Changing Shots in a scene

[derek smith]

When you see a scene, and it has two people in the scene only. When Person A is speaking, the shot is a medium shot of him and him only talking. Then it changes to a medium shot of Person B when they start talking. Is this done in 2 takes, i.e. Once Person A has stopped talking, action cuts, and camera is moved around to the other side to begin Filming Person B...Reason being, when you see Person A talk, you don't see an additional camera behind him, so obviously it isn't a continuous shot

 

[A.D.]

Depends on focal length and composition. But you answered your own question anyway - if you can't do it simultaneously then cut. :S

 

[LegacyOfWax]

I always wondered this to. Do you do one shot of each person readying through there lines. or is it better to cut and move to the other person. I can't think of a reason you would want to cut every time to the next person. I tend to do one long shot seems easier. then moving and setting the camera back up again.

question for everyone then. What do you guys do when shooting dialog? Continuous or cuts?

 

[mad_hatter]

You would most often shoot one side of the conversation, then the other. You’d then cut from one shot to the other in post. The only way to shoot both sides at the same time would be to use two cameras. The problem then is lighting. It’s difficult to have two simultaneous lighting set-ups, without one adversely affecting the other.

You'd never set everything up to shoot actor A reading a line, then set everything up to shoot actor B reading a line, then re-set everything to shoot actor A's next line, then move everything to shoot actor B, then back to A, then back to B... You'd just be wasting time.

 

[LegacyOfWax]

I thought that's the way to to do it. Saves a lot of time. Also on thing I noticed in a lot of films is little differences between shots. It always kinda bugs me, Person A is talk hair in eyes, cut to person B, says line the back to A hair not in eyes then B then A, hair in eyes again.

What is the best way to avoid something like this?

 

[A.D.]

What Hatter said. It also gives the editors some free reaction shots to cut in if needed.

I minor niggle of mine is the way some DP's will relight for different takes can be jarring sometimes. I know it's not always possible to light freely and most veiwers don't seem to even notice or care of course anyway, but light direction inconsistencies can really pull me out of the moment.

 

[mad_hatter]

What is the best way to avoid something like this?

Hire someone to ensure it doesn't happen on set. If the budget's there, you'd pay somebody to do just that specific job. If not, you, as director/producer/whatever will do it yourself. It's just a case of paying attention.

Photographs help too. On a "real" shoot, a single scene might take several days to shoot. Photos help ensure that characters look consistent from day to day.

 

[harmonica44]

That happened me to once. An actor unbuttoned his jacket for lunch, then after, we never noticed that it was unbuttoned for the remaining takes. Glad I learnt my lesson to watch out for things like that.

I would have the actors do the whole scene all the way through, each camera set up, if you have time. That way you can get as many reactions shots as possible, and you decided when you want to cut in post, instead of having your cuts already decided in shooting. Plus in a dialogue scene, you probably want at least 30% of your cuts to be reaction shots anyway.