Camera Workshop 2 | Making a Sequence

In our camera lesson we learned all about how to make a simple sequence using lots of different shots. the first thing we were told is that the best way to film something is to do many takes of the same thing at different camera angles. For example if you wanted to film a man walking into a room and answering a telephone and then walking back out you would first do a take with the camera set up at a long shot, then a mid shot, a close up on the face and then also maybe one on the phone. the point of this is to make sure you can piece together a nice scene with a variety of camera angles. An example of how you would put these together is you would first use the long shot as he enters the room to set the scene, then the use of a close up on the phone as he picks up the phone then either a close up on the face or the use of a mid shot while he is talking on the phone and then another close up on the phone as he hangs up and then ending on a long shot as he leaves the room. One thing we did also learn is continuity, this is when every single take of the same scene needs to be set up the same, props need to be placed exactly where they were before and hair and makeup as well as costumes need to look identical to how they were in previous takes. this job is so important that a movie and TV sets someone is hired to make sure that this is done correctly.

One of the most important rules we also learned about is the 180° rule,"The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line". This basically means when you are filming something imagine a line going underneath where the action is happening and you can't cross the line because say if two people one in a blue shirt who is on the right side of the screen if you were to start filming from the other side it would look like he is talking to himself because he is now on the left side of the screen.