Digital Video Secrets - Tony Levelle

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of setting up the complicated shoot that I would—just as hundreds of film students before me—overlook composition.

      As a digital video filmmaker with a small crew and a smaller budget, you may be in danger of falling into the same trap.

      A properly composed image will evoke an emotional response in the audience. A properly composed image is more than pretty. It is compelling.

      Filmmakers have been evolving a visual language of film for over a hundred years. Mastery of this visual language probably takes as much time and effort as it takes to learn a spoken language like French or Chinese. Just as a spoken language can be learned, visual language can be learned. Some people learn it easier than others. These fortunate people understand and “speak” the visual language of film easily and fluently.

      This chapter is not for them. This chapter is for the rest of us.

      Here are a few elementary rules of composition that you can use to improve your shots. With this introduction and much hard work, you too may one day create compelling images, consistently and fluently.

      For every scene you shoot, try to get four basic shots: Establishing Shot, Long Shot, Medium Shot and Close Up.

      If you use these four basic shots on every scene, you will get 80% of all the coverage you need. Coverage is the word for getting all the shots required to edit the footage into a workable scene. The word is often used as a noun, as in “Did you get coverage?”

      An establishing shot shows where the scene is taking place. Establishing shots are often used to open and close a scene.

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      Long shots show the audience the actor’s body language and the environment around the actor. Beginning filmmakers often forget to shoot long shots because they are not thinking of getting all the shots they need to edit the scene.

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      Medium shots are often neutral, uninvolved shots. The subject (person) in the shot is being observed, but not closely.

      The normal sequence is to begin an interview or scene with a medium shot. As the intensity of the scene slowly builds, the camera moves closer and closer. This transition can be so slow the audience isn’t consciously aware of it, or it can be an abrupt transition from MS to CU.

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      Close-ups are how the audience shares what an actor or interviewee is feeling. This means that you have to get the camera so close that the person’s face fills the screen. People avoid shooting close-ups because it’s uncomfortable to get the camera in close and record people’s intimate facial expressions. This reluctance is so ingrained in our culture that we have a phrase for it. It’s called “getting in people’s faces.”

      The viewer, however, needs and wants you to get in people’s faces.

      Every culture has strong taboos about personal space and how close you can get to someone. Before you get physically close to someone, make sure you have their permission.

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      The “camera angle” (where the camera is placed) makes a huge difference in how the audience reacts to footage. Different camera angles will evoke different emotional reactions from the audience. This is the reason why political ads often place the camera slightly below the politician, looking up. The politician is literally shown as someone the audience should “look up to.”

      As you watch films and advertisements, pay attention to the camera angle. Try to see what reaction the filmmaker is trying to get from the audience.

      Here are seven angles to consider using when you shoot your scenes:

      When you place the camera above and looking down on a person or scene, the viewer has the emotional effect of “looking down” on the scene. When used with a character, it subtly makes the audience feel superior to the character, or it suggests someone who is beaten down, submissive or powerless. This angle is often used to suggest that the actor or person being filmed is a victim or a contemptible character. Someone you “look down on.”

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      If the camera is below a person and looking up, the image suggests an overpowering being—someone you “look up to.” This angle is commonly used to make political leaders appear authoritarian and decisive. Watch for this one in political advertisements.

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      If the camera is looking straight on at the person, the person appears “equal” to the viewer. This angle is commonly used in infomercials to make the narrator appear to be a person who is honest and “straightforward.”

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      A Dutch angle is created by simply tilting the camera sideways. When you tilt the camera slightly, you suggest that things are “out of order” or “skewed.” (You see this angle a lot in horror movies.)

      Dutch angle is also used subtly—and sometimes not so subtly—by political operatives who want to suggest that an opposing political candidate is untrustworthy or out-of-control.

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      Shooting at an angle to the subject, while tilting up or down is called an angle plus angle shot. This is a simple technique that you can use to give visual interest to otherwise boring shots. When on buildings it can add depth and indicate volume.

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      When you think about how you want to shoot a scene, ask yourself whether you want the audience to see the action through the character’s eyes or whether you want them to watch the action from one side.

      Objective angle shows the scene to the audience as if they were standing off to one side and watching. This view has the effect of giving the audience information without pulling them into the scene emotionally.

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      Subjective

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