters we need to be more selective. In

this two-shot, the characters are far enough apart and the depth of field
narrow enough we can only focuse on one of them. Where we place focus is
essentially to decide whose shot it is. So as the blue man talks, we rack focus
to him. As the red man talks, we rack focus back to him.
But the question is, how much to rack focus back and forth. In this shot we
can seemingly rack focus on every line which would bring a lot of attention to
itself. Instead two things are useful to know. ne of which is that it works
perfectly fine to have one character that stay out of focus during most of the
dialogue. However we choose is then the character we are most identifying
with. Even if it's not the closest character. The other thing is that we can then
use focuse to bring sudden emphasis to the other character. If we've been
identifying with the man throughout the dialogue, suddenly racking focus to
the woman bring sudden emphasis and meaning to what's happening for her.
Racking focus to add meaning is a useful way to look at it. With this shot on
the man. The clock is a foreground arbitrary object. Until we rack focus,
showing that it has meaning.
Racking focus, combined with the character turning is an effective way to
help throw the attention in and out of the scene. Here the woman turns to the
man which in itself is a shift. But the rack focus adds to it. As she turns away
we rack focus back out here which again ephasizes the turn. And choosing
how fast to rack focus; anything over a second is usually too slow. If we rack
focus slowly. There would be a long period where both characters were out of
focus. And since the move is too subtle to be detected it can instead come
across as a mistake. So it's usually an effect we don't wanna bring attention
to. But doing it very fast is maybe too much of a surprise. For most situations
a little less than a second is normally the best speed.
For moving characters we simply need to follow focus. Here we've measured
to focus distances and as the character walks we try to match the speed so
she'll stay sharp.
It's usually pretty obvious how and when to rack focus, so let's go to some
shots from the previous chapters in no particular order and make focus
decisions.
Starting in a static shot, here we puts focus on a the central characters and
let the extras in front and behind blurr out a little.
In the scene with the quick sign, we keep focus on the characters walking.
The sign is still readable but we rack focus to it to add meaning.
In the scene with the bankrubbish preparing heist, we start with focus on the
central characters whose face we can see. As the man walks over to be
private, we'll follow focuse on him. The other characters turn and we rack
focus to them. Then back to man for reaction. Then back on the others
characters again.
This shot is the one when the blue woman steps into the foreground. For the
entire shot we'll keep focus on the blue man and the patient, because there
would be no sense in placing focus on the back of her head.

In the longer scene in the hospital. In this shot we'll just put a permanent
focus on the blue man.
In this shot we lay focus on the woman. As the man walks and talks in the
background, we' leave him out of focus.
In this shot where he stes in, we put a permanent focus on the foreground
plane.
Back on the woman, she walks over, and we follow focus where she will
quickly get bluried.
Back in this shot which now becomes a right angle master with the patient
into the background, we'll keep focus in the foreground. But as the patient
moves, we rack focuse to him. We rack focus back to the doctors as they
discover him moving. The follow focus as they rack over the patient.
In this shot we need both the doctor and the patient in focus so we'll use a
wider depth of field and split the difference.
In this shot we'll put focus on the woman, but as she walks out rack focus to
the patient.
Back in this shot the woman steps into the background but we're keeping
them in focus into the foreground until she turns. And we follow focus as she
walks forward, ending up splitting the difference. The amount of focus
raacking in this scene is maybe overkill. But it almost automatically enhance
shots that we simply staged for depth.
In this scene a blue woman steps into the background before she's needed.
But we'll keep her out of focus which add to the assumption that she's an
extra. As she turns to talk, we rack focus to her.
Here we're with two detectives looking for clues. Intially, we'll place focuse on
them But we can still make ut the soda cans in the foreground. When the red
woman discovers the sodas, we rack focus to them. As she talk to tha
redman, we rack focus to him. Then follow focus with him as he steps closer.
This is the scene xhen the man steps in and out, so we simply rack focus to
him when he's in the foreground and back on the woman when he steps out.
When he seps back in we rack focus on him again.
These effects are simply a buy product of deep stops. And as long as we
stage for depth, they'll come back automaticly. Here we focuse on the
woman. As the man stands up into the shot, we rack focus to him.
With added focus, deep inserts almost create two separate shos in one. Here
we're focused on the pendelum, as it lfts out, we rack focus to the woman. By
the same token if this is where we start, the man will lower the pendulum and
we rack focus creating almost a separate shot.
In this deep reveal here we're starting on the man. But as he walks out we
naturally rack focus to the woman into the background. So racking focus is so
easy too bth do and stage for that's almost not an issue.
Finally revisiting the scene based on deep stops, we're starting with a focus
on a woman then rack focus to the man as he steps in and back on the
woman as he steps out.

Over here on the blue man, keep focuse o him as the red man steps in.
For the shot when the woman stands up, the extra in the background is
unimportant enough to a focuse shift. So we'll keep focus on the foreground
plane.
In this shot we're keeping focus on the man's plane, alson as the woman stes
in. And as the blue man steps in the red man's plane is still the most
interesting one.

17/mirrors, hotspots and shadows

As the last topic on stationary blocking, let's look at using mirrors, hotspots
and shadows. Mirrors are high level of sophistication to the blocking. But it's
very normal to forget to use them because we're more indirect in capturing
the subject. Using mirror is very straightforward so the purpose of this
chapter is not so much to learn new technique...the end.