How would you shoot this scene?

mainstreetprod

mainstreetprod

Veteran
I am currently shooting a movie for my church with the youth drama team
and their parents doing the acting. The storyline - a teenage girl befriends
an elderly neighbor and when she dies, inherits her substantial fortune,
then has to deal with "the popular kids" wanting to help her spend it.

In one of the pivotal scenes, just after the neighbor dies, she and her family
are called to a lawyer's office where he tells them the news of the inheritance.
The family is seated at one end of a long conference table when the lawyer enters.

What camera setups, angles and cinema techniques do you guys envision
for a scene like this - that can be accomplished in a small room?



I have already shot the scene once, but plan to reshoot due to sound and other issues and would like to improve it. If anyone wants to see this clip, let me know and I will post. Here is a screen grab to help you visualize the scene:


1201049873.jpg
 
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Honestly that is a question only you can answer. There are too many factors for someone to be able to decide this. If I went to the location, I could give you some pointers. If I had the script, I could maybe comment, but to get a summary and suggest, that is a little too much.

You see the problem is you left out way too many details. If we know how good the actors are, or rather what the director is able to coax out, we can determine how many close shots we can get. If we know the intensity of the conversation, we can suggest camera movement as well as style of shooting. If we know the general mood, all we can do is throw out a generic lighting setup and say point the camera at the actors and wait for the director to call action.

I recommend looking at your footage and deciding what you don't like and try and figure out why and change it! Re-shoots are gifts from above! It's a chance to fix what didn't work and learn from mistakes! Take advantage of it!
 
Hello. I don't mean to be out of place but as a designer, I don't like this framing at all.

First of all, the back wall needs a free standing plant back there or something. And if you can change the room set-up, position them with a bit of a door jam/doorway behind them. This can give some depth to the scene and also, you could have a cut of the "counselor" closing the door and returning to his seat. We would know exactly where he was coming from seeing the door behind them. Just a thought... but in my honest opinion, something needs to be done to that wall.

Secondly, the reflective table surface could be used to your benefit. As it is here, I find it very distracting... the mirror image just doesn't work for me. I really love the idea using the reflection to your benefit... having a shot of the girl's face seen through the reflection can be very dynamic.

If anything, wether you use the reflection or not... you need to break it up a bit. Put out a name plaque, a pen holder, a few books or something. It is just too stark for me as it is.

I hope that I haven't offended your work in any way.

-Ted
 
"First of all, the back wall needs a free standing plant back there or something. And if you can change the room set-up, position them with a bit of a door jam/doorway behind them. This can give some depth to the scene and also, you could have a cut of the "counselor" closing the door and returning to his seat. We would know exactly where he was coming from seeing the door behind them. Just a thought... but in my honest opinion, something needs to be done to that wall. "


Some of our shots actually did include the counselor and doorframe,as seen in this
screen grab. I was also bothered by the stark reflections in the table and experimented
with throwing them out of focus with Magic bullet:


http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/21102/1201105420.jpg


I agree that something needs to be done to the room, maybe we can round up a plant
and put it in the background. One reason we have to reshoot is we got home and realized we had virutally no shots of the lawyer's face, making him a "mysterious
character" when there was no intention of that.

All comments are appreciated and no offense will be taken! Here is a link to the
scene, which is about 1/3 way through this clip of misc scenes we have shot.
43 meg QT file:

http://download-v5.streamload.com/7...tprod/Hosted/inheritance footage for web3.mov


The movie intro will be considerably different than seen here, all of the shots have not been done yet but being impatient, I wanted to throw something together to see what it will look like. The long zoom out in the classroom will be replaced by more
quick shots.
 
Hey Fred, just watched your clip. It is funny, the room didn't bother me so much in the context of the film. I guess it did when that was the only frame I could stare at.

Anyway, you are right... you do need some insert shots of the counselor's face. You have plenty of opportunities to get those in the conversation between him and the parents.

I have other comments about the editing but I know that you just threw this together to see what it would look like.

