Cinematography for Screenwriters

Screenwriting students are often told to think visually. This is good advice. But it might be even more correct to say, "Think cinema." Modern practice calls for specific camera angles and shots to be left largely up to the director. Directors (and therefore producers) do not want scripts filled with camera shots specified. Only if it is important to understanding the action should a camera shot be put in a script. However, this does not mean that a screenwriter should not understand something about

cinematography.Screenplays are often described as blueprints for films. Imagine an architect trying to draw a blueprint for a building without knowing anything about the materials it was to be constructed from. To effectively design a script, a screenwriter should know something about cinematography and editing. Only then can he write knowledgeably for the medium.

Film Is Shot By Shot Storytelling

A film is composed of many shots. For the cinematographer and editor, the job is to pick the right shots which will, at any given moment, best convey the story clearly to the audience as well as heightening the impact of the action and characters. In choosing any particular shot, there are two factors to consider: the type of shot in terms of the area to be shown and the angle or viewpoint of the shot. In a script, the screenwriter will very occasionally have to specify both of these to make clear his vision. But he should do this only when absolutely necessary for the simple reason that directors tend to ignore camera cues in a script and think the writer is trying to do their job for them. However, as mentioned previously, the writer can write his scene descriptions in such a way as to suggest the cinematographic treatment of his action. And doing this will help the reader better visualize the film. So thinking visually is only part of a screenwriter's skill. He must also be able to think cinemagraphically. 1
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This condenses action down to a shot by shot telling of the story. When you visualize the action, consider how the camera can show this action. And then write your scene descriptions so they capture the flavor of this. Learn to think cinemagraphically in visualizing your scenes.

Take a look at the scene description previously mentioned from Doctor Zhivago: INT. CATTLE CAR -- NIGHT The red-hot stove in the cattle car sheds a cheerful glow on the filthy straw which is trampled and sticky, strewn with garbage. In the straw lie sleeping figures, fully clothed under ragged blankets and coats; hairy faces, mouths agape; men, women and children mixed promiscuously. The scene gives the illusion of a sort of basic comfort; we feel at any rate the passengers must be warm enough. Filthy cooking utensils swing and slop in the movement of the train. This scene description suggests many different shots. A long shot of the whole car. Close- up shots on cooking utensils and on the faces of the sleeping passengers. No shot is specified. Yet we get a feel for how this scene could be shot. The vivid images that The director might capture are clearly conveyed to the reader.

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Types Of Shots By Area

Where a camera is placed in filming the action and the characters determines the amount of area shown to the viewer as well as the image size. Types of shots are first specified by where the camera is placed.

An EXTREME LONG SHOT (ELS): Captures a very large area from a great distance. It is used to establish a

locale,especially when the view is grand and impressive. A city skyline and the panoramic desert and mountain scenes in westerns are frequently used examples of the Extreme Long Shot. They are often used in opening shots of a film to help capture audience interest and to establish the setting of the story. They are also used as a transition to a different part of the story.

The LONG SHOT (LS): Orients the audience to the general scene of action and reestablishes the scene of action after a number of Medium and Close Shots. It might take in the entirety of a room, the outside of a house, someone walking down a street. Usually when action is occurring inside a building, a quick establishing Long Shot of the exterior of the building helps to orient the viewer to where the action is taking place. The MEDIUM SHOT (MED SHOT or MS): Usually shows characters from just below the waist or just above the knees. Two or three characters are sometimes filmed together in a Medium Shot. These are also sometimes called a Two-Shot (with two characters) or a Three-Shot (with three characters). Arrangement of characters and lighting of a Medium Shot can make one character more predominant than the others.

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For instance, if one character is angled so he is facing the camera more than the other character (who is more in profile), the one angled more toward the camera will dominate the scene. So while there many be two or three characters, the audience's attention can be subtly focused on one of them as the center of interest. In filming conversations, the director and editor can cut back and forth between two Medium Shots, each one favoring the character who is talking at the moment.

The CLOSE-UP (CU) or CLOSE SHOT: Selects a small portion of the action in a scene and shows it full-screen size. It can capture a small scale action such as loading a gun. And it can capture facial expressions, giving more impact to the actors. Close-Up shots are actually broken down further.

A MEDIUM CLOSE-UP: Will show a character from about midway between the waist and shoulders to above the head. A HEAD AND SHOULDER CLOSE-UP: Covers from just below the shoulders to above the head.

A HEAD CLOSE-UP: Shows just a persons neck and head. A CHOKER CLOSE-UP: Shows just below the lips to above the eyes, but not the whole head. An EXTREME CLOSE-UP: Shows small objects or sections of objects in great detail. A bullet being put in a gun might be shown as an Extreme Close-Up. The viewer would not see all of the gun. Also focusing on a single feature of a person such as his eyes or lips would be an Extreme Close-Up.

