MasterShots Vol 1 Read online

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

  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.

  To create these simulated shots, Poser renderings were exported and then backgrounds were added. Some of the backgrounds are original photographs, and some are computer renderings. For this edition, new renderings were created for several chapters, to give a clearer indication of how the technique can be applied.

  1.1

  LONG LENS STUNT

  The most basic approach to shooting a violent punch is one of the most effective. The very first punch thrown in Fight Club was shot this way, and it's used again throughout the film, so it can't be bad.

  Most actors are willing and able to pull off this stunt, because it doesn't require a great deal of skill, except in terms of timing. It's a performance challenge that most actors relish. The basic technique is nothing more than having one actor punch to the far side of the second actor's head. Although most filmmakers can guess the basic technique, many forget the importance of lens choice. If you shoot this with the wrong lens, it looks ludicrous and the illusion fails.

  The secret is to use a long lens. When you shoot with a long lens, distances between objects are artificially foreshortened. In Fight Club, you can see that the long lens makes the distant wall look close to the actors, even though it's a good distance away. This foreshortening also applies to the actors. Edward Norton punches to one side of Brad Pitt's head, but it looks as though he makes contact. The illusion is sold so well because Pitt reacts at the exact moment of supposed contact.

  Set up your camera with a long lens, and then frame the actors as required. The framing used here is only an example, and the technique works well with tight or wide framings.

  Position your camera so that when the punch lands, the fist is hidden behind the victim's head. Actors may be tempted to punch quite close to each other, as they are determined to achieve realism, but this isn't required. Assure them that the punch can miss by a good few inches and still look real. Run the scene in slow motion, and check the shot in camera or on a monitor, to ensure that this is the case. The fist can even go in front of the face being punched, so long as the victim's head is thrown back convincingly.

  It's fine to include some camera movement to follow the action, so long as the punch itself is hidden behind the actor's head. You can shoot an entire sequence this way, with careful planning and rehearsal.

  Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

  1.2

  SPEED PUNCH

  Sometimes one punch can tell the whole story. Your hero makes one huge, sweeping punch, and the victim is knocked to the ground. There's no ongoing fistfight, no battle for victory. It's all over in an instant.

  If your story requires this sort of rapid fight, you need to create the impression that this is the most perfect and forceful punch that's ever been thrown. Using a similar technique to that seen in Long Lens Stunt, your hero should punch behind the victim's head. The difference here is that the camera's motion will be directly connected to the actor's momentum, and will echo the feeling of the punch.

  Set up your camera alongside the victim, looking toward the hero. If you're using a long lens you may have to get quite close to the actor playing the victim, to see both characters in shot at the same time. Avoid getting so close that this becomes an over-the-shoulder shot from behind the victim character, or that the audience can feel like the victim of the attack, rather than cheering the hero on. The hero should be the focus of the shot, so a central framing as he attacks works well.

  As your hero approaches the victim — with a run, lunge, or determined walk — the camera should move backward slightly, as though pushed by his movement.

  Then, when the punch lands, the camera comes to a standstill, but pans in the direction of the punch. It's as though the punch has also hit the camera and knocked it to the side. This will have the effect of putting your hero, and the victim, to the left of frame. It takes good timing on the part of your camera operator, but when executed well, it can make the safest of stunts look like an extremely powerful attack.

  Punch Drunk Love. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2002. All Rights Reserved.

  1.3

  MATCHING MOTION

  The traditional movie fist fight, where opponents stand opposite each other laying punches to the face, looks a little dated. You still see it, of course, but if the nature of the fight is important to your story, or if you want the audience to really concentrate on who is winning and what's going on, you need to be more inventive. You need to make the audience feel as though they are really there, watching the painful and dangerous action.

  One way to do this is to let the camera's motion be dictated by the movement of the actors. So, as the actors move, the camera moves with them. This works best when the actors are brawling and dragging each other around. As such, it may come later on in a fight, when the characters are tired and struggling.

  Set up your camera alongside the actors, at about head height. During their struggle, one actor should drag or push the other actor across the room. Your camera should move with the actors as they go. To get the strongest feeling of movement, don't change the camera's height, pan angle or distance from the actors as you move.

  When actors move as a pair, their pace will never be completely even. As such, it's easy to fall into the trap of following the two of them as a combined unit, to keep everything in shot. This has the effect of reducing the sense of motion. Instead, focus your camera's attention on one actor, rather than the two as a pair. The difference is subtle, but it is important.

  As the actors come to a stop, hitting a wall or falling down, you can then change pan angle, camera height or distance, as this emphasizes that their motion has come to an abrupt end.

  Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

  1.4

  KNOCK DOWN

  Having your character knocked to the ground is a powerful storytelling moment. It tells the audience that things are not going well for the character, and that the fight is being lost. On set, though, this can mean putting your actor in danger, or spending money on a stunt person.

  A cheap alternative is to show your actor being punched, then cut to a close-up of the ground as your actor goes down. This tends to feel staged, however, and doesn't have the power of a single shot, taken without cuts.

  The solution is to combine the Long Lens Stunt with a simple camera move, which hides your actor's gentle movement to the ground. Rather than having your actor fall dangerously to the ground, you can disguise a gentle sit-down on to the floor and make it look like a dramatic moment.

  These stills from Patriot Games illustrate the point. Harrison Ford fakes being punched, while the camera remains at head-level. He then gently sits back onto the ground. Once he's dropped out of sight, the camera moves down to the ground, where Ford acts as though he's just hit the ground hard. It's extremely simple misdirection, but with the right timing and use of sound it looks completely convincing.

  Set your camera up at eye level, behind the attacker. As the punch is faked, the victim fakes being punched and lowers gently to the ground and lies down. At the same time, the camera drops down to the victim's eye level, with the attacker shielding the victim's movement from view. It helps if the attacker continues to make aggressive movements toward the victim during this camera move, so the audience has something to watch other than the camera move itself.

  Patriot Games. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Paramount Home Entertainment, 1992. All R
ights Reserved.

  1.5

  CUTTING FOR IMPACT

  In real fights, feet are used as much as hands. In films, kicks can be used throughout a fight, but are especially useful when showing the build-up to a defeat. One character is on the ground, and the other is kicking. This can even occur after the main fight is over, and the winner is enjoying the victory.

  How do you shoot this type of kick, without getting involved in complex stunt work? The best way is to shoot with the edit in mind from the outset, getting coverage that will enable the editor to make the kick look effective. You cut from the shot of the attacker to the shot of the victim, at the exact moment of impact. By planning for this edit, you can get a better result than trying to show the entire kick-and-reaction in a single shot.

  To emphasize that one character has the upper hand, everything should be shot from down low. Point your camera up at the aggressor, who can kick something soft that's out of shot. Don't have your actor kick thin air, as that looks fake. Always put a mattress or some padding in there, to give your actor something to work with. Your camera should be quite close to the actor, so that the audience really feels the kicks.

  For the second shot, again position your camera low to the ground, some distance back from the victim of the kicks. Use a long lens, which shortens apparent distance between aggressor and victim. On action, the aggressor should simulate the end of a kick by pulling his foot upward or backward. At the same moment, the victim should recoil, as though the kick has landed. By itself, this will look terribly fake, but with sharp editing and sound, it will convince.

  When it comes to editing, let the first shot of the attacker's face run for one or two kicks (to give the audience the idea what's happening), then at the moment of the third impact, cut to the lower shot and see the victim's reaction.

  Superman Returns. Directed by Bryan Singer. Warner Home Video, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

  1.6

  DOWN ON THE FLOOR

  In reality, most fights end up on the floor in moments. In film, it usually takes a while longer, but characters who fight usually end up scrabbling on the floor after the real punching has been done. Partly this is cliché at work, but it also reflects the paradoxical intimacy of a fight. It shows that your characters aren't just thumping each other for the sake of violence, but are involved in a confrontation as personal as a loving embrace.

  When your characters end up on the floor, the imbalance of power is more obvious. After all, somebody is on top. The same person may not stay on top for long, of course. Most fights usually end on the floor, because you can see whether one person wins, or whether a truce is reached.

  It's simple to shoot toward the ground, over the shoulder of the character who's uppermost, but a little more effort is required to see this uppermost character's face in the reverse shot. Placing the camera on the floor, even without a tripod, will put it too close to the actor's face. You could opt to widen the lens to compensate, but lens choices should be dictated by you, rather than by the constraints of the location.

  The solution is to raise the actors onto a platform or table, so the camera can be placed below them. This lets us see the uppermost character's face, and share in the second character's feeling of defeat. In both shots, use the same lens, and keep the camera the same distance from the face that's in shot.

  It goes without saying that great care should be taken, and that padding should be placed around the table. Don't have your actors carrying out complex choreography on the raised table; save these close-ups for the point where the fight is coming to an end.

  Dark Blue World. Directed by Jan Sveˇrák. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2001. All Rights Reserved.

  1.7

  OFF-SCREEN VIOLENCE

  If you want to show a violent attack, but don't want your film to descend into a gore movie, you might not want to see blood and suffering on screen. Sometimes, your film requires a strong implication of violence, without actually seeing the impacts that are taking place.

