MasterShots Vol 1

by Christopher Kenworthy

  In a few moments we've gone from watching him creep about, which makes us feel uneasy, to seeing what he sees — a huge, open space filled with guards, which will be impossible to cross. An empty space could work as well, but here the guards are a story point, letting us know that a challenge is ahead.

  One of the difficulties with any slow escape is keeping the tension high. If handled poorly, the audience just gets bored. To keep tension high you have to keep adding new challenges, new obstacles, rather than just having one person tiptoe around. Widening the space is an excellent way to move from creeping out hopefully, to seeing the next big obstacle.

  Set your camera up as low to the ground as possible, and pan with the character. At the same time, track across, so that you end up behind the character, looking over his shoulder. The pan and track should be executed to come to rest at the same time as the actor.

  Children of Men. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Universal Studios Home Video, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

  4.6

  TWO THINGS AT ONCE

  A great way to create a moment of shock is to draw the viewer into a false sense of security. Through careful shooting and editing, you can make the audience think that nothing is about to happen, and then have something happen. This tends to make them jump out of their seats.

  In this example from The Shining, we see two characters in different places. We cut back and forth between them. Scatman Crothers gets closer to the hotel with each shot, and then gradually gets further into the hotel. Meanwhile Jack Nicholson wanders from corridor to corridor, in a different place in each shot. To the audience, it feels as though Crothers is closing in very slowly. This creates an expectation that the search will continue for some time. Then, when we think we're comfortably watching a shot of Crothers wandering down a corridor, Nicholson steps out from behind a pillar and axes him in the chest.

  To build this false sense of security requires good editing, as well as good shooting, because the key is rhythm. You cut back and forth between two sequences, keeping each shot roughly the same length. If you were to speed up the cuts or shorten the shots, the audience would feel a build up to a confrontation. When you keep the shots at similar lengths, nobody expects the two sequences to meet so abruptly. It's obvious that Crothers is getting closer (because he's moved from outside in his car to the innards of the hotel), but you don't guess that he's quite so close to his doom.

  Whatever way you choose to shoot this, it's a good idea to keep several parts of the sequence similar-looking. A good solution is to shoot the victim from behind, as though we're following him on his search. Do this in several shots, not just the last one. This way, the audience thinks it's just another shot, until the very last moment.

  The Shining. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Warner Home Video, 1980. All Rights Reserved.

  4.7

  TRACES AND CLUES

  Your character is desperately searching for something, and you need to show the urgency of this search. Whether they're looking for an object or a person, it is a challenge to convey this on film, especially if the one doing the searching has no dialogue.

  One technique used by many directors is to keep showing the actor's face, trying to do all the work with the actor's expression. This can work, but often descends into near-farce as the actor is shown over and again looking desperately into a room, then cutting to a Point of View shot. It doesn't really engage the audience.

  A solution is to stop trying to show us what the actor's going through, and let the audience experience it. You can do this by shooting from behind the character, and cutting to a Point of View shot. Set up one camera behind the actor, and move with him as he rushes around, looking into rooms and spaces.

  Then reshoot the scene, with the cameraperson emulating the actor's movement and Point of View. When you come to edit, you cut rapidly between the two shots. It helps, of course, if you've made it clear what he's looking for, so we know we're looking into rooms and spaces that are part of the search, rather than the conclusion.

  When the object or person is eventually found, that's the best time to cut to a shot of the actor's reaction.

  The Girl on the Bridge. Directed by Patrice Leconte. Madman Films, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

  4.8

  STEPS TO SUSPENSE

  How do you show almost nothing happening, and keep the audience interested? One of the keys to create tension is to have your character looking or searching for something while the camera remains rooted to the ground, panning to follow.

  For this to work, the scene has to come in the context of suspense or fear that's already been created, or it might look like your character is simply looking for the car keys. So wait for a point in the film where you want to show the character looking for something or somebody that can't be found.

  The frame grabs show only a fraction of what Robert De Niro actually does in these few small moments of the film. He walks from left to right, then slightly up the stairs, back down and into a room on the right before looping back past the camera. This could potentially be deadly dull screen time. It would be a huge mistake, however, to try to add visual interest by moving the camera too much. If the camera followed him around this shot on a Steadicam, it would have almost no tension at all.

  Set your camera up so that you can cover your actor's entire movement with nothing more than a pan, and a slight tilt where needed. It helps if there's some payoff at the end, as shown here, where the character of the daughter appears in the background.

  You can make this effect even more extreme by setting the camera even further back and having even less movement, barely even panning. In theory, your camera could be motionless, depending on your location and the exact effect you're trying to create.