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The OVER-THE-SHOULDER CLOSE-UP: This is frequently used in feature films. This is a Close-Up shot of one person shot over the shoulder of a second. Directors and editors can cut back and forth between two OverThe-Shoulder Close-Ups during a conversation. In writing your script, you may call for a close shot simply by saying: CLOSE ON THE GUN Or:CLOSE ON BILL.

Point Of View Shots

POINT-OF-VIEW CLOSE-UPS: These are usually filmed with the camera positioned at the eye-level of the character whose point of view is being taken. A tall man looking down at a small boy would have a P.O.V. Close-Up angled down on the small boy. Subjective Close-Ups: These are filmed with the camera at the eye-level of the characters being filmed. By

subjective is meant a shot which seeks to get the audience further involved by making the audience a part of the action. A rollercoaster ride, where the camera captures what the audience might see if they were on it would be a subjective camera angle. Most of a movie is usually filmed from an objective viewpoint, as if the audience is on the sidelines looking on. People appear unaware of the camera. They never, for instance, look directly into the lens as this would give the audience the impression that the character is suddenly looking at them.

The POINT-OF-VIEW (P.O.V.): This shot is actually not a true point of view. If two characters were looking into each other's eyes, a true P.O.V. shot would have a character looking into the camera lens the way news broadcasters do. The audience would suddenly feel that the person is looking at them.

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So instead, a P.O.V. shot is positioned at the side of the character whose point of view is being represented. In this way, the audience still maintains the feeling that they are an observer looking on, and not an actual character in the action. A P.O.V. shot is as close to a subjective camera angle that one can come and still maintain objectivity. It allows the audience to identify more with a character and yet does not have the jarring effect that a true subjective camera angle causes for the audience because it tends to make them suddenly aware of the camera.

You want to get the audience emotionally involved with a story and P.O.V. shots help to achieve this. At the same time, with P.O.V. shots, the viewer is not asked to become actively involved with the characters the way subjective camera angles demand that they do.

To understand this jarring effect, imagine that a group of characters were staring suspiciously at one character. A subjective camera shot would show this group of characters staring directly into the camera lens. As a member of the audience, you would feel that they were staring at you. You have switched places with the character whom you had just seen in a previous shot. That is startling and doesn't work well in most circumstances.

So making it a P.O.V. shot, the audience sees almost what the character sees, but doesn't suddenly find that they have switched places with the character. Entire films

have been shot with subjective camera angles. But in this case, the audience never sees the protagonist unless he is looking into a mirror. This is not what audiences are used to, however, and it doesn't necessarily get the audience emotionally involved with the story. And that is what you are going for as a screenwriter--the emotional Involvement of the audience.

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Camera Movement
In filming, the camera can be static or it can be in motion.There are various descriptive terms which describe this motion.

A PAN: Shot has the camera swinging horizontally while remaining in one fixed location to follow some action. A shot of a plane touching down on a runway and moving along the runway might be handled with a Pan Shot.

A TILT: This shot has the camera tilting up or down while filming in a fixed location so that the lens moves through a vertical plane. A shot taken from a fixed position on the ground and moving up a tall building would be a TILT shot.

A camera can also be placed on a dolly--a camera mount on wheels. Often, tracks are laid down for the camera dolly to move on. This is called a TRACKING SHOT.

The camera can also be mounted on a crane. This allows the camera position to move up and down, sideways, and to or away from the subject all at the same time, all while the camera is continuously filming a shot. This is called a CRANE or BOOM SHOT. Tracking and Crane shots are more expensive to make. Tracking shots usually take more time to set up. And a crane must be hired for a Crane Shot. Unless there is an important reason for having such a shot, you are better not calling for these in your script.The camera can also be mounted in a helicopter, giving an AERIAL or COPTER SHOT. You wouldn't have many of these in you script, again for expense reasons.

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Miscellaneous Calling Of Shots

The INSERT : This is a full-screen Close-Up of printed matter such as a letter or newspaper that can be read by the audience. INSERTS should be specified in your script so that it is clear that the audience can read what is being shown them. The DUTCH ANGLE: This is a shot where the camera is tilted so that vertical lines are at an angle. A person standing would not be perpendicular when this is shown on the screen. They might be used to provide P.O.V. shots of a person who is drunk or mentally unbalanced. They might also be used in a montage for effect. A screenwriter would rarely have need to call for a Dutch Angle shot. In covering some complicated action, a writer might call for a SERIES OF SHOTS and then describe what each shot shows.

SERIES OF SHOTS A) Police car turns sharply into ally.

