where do i put the camera

8/2/2019 Where Do i Put the Camera

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Where do I put the camera? — covering scene “events”John Clement

Watch a lot, learn a lotIn prep for our series we watch a lot of movies and television drama series (sometimes whole

seasons) on DVDs from more than a dozen countries. Most we just watch and enjoy (or not). But

some we watch and enjoy but then go back to watch and learn. Temple Grandin is one of

those. Temple Grandin is a 2010 HBO biopic about an autistic woman who became one

America’s top scientists in the humane

handling of livestock in the food production

industry. It’s not a great movie, just a good

movie — made-for-television withinconstraints of budget and time but well-

crafted in every way.

What we learned re-watching Temple

Grandin came from the actor-friendly

blocking and staging of the scenes and the

economical, motivated scene coverage by a

very experienced Director, Mick Jackson .

The coverage throughout was so fit and rightthat at the end of our first screening we had

some questions; one was: Why did he expend so much time and energy on the coverage of part

of a scene (really just a simple action) early in the film — “Temple climbs over a fence”?

Preparation is the most important thing a Director does… What I do mostly is a shot

list and a lot of floor plans of all the sets. I map out where everybody is and I map my

coverage out so I know where I’ll be at any given moment. I do it so, if I had to cut

that scene that night, I could . — Joe Chappelle , Director and Co-Executive

Producer, The Wire

Three questionsDavid Mamet says there are three questions a director asks him- or herself:

• What’s the scene about?

• What do I tell the actors?

• Where do I put the camera?

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DramaLabs — Botswana

As a director, these are not the questions to

be asking yourself on the day. You start

asking somewhere around your third or

fourth read-through of the script (you need

to grasp the story and the needs and wants

of its characters before anything else). You

continue working on the answers in

collaboration with your actors

through rehearsals , during locations recce,

and in discussions (started early on) with the

cinematographer (with an eye to budget and

time constraints) — and don’t forget the editor!

Every scene has its own rhythm

You want to search for any little way to heighten the reality without wrecking it, and

taking the audience out of the film. — John Seale , Cinematographer

Cinematographer Ed Lachman said in an interview that every scene has its own rhythm. At the

time he was warning against inappropriate use of hand-held camerawork, but the statement

“every scene has its own rhythm” stands true on its own.

Rhythm is discovered in a scene, not stamped on it.

The rhythm of a scene originates from,

among other things, the script beats , the

actors’ beats, and the physical actions and

activities (the events ) done by, caused by

and affecting a character. In the end it all

comes down to coverage and editing.

Inappropriate or inadequate

coverage cannot be fixed in post.

The job of coverage is to place the camera inthe right place(s) at the right time for the right

reasons to capture and to give visually

appropriate meaning to the actions of the

characters and the events of the story * as it unfolds.

*See our post: What we mean when we talk about “story”…

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Narrative cinematography is not about pretty pictures. Every shot/scene/sequence must

do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action. Both at the same time?

That’s golden.

Temple Grandin climbs over a fence

The “Temple climbs over a fence” event occurs (minus opening title sequence) about 10 minutes

into the film. The running time is a bit over 36 seconds (represented in the frame-capture

storyboard above and the shot list below). It’s close to real-time coverage with no repetition of

actions to extend time or editing out of actions to compress it.

We’re 10 minutes into a near 2-hour movie. Some of what’s been established so far aboutTemple is that she’s in her late teens; she’s autistic; she’s come from the city of Boston to a new

and strange environment (her aunt’s cattle farm in the rural Southwestern US); people make her

uncomfortable ; and she doesn’t like to be touched or held . (All of this, and more, has been

shown, not told.)

The activity (first two unnumbered shots in the storyboard above) preceding the covered event

has Temple characteristically alone working on a gate opening contraption of her own design

when her attention is drawn to the kraal* by the sound of a cow mooing.

*What Americans call a “corral”.

