How To Make A Movie Sitemap

INTERODUCTION - There are ten million film makers in America today. Most of them are amateurs, but the number who migrate to pro­fessional ranks grows constantly as television enlarges its demands for motion pictures of all kinds.

Whether he shoots for fun or profit—for a family circle or a television station—the experienced film maker knows that getting correct focus and exposure are only the first steps in using a movie camera.

01. SIMPLE SEQUENCE - Most people who have pressed the button of either a still or movie camera appreciate the fact that a motion picture is only a series of still pictures in which the change between the frames is so slight that the illusion of motion is  gained.

But a good motion picture is more than just a series of an­imated snapshots. It hangs together, it tells a story smoothly, coherently, logically. The know-how of this is contained in the technique of pictorial continuity.

02. VARIATIONS - Having looked at the sequence in its simplest, most rudi­mentary form, we turn now to the problem of adding variety and interest. The long shot, the medium shot, and the closeup are all relative. Translated, this means that the distances which separate the long shot from the medium and the medi­um shot from the closeup in an interior sequence such as visit­ing Mr. Prospect, would he different from the distances involved outdoors in photographing a parade where the LS from the rooftop might be hundreds of feet distant, the MS of the marching ranks from the sidewalk might be fifty feel away, and the final CU as much as twenty feet removed.

03. REESTABLISHING SHOT - 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.

04. OVERLAP ACTION - Good continuity demands a smooth, uninterrupted flow of action from one shot to the next. That impression of smooth­ness is destroyed for the audience when there are sudden gaps in the movement of screen actors between shots.

If (returning to the original example) your first shot of Mr. Prospect shows him starting to rise from his chair, and your next shows him standing erect, the audience may be conscious of an irritating jump in the action, as though the few feet of film showing Mr. Prospect going through the act of rising had been cut out.

05. CUT-IN’S + UT-AWAYS - We are making good headway in our study of continuity. We have taken note of the structure of the sequence, of how sequences are connected, and of how those connections are made smoother and more interesting to an audience. So far we have an outline, a skeleton form of continuity.

We now take a look at certain shots which will serve to develop that outline, add substance to that skeleton.

06. GENERAL RULE - So vital to smooth continuity is the avoidance or minimiz­ing of jumpy action that we are going to do something we haven't done before—lay down a hard-and-fast rule which must be followed.

We call it the general rule, because it is applied to all the shots of a motion-picture sequence, without exception, consistently. generally.

07. ANGLES - The general rule approves of a change of angles with each new scene. Such a change assures smooth continuity and variety. But just how good, how effective that change will be, is up to the photographer.

Angles arc a main ingredient of the cameraman's style. His choice of angles is as fundamental and important in his work as an author's choice of words. Angles can create drama, ex­citement, suspense.

08. PANNING - We come now to the subject of panning, which we have previously (in connection with its usefulness in the reestab­lishing shot) mentioned as a photographic "hot potato." We approach it in a hesitant, reluctant manner because, like the fabled jewel of India whose curse brought both pleasure and pain to its possessor, the pan can both enrich a movie and create a lot of grief for the unwary cameraman.

09. MOVING SHOTS - Up to now we have stressed the importance of keeping the camera as steady and stationary as possible. But frequently we can tell a motion picture story more effectively by using moving shots. These are shots in which the camera is shooting while it is in motion.

10. DIRECTIONAL CONTINUITY - The screen has unlimited power of illusion. But "illusion" is not far removed in sound or spelling from "confusion," and the unwary cameraman will often find his camera prankishly playing tricks on his audience against his best wishes and intentions.

We have said before and resoundingly say again that the cameraman must enable his audience to see the action on­screen the way he—the cameraman—sees it in reality.

11. BUIDUP - This chapter on buildup marks an important milestone along the route of continuity study, and we may well pause for a quick RS of the road we have just traveled.

Thus far we have been bowling along a pretty clearly mark­ed highway, where deviations from the straight and narrow have been inadvisable. Up to this point we have talked in specific terms about the structure of the sequence, about the mechanics of smoothness, coherence, and camera logic. These have been highly practical, hard-and-fast matters, with point­ers and warnings and rulings; they have been the funda­mentals, the ABC's of pictorial continuity. Now come the XYZ's.

12. STORY +EDITING - It is not the province of this book to analyze scenario writ­ing. We are studying pictorial continuity: those rules of struc­ture, logic, and form which work to make a coherent motion-picture story regardless of the type of plot, much as certain rules of building construction are applied regardless of whether the building is a hotel or a garage.

Hut just as rules of building construction do control the flow and movement of people within a structure, so does pictorial continuity have a powerful effect on the development of any plot.

13. DO IT? - 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.

14. WORTH IT? - The use of pictorial continuity is the secret of good movie­making. It is the easiest, simplest way, because it is the cor­rect way. But—and this is a thankful thing—even the most ex­pensive, gadget-studded movie camera hasn't got pictorial continuity built into it, to function automatically for the cameraman whenever he shoots a story. Continuity is what transforms a strip of exposed film into a motion-picture: DO gadget can do that.

THE END

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