B) Drunks in alley scatter when they see the oncoming police car.

C) The villains on the roof above prepare to fire an anti-tank rocket at the police car.

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The same format is used for the MONTAGE.

There is sometimes a confusion between a series of shots and a montage. A montage, in British and American definition and usage, is a series of shots which quickimpressionistic sequence of disconnected images. Montage shots are not connected by subject matter or action, but rather by theme or feel. A montage operates on a different plane of reality from the straight narrative series of shots and is almost always accompanied by music. A montage might be used to capture the character of a city by showing buildings, different unconnected people going about their business, and so on. A montage might also show troops in general going into battle in a war film.

You might also call for high-angle and low- angle shots on occasion. In a high-angle shot, the camera tilts downward. (It doesn't mean that the camera is necessarily high up. The angle is in relation to the subject being filmed.) In a low-angle shot, the camera is shooting upward.High-angle shots are useful to present characters who are dominating or authoritarian. A low- angle shot can help to portray a character as beaten or degraded.

Low-angle shots can also position characters against the sky and otherwise intensify dramatic effect. You normally would not specify low or high- angle shots in a script. This, like other shots, would be determined by the director. But there may be an occasion when you want to specify a shot to accurately communicate an image. Or you can suggest the angle in description. For example, you might write: Tom stares off into the distance, his weather-beaten features profiled by the billowing clouds in the sky. This would suggest a low-angle shot.

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Writing In Master Scenes

Theatrical films and television programs which are filmed with a single camera are generally filmed using the master scene technique. In this, a scene is first filmed in one continuous take. A single shot takes in the whole scene from beginning to end. Then portions of the scene are repeated and filmed again to give the editor closer shots which he can intercut with the master scene. The alternative is to use a number of cameras to film the action from different angles all at the same time. This might be done in a theatrical film for a spectacular bit of action which could not be easily restaged--such as a building blowing up. A third method using just one camera is to break a scene down to exact shots beforehand. Using what is called the triple-take technique, the action is overlapped at the beginning and end of each shot so the film editor has a little leeway with his cut. Even so, there is little room for error using this method, which is why most directors today tend to mostly use the master scene technique.

A modern screenplay is written in master scenes. For the writer's purpose, all the dialogue and action taking place in one setting at one time comprise a master scene.So while the director, cinematographer and editor are thinking in shots, the writer is mostly thinking in terms of scenes. But this doesn't mean that he is ignoring shots.There is another aspect to a writer's thinking in terms of master scenes. In a good film, every scene works as a scene. It is usually interesting and dynamic in itself, complete with a beginning, a middle and an end. In novice scripts, you will sometimes see many scenes where characters are just getting from an earlier scene (which is important for the plot) to a later scene (which is important to the plot). These in-between or tie-together scenes are frequently weak and uninteresting and this greatly lessens the impact of a script. The audience during these scenes find themselves waiting for something to happen and will become conscious of this waiting. This is one thing that you usually don't want. Your aim is audience involvement and holding the audience's attention from start to finish.

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To do this, as we have covered earlier, every scene should have a specific purpose and should play a direct part in forwarding the plot and developing the characters. But it should be dramatic in itself and should work to further involve the audience in the characters and the story. If one watched a scene from a good film on its own, out of context, one would probably still find the scene interesting and moving.

When writing a scene, always ask yourself if the scene works as a scene, quite apart from the role it plays in the whole.Great scenes make great motion pictures.

Continuity

In the early days of motion pictures, shooting scripts were sometimes called continuity scripts. This is because they consisted of the plan for shooting a script so that continuity was maintained for the audience. Continuity is the way a film is shot and cut together so that, for the audience, it will have the appearance of a smooth, logical flow of action. As soon as the continuity is not maintained, this will distract an audience and lose their attention. A film with good continuity is designed to attract and keep the audience's attention. For the director, the cinematographer and the editor, action must be planned in a series of shots which make up a sequence. These shots must cut together so that edits are not jerky or jarring to the audience.

While this is not a major concern of the screenwriter, it is nevertheless to your advantage to understand at least a few of the rudimentary rules of continuity:

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1) The time frame of a movie must be preserved for the audience. Flashbacks (or the occasional flashforward) must be filmed in such a way that the audience knows there has been a shift of movie time. They must immediately realize that they are not in the present movie time, but in some other time. Flashbacks should generally be used sparingly, if at all, because they disrupt the film's time.

2) The space continuity of the film must also be preserved. This includes establishing and then maintaining screen direction. A car seen traveling left to right on the screen can not in the next shot be traveling right to left. The audience would interpret this as the car having turned around and headed back in the opposite direction.

If one had two groups headed towards each other, one might have one traveling from left to right and the other traveling from right to left. The audience would interpret this as the two groups heading towards each other.

