THE TIMETABLE

Scene 32

SCENE 1, SHOT 1 | ELS, LS

Capture an establishing shot or two of your location. This is important to set the scene. When
you’re making more ambitious films, establishing shots are the glue that stick your scenes
together. When shooting the establishing shots, capture about ten seconds of footage. When
you cut this into the final film, it will only go for a few seconds. Your establishing shots
might be of the front of your school or several of the buildings.
SCENE 1, SHOT 2.1 | FS

This is the master shot for the first scene. In this shot, your character walks into frame
looking lost. She takes out her timetable, looks at it for a moment, looks around, looks back
at the timetable before putting it away and walks out of frame. As a director, it is important to
get the performance right in the master shot. Remember, you’ll need to pick up close ups and
inserts to cut into this footage so don’t start changing your mind halfway through!
SCENE 1, SHOT 3.1 | CU

In this shot you’re going to film a close up of your character as she looks around, clearly lost,
and takes out her timetable to check where she should be. She looks down at the timetable for
a few seconds, looks around, and has one final look at the timetable before putting it away.
To edit this seamlessly with the master shot, it’s very important to match the performance
between the two takes. This close up will be intercut with point of view shots of what our
character is looking at.
SCENE 1, SHOT 4 | CU

This is the first insert of our timetable. You’ll have to get creative with how you shoot this.
I’d recommend putting the camera on your tripod and getting your actor to stand behind the
camera, holding the timetable steadily in front of the camera. Again, you’ll need to grab
about ten seconds of this even though only a couple of seconds will end up on screen. Once
again, it’s better to have too much footage than not enough.
SCENE 1, SHOT 5 | ECU

Here we’re going to have an insert of our character’s eyes as she scans the timetable for
which classroom she’s supposed to be in. When you’re directing this shot, try to encourage
your actor to look a little anxious to really sell the performance. Don’t over do it, though!
SCENE 1, SHOT 6 | ECU

When you’re shooting something like this, it’s important to point out small, important details
for your audience. Here the character finds the room that she is supposed to be in for the next
class. Shooting this will be a little tricky. It’s probably best to put your timetable down on a
solid surface like a table to capture this extreme close up. If your character is holding the
timetable, it will probably shake too much to get a decent shot.
SCENE 1, SHOT 3.2 | CU

In this shot, we’re going to cut back to the close up of our character as she looks up from her
timetable, looks around still a little unsure of which way to go. She takes another look at the
timetable and puts it away. Cutting directly from a point of view shot to a shot of our
character looking around would cause continuity issues. When you’re shooting this shot,
make sure you get a good performance, we want to see the anxiety on our character’s face
because she’s afraid she’s going to be late for class!
SCENE 1, SHOT 2.2 | FS

Here we cut back to the master shot as our character puts the timetable away and walks out of
frame. It’s important cut on the same action in each shot to achieve a smooth transition.
SCENE 2, SHOT 1 | ELS

To bridge these two scenes, we’re going to shoot a bridging shot of clouds in the sky. Shoot
about thirty seconds of this. We’ll speed it up in post production to show that time is passing.
Avoid having people in the frame.
SCENE 2, SHOT 2.1 | FS

This is the master shot of our second scene. The character arrives at her destination, looks at
the room number or door to the classroom, heaves a sigh of relief and walks inside. In this
master shot, it’s important to keep rolling until the door closes and the action is complete.
Keep recording for a few seconds because we’re going to end on the master shot and fade to
black.
SHOT 2, SHOT 3 | CU

Remember that filmmaking is all about character. Here, we need a close up of our character
to show that she’s arrived at her destination on time. In this close up, you should direct your
actor to walk into frame, heave a sigh of relief just like they did in the master shot, and then
walk out of frame. If you capture all of the action, you’ve got more scope to cut it into the
master shot.
SCENE 2, SHOT 2.2 | FS

In this shot, we cut back to the master to show our character as she finishes sighing in relief,
starts to walk towards the door and, as she is about to grasp the handle, we cut to the next
insert…
SCENE 2, SHOT 4 | CU

Here we’re going to have a close up of our character as she reaches for the door handle,
opens the door and walks through. Why are we doing this? Basically so we can demonstrate
how cutting on action works. Make sure you film the entire action, starting with your actor
standing out of frame. Doing this will give us the most flexibility when cutting it together
with the rest of the scene.
SCENE 2, SHOT 5 | MS

Here we’re going to cut from the exterior shot of the door opening to this interior shot. If you
cut when the door is in the same place, assuming you’ve recreated the performance in both
shots, it should create a smooth transition. With this shot, film all of the action – start with the
actor out of frame, get them to walk into frame, sigh with relief, walk towards the door, open
it and walk past the camera. This will give you maximum flexibility when making the cut
between these two shots.
SCENE 2, SHOT 2.3 | FS

Here we’re going to cut back to our original maser shot as the door closes and our character
reaches her destination. Hopefully you captured a few extra seconds so we can have a fade to
black to signify the end of the scene!