Lesson Info
3. Exterior Shoot: Walk Through the Shot List
Lessons
The Gear List: What is a Light Meter & Color Chart
20:51 2The Gear: What are Flags, C-Stands, & Dollies
06:11 3Exterior Shoot: Walk Through the Shot List
10:43 4Exterior Shoot: How to Block the Scene with Actors
20:50 5Exterior Shoot: Wide Shot Dolly In
33:53 6Exterior Shoot: Close Up of Dan
22:58 7Exterior Shoot: Position Check & Action
14:42 8Exterior Shoot: Close Up of Notebook
34:05Lesson Info
Exterior Shoot: Walk Through the Shot List
It's time for us teo get ready to figure out what the first shot is in glimmer of hope and we're starting out of order this is way we're shooting scene to first because of schedule and logistical reasons and that's typically what happens when you're working on the movie so so we've got an idea of how the whole movie fits together but we know and seen to they they arrive on the roof so maybe this would be a good time tio cut to a shot of the script and we'll, uh beginning of uh sorry top of page five and we can see what the first little bit of the scene is on we'll talk we'll talk through our shot list so before we came in I went over the you know, I've been kind of playing the director as well here, so I went over the script and we've cooked up a little shot list we've got eight set ups to do today. And so the first thing when you show up on the set what you want to be able to do with the crew is walk through what the set ups are going to be and you know and help them help them, you kn...
ow, understand what's going to be what's going to be safe for staging equipment what's gonna be important for keeping to keep clear for the shoot and, you know that kind of stuff getting the logistical things ready right now the actors are probably in their makeup trailers getting ready tio getting ready to come out but in a little bit will want them for for a blocking rehearsal so we'll talk through this the shot and then we'll bring the actors out and talk through blocking so we know we've got well, you know, in our shot listing yesterday we figured out the first thing that happens is they're going to come out the door so wait, we haven't angle that's here and on the short list that's that's set up number one and then the second set up on a shot this is we know we're gonna have a reverse wide shot here that sees the whole roof it sees the whole city and so down and hope will enter here and then hope will exit first I think that's that's what we think is gonna happen we'll see what really happens and then you know, here we'll have a little bit of a dolly in and hope will enter that shot and then down will follow her and then way know that somewhere because during our prop we figured out that this was the spot that we wanted to have the action happening because the backgrounds were nice so we may find out when we're blocking it that that's it seems like a weirdly long distance between between where where we want them to end up right here and that door so we think, alright that's this may be a place where we're going to cheat this distance and, you know, we keep that in the back of our minds and we'll talk about how to cheat the distance in a minute. So so now we know we haven't angle that's that's on hope and dan crosses into the foreground, so we're going to have a shot looking this way, we'll say, because we know we need down backed up against the veg so hope will stand about there and we'll look this way and see see hope our dan crossing and hope will turn and they'll have their final conversation here. And we know we want an angle on dan that shows us that he's standing by the edge of the roof from this side, and then there are a couple of special shots that was that's set up. Number five I skip set up number four I don't know how I did that type of, all right? So so they're actually only seven setups because I skipped one four is mysteriously missing set up, um, so five is dan, which is really for is that against the edge of the roof, then we know we have a special shot that courtney cooked up yesterday, um which is which is a low angle and it's a notebook. Dan drops his notebook and the notebook hits the ground and that should happen somewhere around in here. Um so you know, and then I think that I think we have hopes hand comes in and picks up the notebook at the end we want to carry the action through as much as possible and in keeping with the idea that we want this to be a little mysterious, a little weird, a little surreal, I thought that the kind of the compliment for that would be going back onto hope we make a special shot that was a little bit different where it starts out with an empty frame with all of this graphic stuff going on and she'll rise up into the shot with the notebook sign her name and then we know we need to have over the shoulder shot here looking at her and seeing her looking over her shoulder and seeing her right her name death in the notebook and then that from that maybe we wanna pull back a little bit as she exits and show the show the empty the empty ledge of the roof there with dan missing so that way I get the sense that he's gone over the edge, but also it will be a nice sort of mysterious and creepy ending for