Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014

27 May 2014
Video Link Demo Lesson


John Clement
john@partizanfilms.com

Introduction to Narrative Cinematography --
blocking and staging of a dramatic scene from the
cinematographers point of view
Supporting Course Objective 5: Develop the skills necessary in the making
of a photographic plan for dramatic and documentary shoots.
This three-hour session is designed to give you an initial hands-on
experience in blocking a scene from the cinematographers point of
view.

LESSON GOAL: As a group, through collaboration and collective
authorship, we will begin to build fundamental understanding of
motivated shot selection to effectively convey the physical,
emotional and narrative action in a scene; some aesthetic concepts
and practical competencies will be introduced and we will be
challenged to apply these in class by blocking and staging a simple,
non-dialogue two-character scene.


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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
Presentation Script
Blocking

Hello, and welcome.

My name is John Clement, and today well be blocking and staging
the dramatic action in a scene from the cinematographers point of
view.

Well be working today on what I feel is one of the most complex,
fascinating, exhausting and fun parts of moviemaking: shaping the
dramatic scene. I hope that by the end of this session you will begin
to feel the same way.

Our focus and our entry point into our work on the scene is:
BLOCKING.

What is blocking?

Blocking is the choreographing of the actors and the camera in
relationship to each other and to their environment.

What does that mean?

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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
CHOREOGRAPHY is defined as the planning and arranging of the
movements, steps, and patterns of dancers.

If we substitute actors for dancers, then add the camera to the mix
we get BLOCKING for film.

Blocking is the choreographing of the actors and the camera in
relationship to each other and to their environment.

For example: We have a scene with a young man and young woman
in a kitchen. Morning sun streams through the window. Theyre
making breakfast. So how are we going to block the scene?

The two characters move around the kitchen, grabbing cereal from
the cupboards, milk and eggs from the fridge. Lets say its a small
kitchen in a small apartment. Do they move quick and alert or sleepy
and slow. Do they bump into each other? Or do they work like a
well-oiled machine? Literally, a kind of dance. Are they avoiding
physical contact? Is this evidence of friction in their relationship.
Maybe this is the opening scene in a movie, so were establishing
them both as individual characters and their relationship. And wheres
the camera? Whats it doing? Are we near or far? Participating in the
dance or standing back and observing? Are we handheld up close and
personal or standing back, static on a tripod, quietly observing. These
are all blocking decisions.
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014

Working in collaboration with the performers and the
cinematographer, blocking is a fundamental role of the director...
...BUT...
...any competent Director of Photography shares a common
objective with both the director and the performers: that is, to
convey to the audience the physical, emotional and narrative
content of the scene, clearly and effectively.

Storyboards are our most familiar examples of blocking and
staging plans. Some directors pre-visualize their blocking in detail
with storyboards. Steven Spielberg posts his storyboards on a large
display on set where everyone can see them.

Other directors will only block with the performers as part of an
on-set rehearsal. Taking this approach to the extreme is director Paul
Greengrasss CAPTAIN PHILLIPS shot by a Director of Photography
with exceptional documentary cinematography experience, Barry
Ackroyd. Has everyone seen CAPTAIN PHILLIPS? In the scene when
the Somali pirates first invade the ships bridge, Tom Hanks as
Captain Phillips and the other actors playing ships officers had
neither met nor rehearsed with the actors playing the pirates. The
scene was shot in the moment, as it happened.
(You can find this clip on YouTube. Search CAPTAIN PHILLIPS TAKING
OVER)
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014

Now, theres a large middle ground of directors who use a
combination of the two approaches to blocking -- these directors
know their pre-visualization is really a kind of dry run, done in private
with full knowledge that on the day, on set, reality will kick in and
pre-conceptions will have to be at least tweaked or even replaced
by a new approach.

Heres an example: In David Cronenbergs A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
there is a scene in a hospital room. Maria Bellos character has come
to visit her injured husband, played by Viggo Mortensen. At a point in
their dialogue, Bellos character is so punished by her husbands
revelations that she rushes to the en suite bathroom to vomit in the
toilet. Unfortunately, Bello didnt discover this impulse in
pre-production rehearsals. It was an on-the-day, on-set discovery.
Bello the actor, on opening the bathroom door found that it led only
to a view of the studio in which the set was built. Her action was not
in the storyboards, because it had not been blocked. Cronenberg had
the set department quickly build a bathroom behind the door, and
the scene was re-blocked to accommodate Maria Bellos
performance. (The HISTORY OF VIOLENCE HOSPITAL SCENE is on
YouTube)

However the blocking is planned, there are essentially only three
approaches to shooting a scene:
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
Single set-up
Masters & Coverage
Shot-by-shot

Now Im only going to give you quick definitions of each of these,
without examples, because I dont want to overload this intro and
well be be focusing on SHOT-BY-SHOT blocking in this session, and
well transition into SINGLE SET-UP and MASTERS AND COVERAGE
later. Well also view clips.
SINGLE SET-UP
What is a set-up?
During the filming of a scene, each time the camera is moved
into a new position or adjusted to create a new framing this is
called a SET-UP.
In a single set-up scene a single-set-up scene covers the entire action
of a scene from beginning to end. You are probably most familiar
with this approach in movies with long uninterrupted steadicam
shots.
MASTERS AND COVERAGE
Masters and Coverage involves shooting a scene from several
camera angles and shot sizes with each of these differing sets-ups
covering most, if not all, of the scene. Coverage dominates in the
filming of dialogue scenes because this blocking technique means
that dramatic emphasis of a scene can be controlled in editing.
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
SHOT-BY-SHOT
Shot-by-shot blocking is simply shooting a scene in a series of set-ups
which will be edited together one after the other with each set-up
having little overlap with the shot before and the shot following. This
is unlike masters and coverage where set-ups will almost always
overlap and cover the same action. It is, in effect, editing in camera.

Today, together, we will be working through a simple,
non-dialogue scene for two characters SHOT-BY-SHOT.

Why are we doing it this way...?

For two reasons:

ONE: Working through a scene shot-by-shot allows us to focus on
each individual physical, emotional and narrative BEAT in the scene.

Please remember that term -- BEAT -- because well come back to it
later in todays session.

and...

...TWO: When we have finished our shot-by-shot blocking we can
look at what we have done and see where we can combine set-ups,
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
because in extended scenes all three approaches -- single set-up,
master and coverage, and shot-by-shot -- may be used at some point
in a scene.

For our scene today we will loosely follow industry creative and
production best practices.

That means we will use a highly condensed version of the rehearsal
process, which is where blocking and staging begins.

On creatively healthy productions, the cinematographer will attend
at least some of these rehearsals.

Before we can block and stage a scene we need to know what the
scene is about. This is the discovery phase of rehearsals where, in
collaboration with the actors, the director develops the answers to
four questions:

1. What are the given circumstances? The who, what, when,
and where of the scene
2. What is the scene objective? What specifically does the
character need, want, desire? What's at stake?
3. What is the conflict in the scene? What obstacle internal
or external stands in the way of our character getting what
he or she wants?
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Presentation Script -- Cine4110 -- Intro to Narrative Cinematography: John Clement, 27 May 2014
And, most obviously visual,
4. What will our character physically do to achieve his or her
objective and to make thought and feelings clear?

Not until we answer these questions, to some extent at least, should
we move on to blocking the scene, where, as we saw in the HISTORY
OF VIOLENCE example, more discoveries are waiting.

Well take five minutes now to answer questions, and then well
get to work.



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