Camera Workshop 2

Shooting

You should always shoot a wide shot first because in a wide shot you get everything thats going on in the scene so if you run out of time to film the close up, mid shot etc. you always have a wide shot to fall back on if you have to. You also should not always watch back the footage on set. This is because if the actor/actress doesn’t like how she looks in that shot and wants to re do it, you may not always have time to. You always start rolling the camera before you say action and after you say cut. This is to ensure that the camera is always filming the actors walking on set and walking off. To be extra sure of this, as a director, you need to shout to the crew, ‘’Standby”. This gives the crew a chance to makes sure they’re set up and when they’re ready they will all reply; “Standing by” This lets the director know that his crew has taken their positions. Next, you shout; “Roll camera” to which the camera man will reply; “Camera rolling”. Once the camera is rolling, when you feel it’s time you shout “Action” so the actors know when the scene has started. When it ends you wait three seconds and you then shout “Cut” which gives the camera man the okay to stop rolling. 

Continuity

In film continuity is the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over time and to ensure that there is no continuity errors, you need to have someone on the set that takes notes of everything that has been placed like the actors, props, lights etc. This is because if you have an actor looking one way in a long shot and then cut to a close up with his head looking the other way it’s noticeable for the audience and makes the film look very amateur. This is why many directors use markers that they put on the floor so they know the exact position of where the actors were standing. 

 The 180-degree rule:

“In film making, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.”