ABCs Of Film Direction (1967)

the purpose of this film is to review some of the basic techniques and devices film directors use to obtain certain results or effects on the screen we call them the ABCs of film direction probably some of the first terms you heard when you became interested in motion pictures with these long shot medium shot and closed out what do they mean well they are relative terms because they depend on the size and nature of the subject to be filmed in the long shot the camera is generally some distance away and there is considerable area around the subject for instance this is a long shot of a building we see the entire building and enough area around it to establish its location in relation to its surroundings moving closer we obtain less area and it becomes a medium shot less than the whole building none of its surroundings moving still closer we have a close-up only a small area of the structure but now we introduce another situation the close-up of the building now becomes a long shot of the man so we move in for a medium shot then to a close-up of his face we could go on and on the close-up of the man's face could be a long shot of his eye and again we would have to move in so you seem long medium and close-up shots our relative terms depending upon subject matter we obtain these various types of shots by three methods camera movement subject movement choice of lens now let's say we use these in actual production first camera movement probably the simplest form of camera movement is the tilt or pan here the cameramen is photographing a lathe operation with the tripod head loosened he starts with the material in the lathe then tilts up for close-up of the operators face here's the way it will look on the screen the pan is useful in following action another use of the pan is in confined areas where it's impossible to move back far enough to include the whole area since the camera can be moved in an arc it's possible to include the entire area in one shot between scenes the camera can of course be picked up and carried from one position to another in order to get the desired area or the camera can be mounted on something movable such as a train or dully this enables us to move from a long shot to the medium shot to a close-up all in a single camera take the thing to remember is that on a moving shot such as this you have to follow focus as the subjects distance from the camera changes otherwise you get this effect all right let's look at another way of changing area by subject movement here the camera is mounted on a dolly but in this case its position is locked instead of the camera moving toward me I'll move toward it and we'll see what happens this is a long or establishing shot now I walk halfway to the camera or to a medium shot moving still closer to the camera results in a close-up remember you must follow focus as the subjects distance from the camera changes now let's see our choice of lenses allows us to vary the area normally three lenses are used as standard equipment for sixteen millimeter shooting the 25 millimeter lens is considered the normal lens it most nearly approximates the perspective of the human eye wide angle lenses come in a variety of focal lengths this 17 and a half millimeter is a good choice when a longer focal length lenses desired the 50 millimeter is probably most widely used of course even longer focal lengths are available and are often useful but now let's see how we may use the three most common lenses to change both the areas covered and the perspective of the subject matter say a man is seated at the desk his secretary enters through a door in the flat to his right this is how such a scene would look when shot with a normal or 25 millimeter land at the start the lens is critically focused on the man as the girl enters a slight adjustment is made in order that she is in critical focus notice the depth of field and the relationship and focus between the man and the girl all right let's see what a wide-angle lens does for us notice the greater depth of field and also the change in perspective the foreground and the background are apparently more separated and the SEPs seems larger now the same scene with a 50 millimeter lens the area is reduced the perspective has changed the foreground and background seemed to be closer together it is apparent that the depth of field has greatly decreased when focused on the man the girl is out of focus when we focus on the girl the foreground goes soft now let's look at a another type of lens commonly called the zoom lens because of its moveable elements the focal length can be varied simply by moving the lever with this particular lens we can change the focal length from 17 and a half millimeter to 70 millimeter so let's just see what we can do with it same setup as before as the girl enters we zoom in for a medium close-up of her in the doorway as she walks to the desk we zoom back to the original area then again zoom in to end up with a close-up of her standing by the desk this ability of the camera to be moved and a change areas makes the motion picture the versatile flexible medium that it is it gives the director the power of choosing his distance from the subject and allows him to concentrate the audience's attention on whatever he wishes however this very flexibility create some problem and the director must learn how to handle them in changing from one scene to another of a different area we must be careful to maintain orientation to keep the audience from becoming lost or confused at what they're looking at after a change of scene one way to keep them oriented is to maintain a continuity of action or movement to relate one scene to another now this is called action kind for example these two scenes may been shot hours apart yet the action appears smooth here's the way it was done the first scene is shot from this position notice the girl goes through the entire action in this long shot now the camera is moved into position for the close up in this take the girl duplicates part of her action in the previous scene this is called overlapping the action the editor will check the action in both seams and select the place where he will make the cut he then splices the two scenes together when they are projected they will look like this the cut appears smooth and the action continuous this device of overlapping action is really quite simple and most directors learn it automatically every director must do it if he plans to make action cuts now there's another rule about audience orientation that's not quite so easy to understand as overlapping action but it's just as important try to visualize every scene you plan to shoot as a sort of drawing or blueprint then imagine a line drawn through the center of the action this is called the imaginary line or the midline it separates front stage from backstage you can shoot in a 180-degree arc from here to here to here and the action will cut properly and you will maintain orientation let's see how this works in actual practice consider the road as our imaginary line the cameramen may shoot the approaching car from here from here and from here in other words in a 180-degree arc cut together the action looks natural on the screen and the movement of the car appears continuous but let's see what would happen if the cameramen were to cross the center line he first shoots the car traveling from north to south from this side of the road now he decides to get another shot of it from the opposite side of the road the cholera number is still traveling in the same direction north to south but what happens when these two scenes are cut together while the car was actually traveling in the same direction in both shots we got the impression that it had turned around and started in the opposite direction because of the camera view point the same thing applies when we photograph two people on a set we can shoot from any position within the 180-degree arc and they remain in the correct position in relation to the camera but say we shoot first from here then from here we are in trouble by crossing our line the people appear reversed and the audience is confused now you may ask can we ever cross our imaginary line the answer is yes if we do it during the scene here we establish our characters in their position the camera then Dolly's pastin crossing the imaginary line now the audience will accept the reverse position because they were present when the change was made I hope this gives you a little better understanding on this matter of orientation now there's one more little device that directors use I want to mention here it's probably one of the most valuable in his whole bag of tricks because it allows him to compress time and space here's an example let's say we want to move a man from here to here all right let's try it that took exactly 28 seconds or 17 feet of film that's far too long unless there was some very definite reason to show the complete action in this case there was not so let's try speeding the action up like this obviously under cranking is not the way to do it unless of course we're trying for a comic effect so let's see how angle changes might allow us to eliminate part of the action we established the man walking toward the camera then away from us now we insert a shot of his feet then show him taking the last few steps up the stairway so we have reduced our screen time to 17 seconds and we can reduce it even more by using an optical effect which indicates the passage of time we have him start his walk as before we now dissolve as he completes the action we have now managed to reduce our screen time from 28 seconds to less than 10 seconds audiences have become conditioned to accept dissolves and fades as a device indicating the passage of time they will just as readily accept the cut away or insert shot and the experienced director will make full use of both of them these have been just a few of these simple rules of moviemaking to the beginner they may appear complicated but in practice they are quite simple and easily learned every director should know them so well that he applies them almost automatically there are many excellent books on the subject which covered in much more detail than has been possible in this short film however we hope what you have seen may prove helpful if you have any questions please feel free to contact any of the Calvin staff thank you you