You have some really nice looking shots here!

Good luck to you and your group!

-Ted
 
Instead of placing the actors at the far ends of the table, would it be possible to put them opposite of each other on the sides? This way, you could get a shot of them all in the frame from the end of the table, and also be able to see their faces as the lawyer enters.
 
Maybe it's just my tendency to like master shots, but personally, I'd do this shot in one shot, starting wide as the lawyer enters (wide enough to see his face) but then keep on the family for the rest of the conversation slowing zooming in on the girl. Granted this only applies if she's isolated by the inheritance at all, but that's my first impression on it.

Good luck.
 
Capt Quirk said:
Instead of placing the actors at the far ends of the table, would it be possible to put them opposite of each other on the sides? This way, you could get a shot of them all in the frame from the end of the table, and also be able to see their faces as the lawyer enters.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite getting this suggestion- due to where the door is, isn't the existing setup best for getting all the actors faces as he enters?

Thanks for all the comments, all will be considered. After seeing the reflections in the
table thrown out of focus, would you go that route or put items on the table to hide
the reflections?

Comments on editing welcome, will help me get it better next time around. This is only my second attempt at a movie and the first time anyone in the film has acted for the camera.
 
Hey Fred,

I have two quick notes on the editing that REALLY stood out to me.

First, the mother walking in and then completely out of frame while waiting for her daughter to arrive at the counselor's office. I would cut this when the Mother walks into the frame just as her daughter is walking in. If you want to create more of a "waiting" moment, insert some shot (maybe the daughter approaching, or the counselor looking at a watch, something) between the time that the mother is pacing and the daughter enters. It just looked wrong to have the frame so completely empty. Do you know what I am saying?

Second edit for me is to cut off some of the footage of the daughter coming down the stairs in her new dress. You have the kids mention that "her she comes" and yet when you cut to that shot there is no one in it. It is an empty stairwell that she enters frame. Cut it to where we just see her legs coming down the stairs.

These are just two that stood out to me.

Also, in that same scene, I would cut away sooner as the bell rings and the kids pass by the actors. The actors are just standing there. Nothing is happening. If you wanted to keep the kids in the film (in that scene), you would have been better off having your actors filter into the crowd and exit. It doesn't look right with them just standing there.

Good luck with your work here.

I am going to have to go back and watch that scene to give you my 2 cents on the reflection.

-Ted
 
Ah. Just watched that scene. Kill that reflection. I don't like it. Especially the opening shot of the 3 of them sitting there.

i also saw another edit comment in that scene.

First of all, the shot of just the counselor's waist walking along the table is weird. No face, nothing of interest. And we see him start to sit and then in the next shot, he is completely settled in his seat. You should try and cut this so that we see him sitting on the line, "I think that you should know...."

Also, (sorry!) he sits for a second and then he is up again and moving to a new seat. Unless there is a reason for this move, it is wasted energy. You know what I mean? He comes in, sits, says a line and then gets up, moves to a new seat and sits again. If this was a character trait, like he is fidgety or something, than it would be good. But to me, it is distracting and doesn't serve a purpose.

I hope that I am giving useful feedback.

-Ted
 
I didn't watch the clips, so I'm not exactly sure how the table and room are set up. I have been in a Lawyer's office though, and they usually have the door at one end of the long table. Instead of sitting your talent at the farthest ends, set them across from each other on the sides that are closer to each other. Does that make more sense?
 
Now I get it. That is similar to our original plan, but due to cramped space
behind the actors for the camera, we went this route. Maybe we could do it, though, by placing the camera just to one side of the actors.

Can anyone think of a similar scene in a 'real" movie that I could reference
for ideas?
 
I know you probably have no way around it but I usually feel that horizontal lines behind actor's heads are terribly distracting. It's generally regarded as bad framing to use lines like that. It might help you get more creative shots if you try to avoid it, but again it's not a HUGE deal so don't worry about it if you can't do anything.
 
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