  These frames from Sideways show one character beating another with a motorcycle helmet. She repeatedly hits him in the face with the helmet, breaking up his face. It's vital for the story that we sense the extreme nature of her anger and violence, but as this is more of a comedy than a thriller, it would be completely wrong to see his face being smashed to pieces. The solution is to show her attack, but not its result.

  This technique enables you to create the effect of a violent attack without great risk to your actors. Set up your camera at about waist height, looking up at the attacker, who simulates repeated blows to somebody who is on the ground.

  It works best if we see the victim upright in the shot, before the attack begins, so use one of the other techniques in this chapter to introduce the victim and get them on the ground, and then continue with this shot. The actor playing the victim should, of course, roll out of the way and be replaced with some padding, so that the attacker has something to actually hit.

  The real strength of this technique is that it requires no cuts, and allows a direct view of the attacker's face. It reveals far more energy and character than a sequence that relies on stunts and cuts.

  Sideways. Directed by Alexander Payne. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2004. All Rights Reserved.

  1.8

  THE MOMENT OF DEFEAT

  When a fight comes to an end, you want it to be very clear who's won and you also need to see the effect this has on both characters. In film, this usually means that the victor sits atop the loser and either knocks him out or kills him, but before that moment, it's important to relish the moment of victory.

  As these stills from Patriot Games show, the choice of lighting and lens are completely different for each actor. The victor is shown sitting atop the loser, and we see his expression and read what's going on in the depths of his character. The victim, meanwhile, is shot in an almost surreal light, with a long lens, from the point of view of the victor. The contrast in styles shows the contrast in their predicaments.

  At the very end, the loser falls back out of sight, leaving Harrison Ford alone in the frame. This is important, because it signals that the fight is over, and allows the audience to refocus on the hero of the story, and watch the emotions play out.

  The first set-up, showing both actors, can be the same as Down on the Floor, or you can simply shoot from ground level, with the camera off to one side. The second set-up can be shot with a long lens, high above the actor, or a short lens, with the camera close to the actor. Each will give a different effect, and the choice depends on the requirements of your particular story.

  PatriotGames. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Paramount Home Entertainment, 1992. All Rights Reserved.

  2.1

  TRAVEL WITH SUBJECT

  When somebody is being chased, you don't even need to see the person who's chasing them for the scene to work. In fact, seeing nothing other than empty space behind your actor is more terrifying than watching somebody approach.

  A shot such as this only works once the chase has been established, because we need to know that the character is being pursued. It works best when the actor is struggling through difficult terrain that involves climbing hills and changing direction. If you shoot at night, make sure that enough of the background is lit up sufficiently for the audience to feel this sense of movement.

  Set up your camera quite close to the actor, but with a short lens. This accentuates the sense of movement, but exaggerates the background space around your actor. You should keep the camera the same distance from the actor during the shot so the audience feels a strong affinity to her movement.

  In these examples, the actor is centrally framed. You don't have to use central framing, but whatever framing you use, keep it exactly the same through the shot. This persistence of framing means the camera is locked onto the actor's movement, so we feel her struggle. The more changes of direction there are during the shot, the better it works. A windy path up a hill is perfe
ct, as it includes the struggle up the hill, as well as many changes of direction.

  You need never see the attacker in the background, although this shot can easily be adapted to include the attacker appearing at the very end of the shot. You create far more suspense if the escapee does not see the attacker appear in the background.

  Friday the 13th Part II. Directed by Steve Miner. Paramount Home Entertainment, 1981. All Rights Reserved.

  2.2

  LONG LENS PAN

  Most chases involve one person running away, and another following them. You can create a far more original sense of fear if you have your character run across the screen while the attacker runs straight toward camera. This won't work in all story situations, but if your main character has a definite goal that must be headed toward, and the attacker can come at them from the side, it's great imagery.

  A long lens is used because as you pan with your actors running left to right across the screen, the sense of movement through the environment is greatly enhanced. This works best if there are trees or other obstacles around them and in front of them, flashing across the screen. Equally, the long lens foreshortens the distances, so the attackers appear to be horribly close, even though they are quite distant.

  Set up your escaping actors and their path first, then set up the attackers and camera at equal distances on either side of them. You can track along with the actors on a dolly, but if you're using a very long lens, there's really no need, and a pan creates just as powerful an effect with a lot less effort.

  The effect only works if the attackers can be clearly seen. In this shot from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the scene is very busy, with lots of trees and terrain, so it only works because there are many attackers in the background. If you only have one attacker, the scene should be set in a much quieter environment, so that the attacker is immediately visible.