  Hide and Seek. Directed by John Polson. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

  4.9

  VISUAL DANGERS

  According to Alfred Hitchcock's definition of suspense, the audience has to know something awful that the character doesn't know. These days the term “suspense” is used to mean anything from anticipation to tension, but the suspense that Hitchcock was so proud of is a great tool for filmmakers.

  One way to make this type of suspense plausible is to show your hero and the danger in the same shot, but with enough distance between them that it's plausible for the character to be unaware of the danger. You need to use a long lens, to foreshorten the distance; otherwise whatever danger is in the background will appear too small.

  Set the scene so that your actor is equidistant between the approaching danger and the camera, framed to the side. You will need to use a location where something on the opposite side of the frame to the character obscures the approaching danger. In this example, the car appears from behind the building. We go from watching a quiet moment of the girl walking, to seeing her pursuers catching up.

  You can break the suspense within the same shot by having your character turn and see the danger, or by cutting to another viewpoint or angle at the moment of realization.

  By using a long lens you also create a slightly eerie, nightmarish effect, where nothing seems to be moving closer, and yet the feeling of pursuit is extremely real.

  Rabbit Proof Fence. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Magna Pacific, 2002. All Rights Reserved.

  5.1

  FOCUS IN

  Once you get used to moving the camera, it's temping to move the camera all the time. A move that's particularly tempting is a relatively fast “push in.” In this move, the camera simply moves toward the key character at a moment of change or realization.

  Although this is one of the most commonly used moves and looks simple enough, it's easy to get it wrong. The audience isn't supposed to notice the camera moving, so much as feel the character's intensity.

  This move can come in the middle of relatively stationary shots, or in the middle of a chase scene, so long as it is timed to match the character's reaction.

  The main way that people
go wrong with this shot is to allow the composition to change, by accident rather than design, as the camera moves in. To prevent this, the camera operator should keep one of the actor's eyes in the exact same part of the frame, throughout the move. It's best to use the eye that's closest to the center of the frame. By keeping one eye in exactly the same place, the audience doesn't feel the camera move, but feels drawn to the character's feelings.

  Another mistake that's often made is to have the character's eyeline very close to the camera. The theory generally goes that the closer the actor is to looking into the lens, the more intimately we connect with the character. This is true, but it is wrong to assume that a push in requires a tight eyeline. In reality, too tight an eyeline can make the move feel forced or over-done. Also, it makes it very difficult for the actor to look into the distance when the camera is directly in the way.

  Set up your camera at, or just below, the actor's head height, and use a fairly long lens to throw the background out of focus. A longer lens means you will have to move over a greater distance to make the push visible. It also means you'll need to pull focus with great precision.

  Children of Men. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Universal Studios Home Video, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

  5.2

  MOMENT OF DRAMA

  When you need to show a moment of drama so intense that your character can't cope, the standard techniques may not be so useful. In standard cases, drama is emphasized by dollying toward the character. When your character is truly changed or distressed by a moment of drama, it can help to keep the camera still.

  Instead of having the camera move, let the actor back away, as though stumbling away from the audience. In this scene, the character is close to the camera. We can't see what he sees, but he is clearly upset and he falls away into the background.

  Set up your camera just below the actor's head height, and angle it up toward his face. Use a short lens, so that just a few steps backward will create a large change in the character's apparent size within the frame.

  What you'll find, however, is that you can't leave the camera completely stationary, or the actor will drift too low in the frame. The only move you need, however, is a slight tilt down. Any other movement may distract from the effect. This tilt should be just enough to keep the actor's eyes on the same horizontal line throughout the shot. The camera operator needs to anticipate the actor's movement, and it's worth rehearsing this for the camera a few times before shooting.

  Hour of the Wolf. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. MGM Home Entertainment, 1968. All Rights Reserved.

  5.3

  PAN AND SLIDE

  At the beginning of a fight scene, or even just a dramatic showdown between two characters, you can emphasize the sensation of overwhelm that your character must be going through. A long, sliding move, which keeps the actor's face in view while making the background rush around the actor, creates a huge sensation of change.

  To create this effect, your actor must step around in a little semi-circle, as the camera dollies past and into the distance. This keeps the actor's head facing the camera at all times. It almost feels as though the actor is stationary, and the world in the background is rushing past. The illusion is slight. If you actually placed the actor on a turntable, the effect would look ridiculous, but this move creates the feeling that the actor is suspended in a world that's whizzing around her. It's meant to feel dizzying, and on the big screen, it is.

  The effect works best with quite a long lens, and with a fast move over quite a large distance. Set up your camera as shown here, close to the actor. The actor should always be looking just past the camera, as though the opponent is directly behind, or next to the camera itself.

