MasterShots Vol 2 Read online

  “A terrific sequel to the first Master Shots. If there’s a cool way to move the camera, Christopher Kenworthy has explained it to us. I can’t wait to get it in my students’ hands.”

  — John Badham, director, Saturday Night Fever, WarGames; author, I’ll Be in My Trailer

  “The most comprehensive and practical breakdown of shooting technique, Kenworthy’s Master Shots, Volume 2, is required ‘bedside reading’ for anyone who’s serious about making movies.”

  — Neill D. Hicks, author, Screenwriting 101: The Essential Craft of Feature Film Writing; Writing the Action-Adventure Film: The Moment of Truth; and Writing the Thriller Film: The Terror Within

  “Christopher Kenworthy’s second volume of Master Shots will inspire every filmmaker to think carefully about placement and movement of actors as seen through the camera lens. This book increases the reader’s appreciation for the critical work of the cinematographer and the director as they speak the language of film through images.”

  —Mary J. Schirmer, screenwriter, screenwriting instructor, www.screenplayers.net

  “Master Shots, Volume 2, is an inspiration for every director, cinematographer, and writer. When breaking down a script, I always have Master Shots laying open within arm’s reach.”

  — Stanley D. Williams, PhD., executive producer, director, Nineveh’s Crossing, LLC & SWC Films

  “Kenworthy has delivered one of the greatest no-filler books on camera technique I’ve ever seen, pairing motivation and mechanics to achieve maximum visual impact. This isn’t a book of glossary terms, it’s a game-changer.”

  — Troy DeVolld, author, Reality TV: An Insider’s Guide to TV’s Hottest Market

  “Master Shots, Volume 2, tells you how to achieve powerful dialogue scenes. Each explanation is clearly and simply illustrated by stills from popular movies. Computer-generated illustrations accompany each scene to show exactly where to place the camera. Master Shots, Volume 2 is brilliant. A must-have companion to the first Master Shots.”

  — Tony Levelle, author, Digital Video Secrets

  “Any director should read this book to get a feel of the scope of potential in shooting dialogue. And if you can convince your actors to read it as well, finally everyone will be on the same page on set.”

  — Erin Corrado, onemoviefivereviews.com

  “This encyclopedia of 100 industry-standard master shots tells you how to best communicate any storytelling idea — through framing, positioning, and dynamic movement. And it doesn’t just tell you how, but why. After reading this book you’ll never neglect the importance of that living and breathing, yet invisible actor in every scene: the camera.”

  — Carl King, author, So, You’re a Creative Genius... Now What?

  Published by Michael Wiese Productions

  12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111

  Studio City, CA 91604

  (818) 379-8799, (818) 986-3408 (FAX)

  [email protected]

  www.mwp.com

  Cover design by Johnny Ink. www.johnnyink.com

  Interior design by William Morosi

  Edited by David Wright

  Printed by McNaughton & Gunn

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Copyright 2011 by Christopher Kenworthy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kenworthy, Christopher.

  Master shots, volume 2 : 100 ways to shoot great dialogue / Christopher Kenworthy.

  -- 2nd ed.

  p. cm.

  Original ed. published in 2009.

  ISBN 978-1-61593-055-5 (pbk.)

  1. Cinematography. 2. Motion pictures--Production and direction. 3. Dialogue in

  motion pictures. I. Title. II. Title: Master shots, volume two.

