Shots in Order

Robbie Comeau

Robbie Comeau

Como's back. back again
Hello DVXuser, I have just completed writing a short "mysterious" script. It should be about 4-5 minutes on my DVX, with my boom microphone. Im going to see if I can find a person to boom it for me :)

My question:

I am doing the story boarding, and I'm noticing then I'm doing a lot of CU'S, and WS of my one actor. The first scene is WIDE, then it goes up to her face. Then there's another scene of her in the same WS, then another shot of her CU. Same position. Should I film ALL of the CU'S of her face, and then the WS? Since I only have one camera, I don't wanna lose the angle. So should I go though the script, find all the CU's, and film them all in one shot, and then obviously mix it up in post? I'm sorry if I'm unclear, just ask and ill try to be more elaborative on it. Thanks
 
Do the entire scene on the WS (master shot). Then do the entire scene on the CP. That way if you need to insert some reaction shots of her face later on in post you already shot them so you wouldn't have a need to go back.

PS

You and I have the same shotgun and boom pole.... hehe.
 
Dude, if you film in a non-linear way, then you have answered your own question...just as the other poster did.

Remeber to get a few takes of your master, submaster, and close ups so you have good shot selection. And get some ambient sound recorded.
 
I think the more important question here is why WOULDN'T you do your shots by setup rather than chronology? You even pointed out the drawbacks and headaches of doing so, so why did you need to ask, lol.

I'm sure you will edit your video, so who cares if you don't shoot it chronologically?
 
Im jsut worried that when im cutting my footage, it wont blend well, like say she looks to the left, and then i cut it and she doesnt move, it will look very bad
 
That's something that you, as a director, need to fix DURING production. You need to keep everything floating in the back of your mind so that a screwup like that won't happen. Larger films have a crew member whose only job IS to pay attention to continuity between cuts.

Also, in post production if you run into that problem, either you need to change your edit or you need to reshoot. Neither is a very good choice, as it influences you artistic decisions based on a technical error. That's exactly why you need to be careful of these things in actual production.

Nobody said it would be easy :thumbsup:
 
TheComo said:
Im jsut worried that when im cutting my footage, it wont blend well, like say she looks to the left, and then i cut it and she doesnt move, it will look very bad
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That's why, before you role a second of tape, you block out the scene with your actor from beginning to end, so they know what they're supposed to be doing and when.

Run it a few times, THEN start breaking it down into individual shots. If your actor now has an idea of what they should be doing at any given point in the scene, it will make continuity a lot easier to keep straight, and it won't matter if you shoot in order or not. There's still a chance that a few things will be a little different between takes, but you'll have minimised the risk.

Just like with storyboarding, it's all in the preparation. Have evrything rehearsed and blocked out beforehand, and rolling tape almost becomes a mere formality.
 
Thanks a lot guys. So should i bring my story board, and each scene i shoot, i can jus check off so that i know what i have shot?
 
That's normally the job of the AD or the Script Supervisor I think, but in a low budget setting you shouldn't have too much trouble doing it yourself.

Goodluck.
 
TheComo said:
Thanks a lot guys. So should i bring my story board, and each scene i shoot, i can jus check off so that i know what i have shot?
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You could...or you could just do a shot list.

Your film is straight forward and simple, so why get bogged down in those details, unless you are doing it as an excercise in the whole process?

You should have no problem knowing the shots you want, and getting them.
 
TheComo said:
what's a shot list?
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What's a shopping list? The answer is in the name itself.

You're kidding, right? For a google happy guy, you don't do much research for your own projects...

It's a list of shots you want/need to get the coverage you want for your film.
 
Shot lists are extremely handy.. though always tend to get messy for me. Ends up looking like a spider crapped all the way across the page.
 
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