the for the movie so that's it and you notice that I was standing here looking this way as I go through the shot order and then I look this way and then I look this way again and we probably don't want to shoot this in the order that I've got it written down on this shot list, we probably want to figure out which direction we're going to look first and which direction we're going toe look second in which direction we're going toe you look last and get all the shots that we have in each of those directions at the same time it's you know, not only like, is it more efficient, but it also makes the lighting more consistent for each of does the closer in time you can get you know that between when you shoot set up that's at the beginning of the scene set up that's at the end of the scene, the moor consistent the lighting's going to be and so you know, if we had a scene that was going on all day, for example, we could shoot the whole thing and backlight by shooting this stuff that is facing that that's facing this way in the morning this way's east and then, you know, we shoot all day maybe there's some close ups in the middle and then we'd save all the angles that we want to shoot in the shoot towards the west for the afternoon and so then the sun will be by that time the sun will have moved around and we have we've maintained kind of consistent backlight look um why's backlight so interesting what's I'm gonna throw that out too whoever but there's you know there's there you know a number of reasons and you know both practical and aesthetic what do you guys think like from the background right? Yeah exactly that's the right the the the very simple thing is that it's you see ah light line around the edge of the person and their faces are darker and you know and if we look across the street here for example the front of that building is dark the sky is lighter it it creates a lot of a lot of separation step light and dark but it's also it's a little more flattering for people because instead of having you know I can turn this way instead of having hard shadows on my face like this I'm getting I'm being lit just by the soft sky or maybe some you know, a light that's reflected into my face so it's it's more flattering that way and the other the more practical reason is if you're doing let's say you're doing a crane shot where you have something where the camera is very close to the the actors if it's if it's if it's that close you're going to get a shadow on their face you're going to get your going to see you know if the crane goes up in the air and the sun's behind it you're going to see the shot of the crane moving across the set and sometimes you're just stuck in that situation but it doesn't look very good so you want to try to plan your shots in general like you want to try to plan it so that you're keeping the son not directly behind, which is it's you know there is a sort of conventional wisdom that you know for a snapshot photographers and that kind of thing you want to keep the sun coming right over your shoulder so this nice front light for people for you and keeps the exposure even but for you know, for most cinemas and most creative photography things that kind of lighting is the least interesting and you like to have a little bit more modeling you liketo have, you know, some light coming from behind to separate the characters and you know tio show some you know, some shape and depth in the in the scene so so no thinking about that we're going to talk about how we plan out the order of our directions we've got four major directions were looking towards the door we're looking away from the door in this this direction we're looking towards hope over here and we're looking towards dan. So going with that and knowing that this way's east and the sun is going to go that way, my instinct, my impulse, is going to be the start with looking this direction first, because this, when we look back this way, it's only going to hell, keep getting better and really keep getting better. Once the hard you know, once the direct sunlight is off of this big gray wall that's right here. We're not gonna be around long enough for that, but I'll take a good as I can get and you know, and this way, starting this way. First, we've got this son right out there, which not only will give us direct, direct back light, but it also in, in keeping with the sort of bob mysterious and interesting tone that we're trying to set for the movie, actually, including the sun in the frame might be, you know, might be kind of a cool thing.
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Ratings and Reviews
Kevin Baggott
I had worked briefly many years ago on a shoot that jim was the DP for. I was very impressed with how he ran the set. It was a great pleasure to watch this course. Learnt many things. I would highly recommend it.
Loue Ghazi
this is a very informative class and i really appreciate your way . really i like so much like this class and definitely will go with it every time . good job guys.
Ludovic
Going by pair with The Cinematographer's Preparation, this course is a very good complement full of little advices to solve sometimes tricky situations, very good !