  TR850.K46 2011

  777--dc23

  2011016837

  Printed on Recycled Stock

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

  ABOUT THE IMAGES

  CHAPTER 1: CONFLICT

  1.1 Power Move

  1.2 Doorway

  1.3 Offset Group

  1.4 Crossing Lines

  1.5 Barrier

  1.6 Side Switch

  1.7 Snap Turn

  1.8 Swing to Cut

  1.9 Deep Staging

  1.10 Power Struggle

  CHAPTER 2: INCREASING TENSION

  2.1 Circling Dialogue

  2.2 Closing Space

  2.3 Exaggerated Height

  2.4 Dramatic Swing

  2.5 Clandestine

  2.6 Frame Share

  2.7 Focus on One

  2.8 Level Change

  2.9 Claustrophobic Space

  2.10 Track Character

  CHAPTER 3: POWER STRUGGLES

  3.1 Disoriented

  3.2 Doorway Angles

  3.3 Angle Exchange

  3.4 Threshold

  3.5 Space Reverse

  3.6 Character Chase

  3.7 Side On

  CHAPTER 4: GROUP CONVERSATION

  4.1 Angle Anchor

  4.2 Eyeline Anchor

  4.3 Group Pivot

  4.4 Central Character

  4.5 Along the Line

  4.6 Line of Three

  4.7 Central Line

  4.8 Solid Camera

  4.9 Round Table

  4.10 Expanding Group

  CHAPTER 5: CONNECTING CHARACTERS

  5.1 Long Lens Space

  5.2 Obstruction

  5.3 Facing Away

  5.4 Angled Push

  5.5 Back to Character

  5.6 Dance Moves

  5.7 Outsider

  5.8 Playing with Space

  5.9 Pacing

  5.10 Parallel Speech

  CHAPTER 6: REVEALING PLOT

  6.1 Shifting Levels

  6.2 Close Cut

  6.3 Hard Reverse

  6.4 Face to Face

  6.5 Face Up

  6.6 Background Switch

  6.7 Invisible Barrier

  6.8 No Contact

  6.9 Shift to Background

  6.10 Swing Pan

  CHAPTER 7: WALKING AND TALKING

  7.1 Spiral Down

  7.2 Rush Past

  7.3 Finding the Lens

  7.4 Back to Camera

  7.5 Mutual Interest

  7.6 Open Space

  7.7 Following

  7.8 Offset Walk

  7.9 Repeated Swing

  7.10 Tethered Camera

  CHAPTER 8: INTENSE EMOTIONS

  8.1 Argument in Motion

  8.2 Freeze Reveal

  8.3 Homing In

  8.4 Mixed Distance

  8.5 Moving Out

  8.6 Turn with Move

  CHAPTER 9: INTIMACY

  9.1 Push to Talk

  9.2 Close Faces

  9.3 Head to Head

  9.4 Raised Camera

  9.5 Arc and Push

  9.6 Whispering

  9.7 Partial Angle

  9.8 Outer Focus

  9.9 Low and Close

  9.10 Coupled Angles

  9.11 Object Hinge

  CHAPTER 10: LONG DISTANCE

  10.1 Solo Move

  10.2 Remote Observer

  10.3 Contrasting Motion

  10.4 Sense of Location

  10.5 Wall Turn

  CHAPTER 11: CREATIVE STAGING

  11.1 Reverse Body

  11.2 Motion Exchange

  11.3 Trackback

  11.4 Offset Angles

  11.5 Different Rooms

  11.6 Distant Slid
e

  11.7 Flat Reverse

  11.8 Move Through Scene

  11.9 Character Reveal

  11.10 Push Between

  11.11 Closing the Gap

  CONCLUSION

  AUTHOR BIO

  INTRODUCTION

  Many people think that feature films look cinematic because their budget was large. What I hope to show through the Master Shots books is that the cinematic look costs nothing. A strong scene is about where you put the camera and how you position and direct your actors. This is especially true when shooting dialogue.

  With the skills you will learn in Master Shots, Volume 2, you can make your dialogue as strong as it deserves to be, so that every plot point, every emotion, and every subtle meaning is communicated clearly, while you draw the best performances out of your actors.

  When the original Master Shots was first published, it immediately received strong reviews and rapidly became a bestseller. I received countless emails from filmmakers who said the book had opened their eyes to setting up shots. Many said they never knew so much thought went into setting up a shot. Others said they didn’t know one camera setup could work on so many levels. It was gratifying to know that filmmakers were willing to delve deeper than ever into their craft.

  Within a few months the book became a big hit at film schools, and I was soon watching many student films that had been improved by the advice in my book. Filmmakers who won awards wrote to tell me how Master Shots had helped. To my great surprise, a handful of Hollywood directors (who I’d admired for decades) wrote to tell me how much the book had helped them. One director even told me he’d never go to set without my book in his hand.

  Master Shots didn’t just present 100 shots that people could copy. It opened filmmakers’ eyes to the techniques that achieve the best effects. It encouraged them to combine these shots in new ways, to make up their own moves. Despite this, there was one theme that kept coming up over and over again when people wrote to me. They nearly all asked, “What’s the best way to shoot dialogue?” Your film cannot work without good dialogue scenes, so Master Shots, Volume 2, offers you the critical techniques needed to bring dialogue to life.

  Although the original Master Shots covers dialogue in many chapters, it is not specifically about dialogue. Since writing the first Master Shots book, I have directed a feature film and worked on many other projects, and I became obsessed with shooting dialogue in interesting ways. More importantly, I wanted to find methods to shoot dialogue in a way that captures the essence of the script. I watched hundreds and hundreds of films to research this book. Every one of the films included here contains good dialogue scenes, and all are worth watching in their entirety.

  Unfortunately, many scenes in blockbuster feature films don’t make the most of the dialogue found in the screenplay. As the scene opens, the camera soars through a graceful master shot, and then everything stops. The camera stops, the actors stand still and face each other, and the dialogue begins. Many movie conversations are as dull as this, but they needn’t be. The best directors know how to position the camera and the actors to fully explore and express the scene.

  These images illustrate standard setup, with one actor facing the other, both shot from the same distance and the same angle. In this book I’ll refer to this setup as angle/reverse angle.

  The angle/reverse angle setup is what results when time is short, people are tired, or the director has run out of ideas. It’s okay, it works reasonably well, but it’s dull. There are many directors out there striving to stand out from the crowd, but when they come to shoot their dialogue scenes, this standard setup is what they shoot.

