Chapter 3 - The Reestablishing Shot

Connecting Sequence | Reestablish for Anything New! | Reestablishing by Pulling Back | Reestablishing by Panning | Reestablishing with the Reverse Angle | Summary

Connecting Sequences

We have observed that a single sequence such as the sales call on Mr. Prospect will give you a "motion picture" as long as you apply the basic elements of continuity to it. But most of the movies you shoot will be too rich in action to be told in just "lie sequence. Suppose Mr. Prospect's secretary came to his desk, thereby introducing .something new into the scene. Re­member that as you finished your simple sequence of Mr. Pro­spect, you were taking the closeup. Your audience would be unable to see Miss Secretary unless you—the cameraman-enabled it to. Thus you must have another sequence to intro­duce her and to tell her part in the story. Still more sequences will follow, as new actors and new action are added to the story.

Almost all action breaks down into a series of related se­quences. They may be considered as the links of a chain. The links, to make a chain, must be joined; the sequences, to form a coherent motion-picture story, must be tied together. Co­herence is obtained through good continuity, and for good continuity properly tied motion-picture sequences are indis­pensable.

One of the photographic devices that joins sequences to­gether is called a reestablishing shot, or "RS." It is a medium or long shot that gets its name from the fact that it usually follows a closeup and again establishes the general scene, much as the original LS established it in the beginning.

So, in the case in point, you pull back far enough with your camera in order that your next shot may show  the general

scene again, with Miss Secretary actually entering it. Your audience is instantly oriented with regard to the entrance of Miss Secretary; it understands that she came from some-where beyond the screen boundary and did not magically appear from the floor beside Mr. Prospect. And you can go ahead and shoot your second sequence, involving Miss Sec­retary.

Bear in mind that the prime purpose of reestablishing the old scene is to carry action smoothly into a new sequence. Such action may take place either in the old physical setting or in a new one. Your second sequence began with a reestablishing shot showing Miss Secretary entering the office and then going through the action of taking dictation from Mr. Prospect. Your third sequence could take place in her own office and show her typing out the dictation. The RS necessary to con­nect the second and third sequences would show her leaving Mr. Prospect's office to enter her own.

Reestablish For Anything New!

Whenever anything new is introduced on the screen, whether that something new is a live actor or an inanimate object, you should reestablish.

Suppose you shoot a movie of Mother fitting a new party dress on Betty. This calls for a lot of closeups because you want to feature Mother's nimble fingerwork with the needle. First, however, you shoot a regular LS-MS-CU sequence to establish the living room. Mother and Betty and the nature of the action.

After your first closeup, you reestablish to show Mother in a new action—she has moved from the hem of the dress to the shoulder. This RS need not take in all of the living room as before. It can be just another MS to relate Mother and Betty to the new   action.

Since were featuring Mother's needlework, we come in for another closeup of her fingers, this time working on the shoulder strap, and even one or more ECUs to emphasize herdeft stitching. This done, you reestablish with another shot as Mother puts the finishing touches to her handiwork. You can now end your movie with a final shot of Mother satisfied-ly studying the dress while Betty beams her happiness; or you can add more sequences il you wish, showing Mother work­ing on other parts ot   the dress and using other implements such as scissors, pins and measuring tape, as long as you re­establish with each new action..

The frequent use of reestablishing shots is necessary to re­fresh the audience's memory ot the scene, of the relation of the dress to Betty and Mother, of the relation of the parts of the dress shown in the closeups to the dress as a whole and of the deftly stitching fingers as belonging to Mother! It is a continuity truism that an audience, always looking ahead to what is coming, rarely keeps in mind more than one scene prior to the one it is looking at. It must periodically be reminded of how a small scene fits into the larger scene that includes it.

The Reestablishing Shot

Establishing   Shot	Closeup
Medium   Shot	Extreme  Closeup
Closeup	Medium   Shot
Reestablishing   Shot	Reestablishing   Shot

Remember that the human eye unconsciously refuses to look at too main closeups in succession, and reorients itself every now and then by a quick look around. Let your camera do likewise for your audience by frequently reestablishing the scene, otherwise confusion may kill interest.

