| Storyboarding
These are the terms or descriptors you will need; they can be used
in a range of combinations:
Extreme Close-up (ECU), Close-up
(CU), Mid-close, Mid-shot (waist
to head of a person in frame), Two-shot (two people
in frame), Medium-wide, Wide Shot,
Extreme-wide or Long Shot.
Pan (camera arcs left-right/right-left)
Tilt (camera arcs down-up/up-down)
Jib (camera is raised or lowered, as though on
crane)
Track (camera moves as though on a track, ie; using
bicycle, wheelchair, skateboard or car)
Zoom-in/out (Telephoto or wide)
Hand held (utilising freedom of hand movement rather
than tripod)
Locked-off (camera is fixed and unmoving on a tripod)
Reverse (opposite angle to previous set-up/shot)
Over Shoulder (performers are related in frame,
one with back to camera)
Focus Pull (moving lens in and out of focus to
define/distort what is in frame)
Blur cut (using the focus pull-out to cut out
or cut in)
Wipe cut (using a movement obscuring frame to
cut with)
Jump cut (cutting in space/time within a real-time
sequence)
Match Cut (cutting to an exact or similar form/composition)
Zoom cut (using the movement of the zoom to cut
way/cut in)
Cutting on the move (using movement through frame
at end of take to cut to movement through frame at the head of following
take)
P.O.V (camera assumes a person's point of view)
Superimposition/Text over image
Dissolve (Fade-in/Fade-out)
In your storyboard you should outline how the set-up should be lit
(if lighting is appropriate). Your drawings are a guide to how you
want to frame and compose your shots. The text box below the drawing
box contains whichever camera directions necessary. It is also for
describing the action within frame (eg: He walks to the left and
picks up the package...) and dialogue (always in quote marks). You
may also need to denote the length of your take in this box.
S
h o o t i n g S c r i p t s a n d S
h o t L i s t s
Shooting scripts and screenplays have an industry standard of ordinarily
being written in courier
font. They are descriptive without being colloquial or expressive
and generally use a clipped, functional language. There are creative
exceptions, but a Shooting Script should be viewed as an architects
blueprint for a building rather than a more painterly imaginative
rendering of that building.
Shooting
Script
The shooting script descriptions are similar or the same as those
used in the storyboarding but are generally more detailed and expansive.
You need to:
Denote interior/exterior
Number the scenes or set-ups
Use upper case when refering to characters/performers
Indent the dialogue by one or two tabs and place it beneath
the character's name
Use 'cut-to:' and 'return-to:' when cutting out
of a set-up (not when cutting within that set-up)
Denote text captions
Shot Lists
The purpose of a shot list is to order your shooting time around
ease of shooting. Once you have your storyboard and shooting script,
with your shots numbered (on the storyboards), you need to select
shots into some form of order, eg: exterior shots; shots involving
performer/s; shots at sunrise; clean shots; shots involving fake
blood... This ensures that you cover yourself on location etc and
that you make full use of your booked equipment, participants...
A shot list therefore is ordinarily broken down into set-up sub-headings.
You may not need to use all or any of these three processes, depending
on the nature of your film shoot.
More involved editing
Cutting on the move (using movement of camera or
movement through frame as a cutting device)
Incongruous cut-ways (cutting to a seemingly unrelated
image as a method of juxtaposition - see Stanley Kubrick, Nicholas
Roeg)
Cutting to a still image (see also Kubrick)
Cutting entirely with stills (Chris Marker's 'La
Jetee')
Cutting to black, white or colour
Incorporating flash frames or camera flares
(utilising happy accidents occurring via the optics of the lens)
Jump cutting
Cutting back and forth between established sequences
(keeping several sequences or narratives in progression at once)
Rapid cutting (promo style)
Flash-cutting or using subliminals (inserting
exremely short duartion or single frame images, which 'flash')
Repeating an image
When you progress to non-linear or more advanced linear
set-ups:
Slowing down, Speeding up, Reversing, Inverting, Picture
in Picture
Dissolving
Superimposing
Text over image etc.
In editing, shots are identified by their head
or tail.
It is useful to think of your edited sequence as possessing a 'beat'
. If you can arrive at an intuitive sense of timing around your
shots you will be less precious and more able to cut in and out
of a shot appropriately. Often cutting to sound, narration or in
accordance with a narrative drive or abstract principle can suggest
a sense of fluid timing around your edits.
Some films to look at for their noted editing:
Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)
JFK (Oliver Stone)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
Come to Daddy (Aphex Twin promo by Chris Cunningham)
Here is a useful glossary
of terms used in film-making
Steven Eastwood (main text)
Paul Ramsay (ed.)
© 2002-8 |
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