Best way to shoot a short cafe sceane

[mty_xyz]

For a competition we are creating a short comedy sketch inside a cafe. Our Director insists we film one line stop and reposition the cameras again and again. This makes no sense at all to me and all the dialogue will be disjointed.

I suggested we film a section of the sketch maybe 3 times adjusting the camera after each take. This to me would allow for much better timing and movement.

Please help we haven’t got much of an idea here. We just plain don’t know what to do for the best.

[Darren Levine]

moving camera after each line? after each take? is this an experimental piece? i suggest both of you sit down and watch other films of the same genre that you're going for and count how many camera angles there are in such scenes. the most typical for two actors is master, medium, shot reverse shot. thats a starting point, but moving the camera constantly better well have a specific reason and purpose or else it's just audience repellent

[JeffHarriger]

You got the right idea, mty. Comedy you don't really need a lot of cuts if your actors have the rhythm down and can get through it. No need to over-complicate things.

[starcentral]

use two cameras.

[David W. Richardson]

Not trying to be snarky here, but it might be a good idea if one of you read a book on how to shoot a film.

You definitely have the right idea.

[Rolf Silber]

Don't do it * and please especially not in a comedy sketch. The most important things in a comedy sketch are the comedians! Not the camera. Camera follows actors (acting) - or, better: Camera gives room for the comedians to do what they do.

This is different if you do real action-comedy or slapstick maybe. So: Look at the actors. Give them space to move. Be concerned with their timing. And never forget: You may get the "pixie dust" of really good comedic acting only two or three times out of maybe ten takes you shoot for a scene. Protect this moment by not moving iron!

* justincase this was not clear: Don't do it the way this "director" wants to do it.

[gonzo_entertainment]

Yes. Fundamentally the director doesn't have a clue what he's doing. Try to steer him towards doing it the infinitely better way of running the entire scene or fairly large sections of the scene from each camera position. Alternatively this is the kind of place where two cameras does make sense (I generally advise against it). A dialogue scene with lots of quickly paced back and forth between the two characters.

[starcentral]

Fire the director and hire an editor to direct the film. ;)

I'm totally against two or more cameras usually, but in this case it makes a lot of sense because the thing with comedy is sometimes the lines are adlibed and you can guarantee that lines will not be repeated the same way over multiple takes.

[gonzo_entertainment]

Fire the director and hire an editor to direct the film. ;)

I'm totally against two or more cameras usually, but in this case it makes a lot of sense because the thing with comedy is sometimes the lines are adlibed and you can guarantee that lines will not be repeated the same way over multiple takes.

Exactly. People stomping on each others lines, cutting each other off, ad libbing, etc... That kind of "bang! bang! bang!" comedy is the one of the times multi cam actually makes sense.

[mty_xyz]

Thank you all for all those words of wisdom there is a lot to take in here. Isnt it funny how you find you never know you cant do some thing until you actualy have to come up with the goods .....now how do you dirrect a dirrector LOL

Cheers you all