Shots and Sequences: The Building Blocks of Movies


When you watch television or DVDs, you see that in general, the camera doesn't really move that much. Instead, series of individual static shots are edited together into sequences, much as we use words to make sentences. In a way, movies aren't that different from slideshows, except that instead of using still photos, movies use moving images.

Sequences are made up of a variety of shots, usually framed in different sizes or from different points of view. These shots are fairly standardized into three main types: long, wide (establishing) shots; medium shots; and close-up shots.

In creating your own movies, you'll want to record footage of these different types of shots to make into sequences when you edit your movie.

When you watch a movie, try to see how often sequences are created using the three basic types of shots:

  • Long shot, wide shot, or establishing shot A long, or wide, shot, also called an establishing shot, is a broad shot that shows "the big picture" and helps viewers locate the scene in time and space. It can be the exterior of a house, the outside of a building, or a landscape. It might be two or three characters walking together on a street or getting in and out of cars. There is often no dialog in this type of shot.

  • Medium shot A medium shot is from a person's waist up and tells you more about the person and less about the space. It gives much more visual information about the person and can often include audio with the person.

  • Close-up shot A close up shot is generally of the head and shoulders. A close-up is used in narrative films for dialogue and for more intimate information about the subject. In interviews, the camera often switches back and forth between medium and close-up shots.

In addition, you may also see these two types of shots:

  • Full shot A full shot is of a whole person and is used to tell more about the person in the context of his or her environment.

  • Extreme close-up shot An extreme close-up shot is a shot of the face and neck. It provides a very intimate feeling of the person and his or her emotions or words.

Movies to Inspire You

Want to know more about shooting? While a book can tell you many things, seeing movie-making techniques onscreen is helpful in illustrating visual material about lighting and shooting.

The two DVDs The Young Filmmakers Club: Video Camera Techniques and Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography span the alpha and omega of shooting. The Young Filmmakers Club: Video Camera Techniques (25 minutes), narrated by child actor Logan O'Brien, is, in fact, not just for kids! It's so easy to understand, with a good overview of equipment and techniques, that it will help any video beginner learn a lot. It covers how to use your camcorder, tripod shooting, handheld shooting, composing your shots, and more. A plus is that it also covers some of the more subtle elements of filmmakingsuch as what the subtext of a subject facing left in the frame implies, for instancethat are nice to know and rarely found in movie how-to shows. For more information, visit www.youngfilmmakersclub.com.

Visions of Light (95 minutes) is an extraordinary, full-length feature documentary that has dazzled and delighted audiences with behind-the-scenes stories and captivating footage from the making of more than 125 famous films. "Visions of Light is not just for film buffs," writes Amazon.com's reviewer, and I agree.

The film covers cinematography and cinematographers from D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to the modern thriller Blade Runner, and it takes you inside production sets and studios to show you how critical scenes were lit and how action was orchestrated, from light to shadow. After you've seen Visions of Light, the next time you go to a movie, you'll have a much deeper appreciation for the care and skill that go into lighting and cinematography.


Examples of Shot Types

The following figures show some shots that illustrate the different feelings and information you get from a wide shot, a medium shot, and a close-up. These are from an Easter party movie I made of my godson Henry and his two friends.

Figure 2.1 shows a wide shot. In this wide shot, we see that the action is taking place in a yard and that there are three children in the space, holding Easter baskets.

Figure 2.1. A wide shot.


Figure 2.2 shows a medium shot. In this medium shot, we see two children in more detail than in the wide shot, and we get more information about what they are wearing and what they are doing. Compared to the wide shot, in this shot, we don't see as much visual information about where the children are, but we can see more of the activity they are engaged in, as well as some expression on their faces.

Figure 2.2. A medium shot.


In the close-up shot shown in Figure 2.3, we see facial expression very well, but we don't know who is sitting near the subject (as in the medium shot) or the space in which the subject is seated (as in the wide shot). The close-up tells us more about what the subject is feeling and establishes an intimate connection between the subject and the viewer.

Figure 2.3. A close-up shot.


For each movie that you shoot, you can use the three basic shot typeslong, medium, and close-upto capture what is happening. The best movies use a variety of these three types of shots.

You can switch between these different shot types two ways: by changing the framing of the shot from the position you are already in (moving the camera lens) or by moving your self (and your camera) to a different position.

When you understand that it usually takes more than one type of shot to create a sequence, you'll see that you need to get a variety of shots. You need to shoot a lot to get good coverage.

Because shooting video is a bit different from the way people shoot still photographs, it may take awhile for the concepts of shots and sequences to sink in, so don't worry about getting it" right away. Just watch more television and movies and let your awareness and attention on shots and sequences grow.

Storyboarding

Feature films, commercials, and music videos all begin life in storyboardsa series of scenes drawn by an artist to show the flow of shots the production will capture. A storyboard looks like a cartoon strip, and it helps everyone see how sequences will be constructedbefore they are shot.

Storyboards are great for learning about how to think about sequences, and they can certainly be very useful in visualizing any kind of movie project.

If you are beginning to shoot and want to think through a movie by storyboarding, you can use a number of resources to learn more.

Here are some websites that feature free storyboarding visualization tools and resources:

  • Dependent Films Dependent Films has dozens of free goodies in "Tools and Utilities for Filmmakers," including three different free downloadable storyboard forms. You'll find budget forms, release forms, editing logs, and much more. Visit www.dependent-films.net/files.html.

  • Atomic Learning This movie tutorial website offers Storyboard Pro, which is free downloadable software for creating storyboards. You'll also find a free online movie tutorial, "Video Storytelling Guide," which is a series of 16 short online movies designed to help you learn how to explain the "grammar" of filmmaking. See www.atomiclearning.com/storyboardpro.

  • The Storyboard Artist Storyboard artist Josh Sheppard has a great website (see Figure 2.4) with dozens of examples of his storyboards for commercials, TV, and feature films, as well as a free online tutorial about making storyboards. See www.storyboardartist.com.

    Figure 2.4. The Storyboard Artist website.


  • Storyboard magazine The French publication Storyboard magazine is dedicated to international coverage of storyboard artists and their work. You can read it at www.storyboard.fr, using Google's French-to-English translation. Go to Google and type in Storyboard Fr and click Translate. This Page on the Google search results page, which then takes you to the site and provides the text in English. The site features hundreds of online interviews with storyboard artists from Japan, Europe, and the United States.





Create Your Own Digitial Movies
Create Your Own Digitial Movies
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 85

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