  As the shot begins, the actor should step around in a semi-circle, until she is facing almost completely the opposite direction. At the same time, the camera dollies past rapidly, panning all the time, to keep the actor framed. When executed carefully, the actor remains almost motionless, while the background rushes past. Only use a move as powerful as this if you're going to follow it up with something truly dramatic. This sort of move announces a big action scene, or dramatic change, so always follow up with one.

  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Directed by Ang Lee. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2000. All Rights Reserved.

  5.4

  WORKING THE BACKGROUND

  This technique is similar to the Pan and Slide, but works best at the end of a scene, rather than the beginning. It's a way of showing a conversation or fight come to an end, leaving one character alone in the bewildering world.

  The shot begins with an over-the-shoulder view of the characters talking, and as the character who's facing camera begins to walk away, the camera operator rushes around, effectively taking that actor's place. At the same time, the camera pans rapidly, to keep the second actor in shot throughout the move. In just a few seconds you move from a simple over-the-shoulder shot to a dramatic mid-shot of the second character, with the distant background swirling past.

  Set up your camera at the actor's head height, using a long lens to emphasize the camera movement and enhance the moving background. The move itself works best if carried out on a dolly, for the smoothness this brings, but the disadvantage of this is that the shot benefits from having a slight arc in the move. Without an arc, you may get too close to the second actor, partway through the shot. If you just set up the shot with a straight dolly track and the camera on a tripod, you might not get the results you're after. One solution is to use curved tracks, but not everybody has these. Another way to create this arc is by using a crane to swing the camera back briefly. You can also stand on the dolly platform, holding the camera rather than having it on a tripod or crane, and manually pull it back halfway through the move.

  The shot can be done completely handheld, or with a simple Steadicam-type rig. Just walk in a semi-circle to take up the final position, and this should give you a sufficient arc for the shot to work well.

  Behind Enemy Lines. Directed by John Moore. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2001. All Rights Reserved.

  5.5

  PIVOT ON CHARACTERS

  A combination of actor movement and camera movement can signal that a major decision has been made. It's often said that films aren't about thoughts or decisions, but about action. This is because it's very difficult to see a decision on screen. One of the great challenges for directors is turning a decision into an action.

  In the frames shown here from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Elijah Wood signals as clearly as possible that a decision has been made, through his expression, but to make this really clear we also need to see him set off on his journey. The decision is made crystal clear through a dramatic camera move. As he moves forward, the camera rushes toward him, pans to follow him, and keeps moving back. This shift, from a relatively close shot of the actor to seeing him moving into the open world, happens in moments, and signals clearly that a decision has been made.

  Set up your camera close to the actor, with a long lens. At the moment of decision, your camera should move toward the actor at the same speed he moves toward you. If you get too close, the actor's face will be lost in the move, so make sure there's sufficient separation for you to execute a pan that keeps his face in shot.

  Once the camera has gone past the actor, keep moving backward as he moves forward, widening the shot, and seeing the character swallowed up by the world he's just chosen to enter.

  The move can be carried out handheld or with a dolly, so long as the movement is timed exactly to match the character's motion. If the timing is off, the camera move draws attention to itself, and that should be avoided. Given that such moments require a lot of skill from actors, rehearse the move often enough that you can get this in a couple of takes. You don't want to wear your actor out while perfecting the mechanics of the move.

  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Directed by Peter Jackson. Roadshow Home Entertainment, 2001.
All Rights Reserved.

  5.6

  REVERSE ALL DIRECTIONS

  This move can be used to show a character facing up to a huge challenge. It works by showing the character run from the danger, then turn to face it. In this example from Jarhead, the character isn't running in fear, but to take up a better position. You can adapt this technique, however, to show a character who initially runs in fear, then turns to face the enemy.

  This move requires the actor to run past the camera, and then turn to look back in the direction he came from. At the same time, the camera moves toward the actor, and then swings around as he takes up his final position. The combined movement of actor and camera (as seen in Pivot on Character) creates a great sense of movement, but here, everything comes to a standstill when the actor has turned to face the action.

  You can leave the camera alongside the actor, looking across his line of site, or completely reverse the camera direction, to look him straight in the eyes. For the best effect, the camera should be quite close to the actor at the end of the shot. You're not showing the danger (because that was already seen at the opening of the shot); you're showing the character's reaction to the danger, and his preparation for what comes next.

  Your camera can be set up on a dolly, or handheld, and the camera's motion should be motivated by the actor's movement. This move works especially well at the end of a lengthy shot where there hasn't been much camera movement. This sudden lurch into action jolts the audience into realizing that danger is definitely at hand.