Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 6.26. (above) When a characterexits the frame, this establishesa direction that must be observedwhen the character reenters. Thinkof it as if you were panning thecamera.Figures 6.27 and 6.28. (above, rightand far right) To be truly neutral, theobject or character must be angledto exit the top or bottom of theframe.this positions you correctly for the next shot of entering frame. Ofcourse, there will be times when you do an actual pan as characterspass the camera, but there are just as many occasions when you willwant to cut, either because the pan is awkward, would reveal partsof the location you don’t want to see, or even when the two shotsare in very different locations even though you want the audienceto perceive the two parts of the walk to be in the same place. Thisis called location stitching (for an example see Figures 6.52 through6.54). As with all continuity sequences, if something else comes inbetween the exit and the entrance, anything goes.Neutral Axis to Exit FrameIf the character or a moving vehicle exits the frame on a completelyneutral axis, then you are free to go anywhere you want on the nextcut. For something to exit on a truly neutral axis, however, it hasto exit either above or below the frame (Figures 6.27 and 6.28). Aneutral axis resets screen direction; once you go to a neutral axisshot of any type, you are free to come back to the scene with a newscreen direction established for the scene. This can be used as an editorialdevice and also as a way to save the scene in editing, just as youwould with a cutaway.Three ShotsScreen direction is basically the same in three shots (or when there aremore characters in the scene), but one thing to watch out for is overlappingthe person in the center. If you break it up as a pair of twoshots, the person in the center will appear in both shots and therewill be unavoidable problems. The center character will “pop” asyou cut from shot to shot (Figures 6.29 through 6.31).Keep the Nose OutFor the same reason it is important to avoid getting a part of theforeground person in the shot when doing a clean single over theshoulder of the second character. When two characters are fairlyclose to each other in the master, it is often difficult to completelyframe the second person out, especially if they move around a lot.Often their nose, or a hand, or some small piece of them will creepinto the single. This is not only compositionally annoying but willcause continuity problems. It will often be necessary to shift the offscreencharacter back a bit so they don’t creep in. You don’t want todo it so much that you “miss” his presence in the coverage. If there isa large shift, be sure to set a new eyeline for the on-screen characterso that their head doesn’t shift too much from the master. It maybe necessary for the actor to look at a mark rather than at the otheractor, which is something to avoid, as it does make it difficult for theperformer.cinematography90