How to cut a sequence?

R

RED ROBOT

Hello I have one more newbie question.

I've been doing some short scenes and films and I had no problem shooting them but there is a chance i'm doing something quite wrong.


How are you going to shoot the sequence:


Let's say a girl wakes up infront of her house , walks across the street ,sees an old creepy house , stops there and gets a flashlight out of her bag.

Would you do one shot of her waking up , one shot of her walking ,one shot of standing infront of the house and then one take on taking her flashlight out of her bag.

Or you would tell your actor to make the full performence from the waking up to the very end where she gets the flashlight out of her bag and then you just follow with the camera and then cut the sequence on the computer as you want to?
 
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No, the problem is that I'm working just with friends and they are very amateur so If I make one shot of them waking up and then one shot of them walking etc they can't seems to pull it off correctly but when they just do their whole performence at once it seems to work better from the acting side .
 
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Oh. Well then film it a bunch of times (like I first suggested) but each time get them to act out the entire scene if that makes them act better. Running and switching angles in the middle of acting is not a great idea
 
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You could do it any way you want..? If you want seperate shots, then have them as seperate setups. I wouldn't simply 'follow with the camera' and cut it up later because you wouldn't have the seperate shots. The only way that would work would be as a long shot, handheld, steadicam or otherwise.

Unless I'm missing something?
 
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Practice doing it in multiple shots.

The practicing editing by removing anything that isn't necessary... specifically anything that's going to bore your audience.

Over time you'll get the experience in what you need to shoot "just in case" and what never, ever, ever gets used.

As for your shooting of sequences:

Let's say a girl wakes up infront of her house , walks across the street ,sees an old creepy house , stops there and gets a flashlight out of her bag.

Would you do one shot of her waking up , one shot of her walking ,one shot of standing infront of the house and then one take on taking her flashlight out of her bag.

Or you would tell your actor to make the full performence from the waking up to the very end where she gets the flashlight out of her bag and then you just follow with the camera and then cut the sequence on the computer as you want to?
Click to expand...

It all depends. Give 100 directors the same script and you'll end up with 100 different movies.

You could start with a crane shot on her waking up, rising up to see her walking towards the house. Cut to a side shot of her arriving at the steps, fumbling with to get the flashlight out of her bag, dolly on curved tracks to keep the direction of going up the patch ending with dollying towards her.

Alternatively, you could follow more of a found footage style using a steady cam where you follow your actor over the shoulder style with the action.

Or you could use sticks. Opening wide shot of her waking up on the lawn. Close up to her waking up. Mid shot of her getting up, making sure you get a nice coverage of her.... Long dolly shot of her walking up the path to the door. Close up of her at the door through the door window or eye peephole as she fumbles for her flashlight.

And the possibilities go on and on. None of these are surprisingly great as there is nothing new or that interesting to watch, instead of worrying on how to shoot it, work out what elements you can remove that aren't needed in the story. Just be aware, the less coverage you get, the less options you're going to have in editing.
 
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