You reestablish, therefore, not only to tie sequences to­gether, but also to keep your audience from netting lost.

Reestablishing By Pulling Back

There are three customary ways ot making a reestablishing shot. We have already used one in our explanation: pulling back. the simplest method. The other two are panning and the reverse-angle shot. All three methods can frequently be applied to the same story. Let us take one example for all three and see how   it works out.

Simple Sequence

Long Shot Medium Shot Close-up

Reestablishing by Pulling Back

Close-up of Simple Sequence Reestablishing Shot for Next Sequence

Your good friend and neighbor. Mr. Montgomery, is going to provide you with your action. Montgomery, who is a stick­ler for proper inflation in his automobile tires, is outdoors checking their air pressure with a gauge.

Using what you have learned so far, you make a movie of this action. You take an LS from across the street showing the car parked in front of the house and Neighbor Montgomery standing beside the left rear tire. Your MS follows from a po­sition in the middle of the street and advances the action: it shows Montgomery kneeling to apply the gauge to the tire valve. Finally, in your CU, he is actually applying the gauge to the valve and reading the pressure. (An ECU showing just the gauge and the reading on it would be logical—but optional—at this point.)

You have now completed your first sequence. Next. Mr. Montgomery rises, walks over to the left front tire, and repeats his performance. This separate action constitutes a separate sequence, and therefore you must reestablish in order to tie it to the first sequence.

The first method of reestablishing is to pull back to a med­ium- or long-shot position, whichever is back far enough to include both the rear tire, the location from which Montgom­ery is coming, and the front tire, the location to which he is going. Then you move iii again for medium and closeup shots of him at the front tire.

Reestablishing By Panning

The second method of reestablishing is by panning (de­rived from the word "panorama"). After pulling back from the closeup, the camera is panned to follow the action as it moves from one location to another.

You would pan Mr. Montgomery by following him through the camera's viewfinder as he moved from the rear to the front tire, carrying your audience along from one point to another.

So much can be said on the subject of the pan that, now we have explained its use as a reestablishing shot, we are going to postpone further discussion until a later chapter where we can go more thoroughly into the various aspects of handl­ing this photographic "hot potato."

Reestablishing by Panning

3. Reestablishing Shot for Next Sequence 4. Close-Up Simple Sequence

Reestablishing by Reverse Angle

Close-up of Simple Sequence Reestablishing Shot for Next Sequence Reverse Angle of 4

Reestablishing With The Reverse Angle

Now we proceed to a third method of reestablishing—the reverse-angle shot.

When we say reverse-angle shot, we mean a shot wherein the camera has been turned around a full 180 decrees and is facing in exactly the opposite direction. It is always a two-shot affair, with a preceding shot to give the angle from which the switch to reverse is made.

Here is Mr. Montgomery again to act for your reverse-angle shot. You shoot your first sequence of him checking the rear tire as you did originally. Now, as he rises, you change posi­tion by moving to the rear bumper directly behind him and the rear tire, so that you are shooting past him along the car to the front tire.

In the next sequence, you move the camera down past the front tire and shoot back toward the rear tire. Now you catch Montgomery moving away from the rear tire and toward the trout lire, and you have a reverse-angle shot.

Varying your reestablishing shots will enrich your sequenc­es ami avoid monotony. lie guided by story needs—and by good sense.

Summary

All action  breaks  down  into   motion-picture sequences.
 
A new sequence is necessary wherever a new subject live or inanimate, is introduced into the picture, or when the subject is moved from  an old  to a new   location.
 
In order to join motion-picture sequences together, the reestablishing  shot  is used.

The RS not only ties sequences together but also keeps the audience from getting confused or lost.

There are three ways to reestablish: by pulling back. by panning, and by shooting from a reverse angle.

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