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Shot 1: Temple’s reaction “look” (not the O.S. cow’s moo)signals the start of this event

Cut 1, Shot 2: Temple’s POV herd of cows in kraal (hand-held)

Cut 2, Shot 3: Cow moos (eyeline match)

Cut 3, Shot 4: Temple moves right to left out of frame (herright-to-left movement continues throughout)

Cut 4, Shot 5: Slow DOLLY (Steadicam) forward on kraal; Templeenters frame-right walking forward, as dolly continues

Cut 5, Shot 6: REVERSE on Temple’s approach to kraal fence

Cut 6, Shot 7: right angle on Temple as she appraoches andbegins to climb over fence; camera moves over fence justslightly ahead of her

Cut 7, Shot 8: Temple wider, frontal; one leg over fence

Cut 8, back to Shot 6: frontal; other leg over the fence

Cut 9, back to Shot 5: slow Steadicam dolly forward cont’d asTemple begins to walk among the herd

Cut 10, Shot 9: Temple walks forward into the herd then pausesat the sound of a male voice O.S. speaking to her

Cut 11, Shot 10: Cowboy speaking to Temple

Cut 12, Shot 11(?) or end Shot 9 (long follow pan?): Templereaction look towards the Cowboy.

Does the coverage of this event reveal character or move the story forward?

It does both.

Without flash or trash the coverage of this event visually expresses a “dramatic beat”

(sometimes called a “director’s beat”). Temple leaves off what she’s doing, crosses a distance,

steps over the fence (a boundary/obstacle) between her and the cows, to stand among them.

This simple event is covered simply, step-by-step, close to Temple’s own eye height, with no

extreme angles, lens choices or camera movement.

It also sets up the next dramatic beat.

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The next dramatic beat is cued by the Cowboy (O.S.) speaking and starts with Temple’s reaction

look — and 21-seconds later Temple reaches out to touch, then stroke, the cow.

These two dramatic beats form a larger unit that both reveals character and moves the story

forward.

What’s revealed about character? Temple has made two choices: (1) She’s reached out and

made gentle physical contact with another living thing; (2) she’s interacted openly (though

silently) with the Cowboy.

How’s the story moved forward? What the story is about is referenced for the first time. The

story being told is about Temple’s pursuit of a meaningful goal: the humane treatment of

livestock as it’s processed through the US food production industry. It’s not about her autism

which is just one personal obstacle among the many external obstacles that she encounters andmust overcome along the way.

Stuff happens

Our definition of “event” is any visible action or self-contained activity within a scene that

has a beginning, middle and end. It can be as simple as climbing over a low, wood fence or as

complex as the final phase of an emergency landing by the pilots of a passenger jet infested

with mutant bunny rabbits. But let’s stick with something within our budget, something dead

simple: “a hand opens a door”.

We could cover the action as a continuous action, lasting maybe three seconds, like so:

CLOSE ON DOORKNOB

A hand reaches in, grasps and turns the knob, pulls the dooropen.

Then we’d likely cut to a wider shot of the person fully opening the door and stepping through,

or maybe a POV shot of what’s revealed behind the door, whatever. But the event “a hand opens

a door” is complete in itself and covered as continuous, self-contained action.

Or, we can opt for fragmented coverage with the action broken down into mini-events, each with

its own shot, like so:

A SERIES OF ANGLES – CLOSE:

A hand reaches for the doorknob.

The hand grasps the knob.

The hand turns the knob.

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The door latch moves.

The door begins to open.

The hand releases the knob.

The door completely opens.

How many times have we seen some version of this

highly fragmented coverage used as a device to

stretch out time and suspense in a slasher flick? Go

to our post Short Film — the long view: LOVEFIELD

by Mathieu Ratthe . Watch it without sound. It’s entire

dramatic impact relies on highly fragmented

coverage and editing, with scene events oftenreduced to a single short discontinuous shot.

•••

About Temple Grandin, the movie & the person

Temple Grandin was nominated for and won a host of awards including 15 Emmy nominations ofwhich it won seven, including actress Claire Danes as Grandin, David Strathairn as her teacher,and Julia Ormond as Temple’s mother. Under the direction of Mick Jackson, TempleGrandin also won the Emmy for Outstanding Made for TV Movie. Screenwriters Christopher

Monger & Merritt Johnson were nominated for their script based in part on thebook Emergence by Temple Grandin & Margret Scariano, and Thinking in Pictures; My Life with

Autism by Temple Grandin.

_______________________John ClementDramaLabs — Botswana12 April 2012

6. / 6

Lovefield's dramatic impact relies on

fragmented coverage.

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