Similarly, someone facing toward the left cannot, in the next shot, be facing toward the right if they are supposed to be in the same position. This will jar the audience and cause a slight bit of confusion.

3) Cuts must be matched in terms of actor positions, looks and movement so that the audience does not notice these cuts. A minor mismatch may go unnoticed if the camera has shifted angle as well as position. Editors will often try to cut on action rather than static shots, as the motion will sometimes help to mask a slight mismatch.

Editors will also use a technique known as the cut- away. In this, an editor cuts to something which was not a portion of a previous shot. Then cutting back to the character again does not have to match the previous shot on the character and the audience will not notice the jump.

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Cutting from a long shot to a close-up also allows a certain amount of "cheating." The size of the image and the angle of the camera have a great deal to do with acceptable continuity. A cut between one image to a very similar shot of the same image with only a slight change in size will be noticed by the audience. There is insufficient contrast between succeeding images to allow for a smooth transition. The same principle applies to a change of angle between two shots cut together. Cutting from a medium shot to a close-up usually requires a change of camera angle to cut smoothly. Otherwise the image will seem to jump to the audience. In a more general sense, a script has to maintain continuity by following a logical sequence. When you specify cross-cutting between two different scenes, this must be done to increase the impact, tension and contrast. The action in the two scenes obviously must relate in some way. Otherwise, the cross-cutting will just be distracting.

If you think in sequences, you will tend to write a script where continuity is preserved and which, therefore, allows the audience to become involved with the story.

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Editing

"Editing is the foundation of film art," said Vsevolod Pudovkin, one of the most influential pioneers of motion pictures. That is as true today as it was 70 years ago."Only good editing can bring life to a motion picture," wrote Joseph Mascelli in his classic text, The Five C's of Cinematography. The various shots are just so many odd pieces of film

until they are skillfully assembled to tell a coherent story. Both a diamond and a film are enhanced by what is removed, he said. What remains tells the story. A screenwriter should have at least a general understanding of the principles of editing. It is editing which helps to create the pace and texture of a film.

The fundamental principles of editing were developed during the early days of silent films. The introduction of sound brought some minor changes. The determination of pace, which in the silent days depended entirely on the rate of cutting, was augmented by the volume and urgency of the sound-track..

In fact, the main change that the advent of sound brought was to increase the realism of films. In editing, this change saw certain editing techniques fall out of general use--those styles which tend to distract from the realism, such as masking of part of the image so that the viewer only saw a character surrounded by a distinctive masked border. The use of close, medium and long shots for different emphasis has not changed. However, with stars having become a commodity to increase box-office, sometimes too many close-ups are used to capitalize upon the presence of the star at the expense of the film's pace and movement. A close-up has a specific purpose and a specific time to be used.

There has been little change in the role that timing or tempo of cuts plays in helping to produce dramatic tension. The faster the cutting, the more urgent the pace will seem to the audience.

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Cross-cutting increases tension by alternate cutting between two events which have a direct bearing on each other. Events can also be cross-cut to achieve contrast or comparison. A rapid cross-cut sequence is often saved to coincide with the climax, to heighten the tension and suspense at this point.

In film, there is the possibility of lengthening or shortening the duration of an event. This makes possible the cutting down of unnecessary intervals. This is what is meant by screen time being different from real time.

As well, film editing enables the director and editor to present a series of consecutive events in such a way that each new development is revealed at the dramatically appropriate moment.

The pace of a scene is determined both by its content and by the speed with which various shots are cut. By increasing the speed of cutting within a sequence, the impression of fast, exciting action can be created. But to really work well, the pace of cutting has to match the content and the amount of information being conveyed in each shot.

A writer who understands a little about general editing principles will have more control over the pacing of his script. For instance, in a fast and exciting action scene, he should write it so the cutting can be rapid. Lengthy pieces of dialogue would not fit here.

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Transitions

Transitions are devices used to bridge time or space in a film. The simplest transition is simply a title on the screen indicating a different time or place. There are also optical effects which can help to bridge a change in time or place.

A FADE-IN: Begins a story.

FADE-OUT: Ends it. A fade-out and then a fade-in can be used to end one sequence and start a new. A DISSOLVE: Fading-out one scene while another is fading-in at the same time, can also cover time lapses, change of locale or be used to soften an abrupt scene change that would otherwise jar the audience.

MATCHED DISSOLVES: Are those where the two connected scenes are similar in form, motion or content and can further enhance the smoothness of the transition.

Sound can also be used to effect a smoother transition. Narration or dialogue can cover a switch in location or can explain a time change. For instance, a line of dialogue may say, "Let's go." Then the cut is to the going.

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