Chapter 13 - Can You do It?

Question Before the House | You Can’t Argue with Arithmetic | How About Story material? | Summary

Questions Before The House

It is now. in the closing phase of our study, that we can fully appreciate how closely knit the interrelationship of all the aspects of continuity; how this advanced chapter is in­timately related to the elementary one about the basic shots of the sequence, and both subjects to the chapters in between; how a single shot should be considered—at one and the same time—in terms of all the various factors of continuity. The whole of continuity is, indeed, equal to the sum of its parts.

The reader, however, may sigh at the abundance and vari­ety of things the full use of continuity requires—the special shots to take, the cut-ins and cut-aways, the things to watch out for: screen direction, clean exits and entrances, and so on and on and on. All to make a simple home movie.

You may be convinced of your ability to handle continuity from the viewpoint of ideas or technique, but you may at the same time wonder whether you can afford enough film for al! the various continuity touches. "Doesn't it require far more footage, you may ask, "than if I just aimed the camera from one or two positions and banged away, getting everything in with one or two shots?"

The answer is unequivocally "No!" The motion-picture shots of the average non-professional are individually much too long. He will start his camera from one position and simply let it run on far longer than necessary to get that one scene over to the audience. The unnecessarily exposed film in any one of these  overlong  shots  would  easily be  adequate  for breaking it down into separate scenes, with cut-ins and cut­aways, overlap, and other refinements of continuity.

It is a common fault of a cameraman untrained in the uses of continuity to expose twenty feet or more in a single shot from the same position—as, for instance, in a sequence show­ing the family gathered around Junior's birthday cake. He lets his camera run on, he explains, because "I can get almost everybody in from this spot and since there are quite a few people in the scene, I want to let the shot run long enough so that the audience has a chance to see everyone."!!!

Then—since a few people were left out—he moves his camera to an angle from where he can get them into the pic­ture too, and makes another shot as long as the first or longer He has by now exposed forty or fifty feet of film—of very dull film. (Much more than that, if he is using 35mm instead of 16 or 8mm film.)

How much better that picture will be if, with his first twenty feet, he shoots a real sequence: eight feet on an LS, five feet on an MS, a CU of Junior cutting the cake for another five feet, with a two-foot insert of the knife as it plunges through the frosting!

Then, with the remaining footage, be tan still "get every­body in"—and make the picture far livelier—if he takes a re­establishing shot about seven feet long showing Junior hand­ing out slices of cake, then several closeups, two or three feet each, showing the individual guests happily gorging them­selves, and ends with a final LS—using what film remains—of Junior looking ruefully at the empty cake plate while his guests contentedly lick the crumbs!

The ultimate truth about applying continuity to a picture is this: Not only does it require no more than the ordinary amount of film, but it actually leads to more economical usage! The unplanned, blind act of just "shooting a roll" changes, through it. to a careful appraisal of scene lengths, to the use of proper tempo and emphasis for each shot.

You Can't Argue With Arithmetic

So remarkable can be the saving of film through such continuity devices as cut-ins and cut-aways that we wish to bring the point home once and for all by means of a "master ex­ample citing exact figures on footage per scene.

Our example is a movie showing a workman loading sand aboard a truck. Our cameraman is you.

You perceive at once that if you keep grinding the camera while the entire sandpile is being shoveled into the truck, you will bore your audience, declare a dividend for the film manu­facturers—and in the end discard most of the film.

You are going to avoid this triple threat. Let's follow through on your shooting and see how.

First, yon put the establishing shot to work and make an LS of the man as lie attacks the sandpile with his shovel. You shoot exactly six feel of 16mm film. ( 16mm is a size the home cameraman will frequently use. and provides a good standard example here.)

Next you take an MS using six feet more.

Now you get going on cut-ins and cut-aways. You shoot a full-frame cut-in CU of the shovel as it digs into the sandpile and withdraws with its load out of the frame, comes back empty, is refilled, and goes out of the frame once more. Four feet of film have been used on this shot.

You change your angle completely for the next scene, but stay in close, almost filling the frame with the shovel. You re­peat the action and show two more shovelfuls being removed; this requires another four feet.

For the next shot yon change position and frame the view against the sky. with the edge ot the truck just inside the frame. You shoot the shovel coming into the frame fully load­ed with sand, and watch the sand leave the shovel and fall into the truck. You keep the camera motionless while the ac- tion is repeated (the empty frame between shovelfulls creates a slight pause which is buildup in itself). Another six feet of film has been exposed.

At this point you switch camera position for a really low angle shot looking up into the perspiring face of the man. Three feet will suffice.