  This routine setup is used for many reasons. It’s quick, easy to set up, and if you’re not too concerned about perfecting the lighting, you can even shoot in both directions at once. Also, most audiences won’t complain so long as the dialogue is interesting. There are many popular movies that use nothing but this, so why should you try harder?

  The directors who shoot dialogue creatively really mine the substance of the script. You shouldn’t move your camera or shift your actors just to create eye candy (although a pretty picture is usually more interesting), but you can use clever staging to bring out the scene’s deeper meaning and create stronger impact. Watch the films that are cited in this book and you will see how well the scenes play when the camera is used to capture dialogue creatively.

  If you block your scenes well, you do more than capture the basic scene; you echo the meaning, emotion, and drama of every moment. That is never more important than with dialogue. It is a tragedy that so many directors are happy to open a scene with a moving master shot, and then just settle into angle/reverse angle for the dialogue. You can do better than that.

  There are challenges to shooting in this way. When actors and cameras move, the sound recordist will probably complain and ask you to shoot some close-up coverage. You can do this, of course, but have the courage to capture what you really want. If you start getting technical, some actors will complain about having to hit such precise marks. Find ways to encourage them to work with your techniques, and let them know this is the best way to showcase the skills they bring to their performances.

  The good news is that all the camera moves in this book can be achieved with just about any equipment. At a stretch, you can perform them handheld, or with the most basic dollies, cranes, and stabilizers.

  You can take any of the techniques in this book and apply them directly to your own film. I urge you take this further and combine these ideas to suit the needs of your film. Once you’ve studied Master Shots, Volume 2, you will understand how tiny shifts in framing and movement can change the scene, which gives you the power to bring your personal vision to the scenes that ultimately end up on the screen.

  Christopher Kenworthy

  Perth, November 2010

  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

  You can dip into any chapter of Master Shots, Volume 2, and look for a shot that best suits your scene at any time. I would recommend, however, that you read the whole book, so that you become familiar with the variety of techniques demonstrated.

  To really understand a chapter you need to read the text, study the images, and imagine how you could use the shot yourself. So you should already have read Master Shots, Volume 2, when your film is in pre-production.

  Once you’ve planned your shots, have the book nearby on set, so that you can find alternative ideas, or add something extra to a scene. One of the best things you can do is combine several techniques in one scene to create something completely new.

  Don’t be afraid to buy copies of this book for your department heads and your actors. If they can see how you’re working, and the high standards you’re aiming for, they will be more willing to work with these techniques.

  ABOUT THE IMAGES

  Each chapter contains several types of images. The opening images are frame grabs from popular movies, to show how successfully the technique has been used before.

  The overhead shots show how the camera and actors move to achieve this effect. The white arrows show camera movement. The black arrows show actor movement.

  The overhead shots were created using Poser 8, which enables you to animate characters while moving a virtual camera around them. The arrows were added in Photoshop.

  To create the simulated shots, Poser renderings were exported and then backgrounds were added. Some of the backgrounds are original photographs, and some are computer renderings.

  The final frame in each chapter is a recreation of the scene rendered with computer graphics. These rendered frames are all subtly different from the movie frame grabs, showing that slight adjustments to your setup enhance and expand on the core techniques.

  CHAPTER 1

  CONFLICT

  1.1

  POWER MOVE

  There are times when you want one character to frighten or threaten another. You can do this by having each of them move in on the other character’s space as they talk.


  These shots from Defiance show how a subtle difference in camera position and lens choice creates this effect. The opening shot is filmed with a relatively low camera, tilted up slightly. This contrasts with the next shot, which is shot at head height. This creates the feeling that the first character is stronger, or more domineering, because he is looking down.

  The first shot is also shot with a shorter lens, so that when the actor moves forward a couple of steps, his movement is exaggerated and he appears to loom forward. The camera also tilts up, making him seem even more domineering. The short lens exaggerates this tilt upward.

  If the other actor was shot with a short lens, the contrast between them would not be there. The contrast works as described above, but also helps to establish who is “good” and who is “bad.” A short lens tends to make somebody more frightening, while a long lens makes them more appealing. By using contrasting lenses at a pivotal moment in the film, you tell your audience as clearly as possible who is good and who is bad.

  If you watch this scene in full, you will notice that they did shoot a low angle of the second character, with a shorter lens, but it is barely used, being there only to connect the shots. This suggests that the effect described here may have been discovered in the editing room, rather than planned from the outset.

  If you plan to shoot in this way, remember that combining three forms of contrast creates the effect. One camera stays still, while the other tilts. One shot is wide, the other long. One camera is low, and the other is at head height. It is only by combining these three forms that the full effect is created.

  Defiance. Directed by Edward Zwick. Paramount Vantage, 2008. All rights reserved.

  1.2

  DOORWAY

  Conflict always brings interest to a scene, but there are times when character conflict may be almost incidental. You need to shoot these scenes in a way that keeps the focus on the story and the roles of the main characters.

  In this scene from The International, the character in the apartment is incidental, and although there is some brief conflict with him, it’s important that we remain focused on how the other characters respond to this conflict.