Issue with Over the Should Shot, Please help

[joechiazza]

Hello everyone. I recently shot a short film and I screwed up the over the shoulder shot. I am almost 100% sure I broke the 180 degree rule. Its kind of a weird situation because one of the subjects was in a hospital bed while the other was standing on one side of him. So it was hard to really draw the straight line. My question is, can I keep what I shot? Does it need to be reshot? If I flip the one in post does that make it any better? I'm attaching some images, hopefully you can help. Honestly reshooting is like not an option. So please let me know how messed up it is. It took me over a month to even realize it was wrong, so maybe it doesn't really matter. What do you think my best option is?

Thank you so much.

Joe.

Over the shoulder 1


Over the shoulder 2


Over the shoulder 2 reversed in post (the issue with this is no blood on head band, its on the wrong side...I think that is the only issue...)


Master Shot

 

[Darren Levine]

I'm more concerned about the master looking like an entirely different location than the lots angles. Next time if there's differing wall types, be sure to get at least some of both style walls in at least one angle. As for the ots issue, flip the first shot. Flipping the second shot as you did makes it not match the master. If you have enough resolution try post cropping a bit as well

 

[CharlesPapert]

This is a tough one. Yes, you did indeed cross the line on the coverage of the standing gent. As far as how to salvage in the edit, your biggest issue is the visual continuity of the injuries. I'm not sure I agree with Darren that flopping the first shot, the coverage of the patient, is the right idea in that it will cut badly with the master (his injuries would jump to the other side of his face). I tend not to notice a lot of continuity errors when I'm watching a scene compared to some people, but I think this would be jarring, more so than keeping the scene intact with the eyeline cross.

A lot depends on how you cut the scene, how long it is etc. If you only use the master once or twice, it may be OK to let it be a line cross to the coverage (not terribly uncommon) and then I would suggest flopping the shot of the standing gent instead.

It may be worth re-cutting a chunk of the scene in different ways (implementing the various flops), then show them to other people to find out which version they find the least confusing.

To avoid this sort of thing in the future, perhaps make simple sketches of your coverage in advance to work through the eyelines. You don't need elaborate storyboards, just stick figures will do the trick. Diagrams of the camera placement (the Shot Designer app is great for this) help a lot. After a while, this sort of thing becomes instinctive.

 

[joechiazza]

Yeah I only use that master shot like one time. The thing is that master had to be taken at that angle with the way the set was setup. There was really no other good way of getting those over the shoulder shots.

 

[Michael Carter]

..and the "brick wall hospital" is kind of bizarre (unless it's not supposed to be an actual "hospital"). If you're stuck with that wall or it's the correct setting for the story, think of props, fabrics, panels, etc that could appear in all shots and give some continuity. Hospitals usually have fabric privacy curtains, so even some hanging fabric would have that visual shorthand that makes the subconscious say "ahh, we're in a hospital". Even major films have those OTS cuts that are simply jarring.

 

[joechiazza]

Well its supposed to be not a real hospital. Its like an underground military base but at the same time I agree with you. I wasn't in charge of the set design on this project. So you think my original over the shoulders without flipping is probably ok? I think flipping the guy standing is my best bet. If someone meticulously picks it apart they will notice that the wound is on the wrong side of the head but otherwise I think it looks good. Do you guys think it looks like the bed is facing the right way when I do that?

 

[joechiazza]

Actually this is technically my master shot. I do agree with you guys that the set was cheesy though.

 

[CharlesPapert]

One of the issues with flopping can be that the geography of the room becomes a problem, but here the fact that you have blank walls behind the actors helps your cause! To that end, and now that we see the widest shot; next time endeavor to include some of that background into your coverage. You don't have to keep the actors and set exactly where they are and place the camera to them, you can (and should) cheat things around to make the most interesting composition. Fill the frame with things to look at. The coverage of the standing guy should have included some of the guard in the background, and possibly even the doorway. This may have required raising the gurney, rotating the actors a bit, taking some liberty but ultimately the shot would have been far more interesting than the blank wall (although again, as luck would have it, it did buy you the opportunity to flop the shot). And had the coverage of the guy in the bed been taken over the correct shoulder of the standing gent (his left instead of his right), you would have been shooting into the brick wall which was more interesting than the blank wall, and tied in with the master better. Does that address "there was really no other good way of getting those over the shoulder shots"...?

 

[joechiazza]

Well, the guard walks out by the time those over the shoulders come into play. but I 100% agree with you that the walls were super boring. Thanks a lot guys for your help. This was my first post on here, I'm really happy to be part of this community.