Now you give the camera and yourself a real rest. You sit down and wait until the truck is about half full. Then you fine' yourself a position for a nice high angle shot. From this new vantage point you make a reestablishing shot down on the half-filled truck  and past  it  to the man in the background working on the now half-removed sandpile. Six feet of film is used.

Once more you take a break until the workman has only about three shovelfuls of sand left. Then you return to your original location and shoot him as he dumps the final loads aboard the truck and mops his brow. Six feet will cover the shot.

Check what you have shot thus far. In all. you have taken forty-one feet. Your action is complete, but to add a satisfying finishing touch you move across the street for a final LS show­ing the workman as he climbs aboard the truck and drives out of the frame. Six feet of film will be ample for this closing scene.

You now have forty-seven feel. When you edit this material and trim some of those four-foot-length CU's of the shovel digging into the sandpile. or shovel's being loaded into the truck (for the chances are far greater that you shot too much rather than too little), you will find that your finished sc quence cuts down to about forty-two feet, which will run on the screen for about seventy seconds.

The whole job of sand removal, an operation that actually took a half-hour, is run through on the screen in little over a minute—clearly, convincingly, interestingly, with no part of the story left untold, and with extreme economy of film!

Thus, to the question whether you have enough film to use pictorial continuity every time you shoot, the answer is emphatically. overwhelmingly—Yes!

How About Story Material?

Another question that may be on your mind is: Do simple domestic picture subjects lend themselves to all these varied touches of good continuity?

The answer can easily be inferred from the illustrations we have used   throughout;   they have been drawn   consistently from the personal environment and the daily affairs of almost any  family.

There is no aspect of home life too small or too static to be built up into some kind of story. That is one of the great ser­vices of continuity—to take a subject which at first glance seems to offer opportunity for no more than a still-camera shot, and build it up into a genuine motion-picture story.

Any subject taken at random will lend itself to this treat­ment. Here, let's pick on you. the reader. What are you doing at this very moment? . . . reading this book. That might make a nice still shot. But it will do more—it will make a mo­tion picture.

Surprising? Well, it can be done by applying the tricks of continuity. Here's how it might break down into a motion-picture sequence.

1. LS of living room with copy of this book on end-table next to easy chair. A few feet of this—then you, the reader. make clean entrance, walk over to chair, sit down.
2. MS from change of angle. Camera is moved in front of chair near floor and angled up at you as you stretch out, look down at table, see book.
3. CU from side angle near end-table with book in fore­ ground as you stretch out hand, pick it up, look at it.
4. ECU  cut-in,  from   over   your shoulder,  of book  to show title.
5. CL" of your face as you study title.
6. LS to reestablish as you look up at clock on mantel over fireplace, then look down to book and begin to read
7. CU cut-away to clock to show hands at one o'clock then dissolve into . . .
8. ... CU from another angle on clock showing time as three o'clock.
9. MS of you reading page near end of book.
10. MS from another angle as you close book, lay it on table.
11. LS from corner of room opposite to doorway as you rise, with camera panning you over to doorway. Out you go through doorway and out of the frame.

The sequence is finished. Using about half of a fifty-foot roll of 16mm film, a motion picture has been made out of a subject that at first glance seemed completely static and Im­possible of development as a motion-picture story

But this is only scratching the surface ot what can be done to build up the ordinary, everyday subject of reading a book A sequence of you lighting a cigarette could be cut in, fol­lowed by ,i dissolve from a shot of one cigarette stub in the ashtray to a shot to a trayful of butts indicating the passage of time.

Still more meat could be added by a third sequence show­ing you putting the book face down when you reach the chapter on panning, getting out your camera, and practicing a pan. (This sequence, indeed, could very well be divided into two or more subordinate sequences.)

The movie could be given a comic twist by Inning Junior run back and forth with his toys, or chase the dog. Such a se­quence would provide plenty of opportunity to apply the new knowledge of panning and directional continuity, with head-ons and tail-aways of Junior, cut-ins of his racing feet, cut­aways of the dog, and the like. Things could be worked up to a furious tempo by brief flashes of Junior dashing to and fro and quick shots in-between of your harried, exasperated ex­pression.

Finally to put a good ending on tin- whole picture, there could be a sequence of you grabbing the book and your camera, clapping your hand on Junior's shoulder, pointing outdoors, and marching him off with the obvious intention of practicing a little of what you have been reading ... so on out of the room in a nice fade.

Any subject at all is susceptible to treatment by pictorial continuity; conversely, pictorial continuity will build up a genuine motion picture out of any subject.

You certainly ran do it!

Summary

The motion-picture cameraman can apply pictorial continuity to his work without using; more film than he would just shooting blindly.

He need not be worried about whether home movie sub­jects lend themselves to continuity treatment; they most em­phatically  do. and  are greatly enriched thereby.

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