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HOW-TO, Techniques, & Best Practices Channel
Directing for the Cut: Change of Distance, Change of Angle, and Action within the Scene
By Staff
posted May 4, 2010, 08:49 |
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Check out this article in the print edition of StudentFilmmakers
Magazine, October 2006. Click
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Directing
for the Cut
Change of Distance, Change of Angle, and Action within the Scene
by George Avgerakis
It has often been said the best film directors came from a previous career
as editors. One of the most valuable lessons a director can learn in the edit
room is how to �direct for the cut.� The art of film is made of two parts: what
happens in the scene and what happens between the scenes, that is the cut (or
transition). Cutting establishes momentum, rhythm, action, suspense and drama.
Regardless of the skill of the editor, directors who directed for the cut inevitably
achieve higher degrees of success and artistic achievement.
Directing for the cut requires knowledge of the three basic ingredients of a
good cut. These are change of distance, change of angle, and action within the
scene. A cut that has all three is said to be a �well-directed cut.�
Change of distance, between Shot A and Shot B can be represented by a physical
move of the camera from close to far (or vice versa) and/or a change of lens
focal length. Obviously, if a cut uses only change of distance on a subject,
which is otherwise unchanging, the cut will likely be a wretched failure. Add,
however, change of angle, and the cut improves.
Change of angle means that the position of the camera, with regard to the subject(s)
moves from Shot A to Shot B. This change can be measured in feet or meters past
the subject from, say, left to right, or degrees of arc around the subject,
say 30 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise. The final ingredient of a well-directed
cut is action within the scene.
Let�s suppose we have a scene of a lover�s quarrel. The woman gets upset with
her man and slaps him across the face. This is great action for a cut. If the
slap begins in Shot A, the editor can carry the action all the way to � and
through � the painful impact, and then CUT to Shot B sometime during the impact.
If, at the same time, the director had supplied a change of distance and angle
between the two shots, the viewer�s eye is treated to a smooth, emotional experience.
Directors have to be wise enough to give their editor enough latitude to decide
the exactly right moment to affect the cut. Often an editor will choose to overlap
the action. For instance, in the slap, Shot A may carry through several frames
past the impact, while Shot B will begin several frames before the impact. The
subliminal effect of such a cut is to elongate the moment of pain and to cause
the audience to experience a slight hesitation or emphasis on the key action
� the slap.
The opposite effect can be created by trimming the end Shot A slightly before
the impact and the beginning of Shot B slightly after the impact. This would
create a nearly humorous effect, where the audience anticipates the slap, sees
the result, but doesn�t experience the actual �sting!�.
A wise director, wishing to leave such delicate decisions until after the tension
of filming is over, will provide the editor with an abundance of footage both
before and after the key action in every take. That is why beginning actors
are told to wait until they hear, �Cut!� before they stop acting. The reason
is to extend the action of the scene well past the point where the director
anticipates the cut to occur.
Incidentally, there is a weird kind of effect you can accidentally create.
Okay, we know the three essentials; so let�s put them into practice on a real
scene.
In first year film studies, I often used to send the class out in teams of four
to five on just this exercise. You can try it with your friends or crew as practice
or adapt it to any current project. The scene is a simple. Two people sit on
opposite sides of a table. They have some conversation and then slap their hands
together in a �high five.� That�s it.
This scene brings up another key directorial �rule,� which is, �Don�t cut across
the line.� In this rule, there is an imaginary line between any two people in
a scene. When shooting 2-shots within such a scene, keep the camera on one side
of this line. That means, you have roughly 179 degrees of rotation around the
two subjects. This would include an equal 2-shot and a pair of over-the-shoulder
shots of each subject.
If you violate the rule and try to cut the two 2-shots together, the result
will be a weird jump cut where the two subjects will instantly reverse position
on the screen! Believe it or not, I have seen such a bad cut in a recent feature
film. Worse yet, I allowed one to occur in a film I shot!
Now, when you direct the exercise, be sure to shoot the entire scene as a master
shot, showing the entire room. This is also called an �establishing shot,� because
it establishes, for the viewer, the scene in which your action will take place.
It�s good to start with the master shot for a lot of reasons, the most important
of which is time and money. If something goes bad during the shoot, and you
have to abandon the location, you have at least something you can use!
Continued
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