Hollywood Camera Course
Members have sat through some 6 hours of training and stopped and
discussed items as they have gone along in Mike's lounge with the
training course up on the 50 inch plasma TV.
The course moved
from very static shots at the beginning to motion shots at the end where
the actors are moving around and the different shooting methods used for
both styles. The course really does point out a number of things we are
not doing in the club which, should we do them, will be of considerable
benefit to us all.
So what are these?
Firstly there is a
much greater in depth review of the script. The writer might give some
guidelines as to where the dialogue is going to take place, whether its
day or night, and they might give an idea of the mood of the characters
but not always, so an in depth assessment needs making on the script.
Secondly the Director, and the staging team are going to meet to
look at the script to see where the emotions are within the dialogue and
where they might place the actors relative to each other. Some up and
coming actors are often used at this stage to walk and talk the scene
through to see how it plays out.
The third stage is to really get
some detailed planning done with an overhead drawing of where the actors
are positioned relative to each other within the space. Arrows are
placed on the drawing to show in which directions the actors move and
where they stop. So now we know where the actors are going to naturally
be, but we may want to adjust these positions to give us flow from a
camera positioning standpoint, but that is easy to do as the actor's
floor mark is easily adjusted.
In this third stage we
are looking to achieve several things from our camera viewpoint as
below:
(a) minimise the number of
camera positions and set ups as these all take time and often implicate
on the lighting;
(b) create deep staging where there are things
or other people in the background to give some reality and visual
interest to the scene;
(c) parallax where depth is emphasised by
the actor passing behind something like a plant adding to the perceived
depth;
(d) handoff shots where one person's movement naturally
picks up another's and the camera seems to flow onto the second actor
from the first;
(e) camera movement following the action - not
many just static shots to keep up visual interest;
(f) by moving
the positions of the cameras and actors to ensure that the camera
finishes in a planned position, such as an over the shoulder shot;
(g) superiority of one actor over the other - eyeline - just above gives
inferior, just below gives superior.
So looking at the list, the
camera positioning is really looking to maximise the audience's
perception of the actors' emotions. Huge amounts of messing about time
on the set can be avoided by getting this planning stage really tied
down before the cameras roll. A certain amount of practice is required
by the actors to get used to their positions.
We certainly ought
to try this planning as an exercise at the club as we will see how much
extra visual value can be squeezed out of a scene. Don't be surprised if
you spend several
hours discussing a page and a half of
script!
Much of the camera work involved rails, dollies and jibs on the
training stage, which we as a club don't have, but we can do quite a lot
with a wheelchair or even a supermarket trolley. One of the things to get
really into the mind is that the professional films are usually made with
fixed lenses and no zooms take place, if you want to get nearer the actor
then move the camera nearer. 20 mm equates to the eye and a 150-160 mm lens
is often what is used giving a narrower field of vision. The one advantage
of the 35 mm or 1.4 inch aperture they would use, is that only the actor in
shot is in focus, all the background is out of focus. We will have a job to
imitate that style, as it is not possible with smaller aperture video
cameras of 0.5 to 0.66 inch, which tend to perform more like the pin hole
camera, where everything is in focus.
Very useful resources are at
http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.
us/mc_review_dmn.html - see the downloads tab.
However, the blocking diagram only works in Adobe illustrator; in the more
commonly available Adobe Photoshop all the template items are on one layer,
so each item will need selecting and copying to make them individuals on a
layer of their own. The other method is of course to print out the PDF
several times and use scissors and glue in true Blue Peter fashion. If
someone has the odd few hours spare it might be useful to convert this into
common club members' formats to use with free programs that either come with
both Mac and PC or can be downloaded.
A very useful course for us
all, now let's see it put into practice... Over and Out. Happy planning!
Mike Sanders