Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 2.4. An establishing shot fromThe Shining. It gives a great deal ofinformation about the size, locationand layout of the hotel — which isessentially a main character in thefilm. This is also an example of a wideshot.Establishing ShotsThe establishing shot is usually a wide shot. It is the opening shot ofa scene that tells us where we are. A typical one might be “Establishingshot — Helen’s office.” This might consist of a wide shot of anoffice building, so when we cut to a shot of Helen at her desk, weknow where we are: in her office building. We’ve seen that it is a big,modern building, very upscale and expensive and that it is locatedin midtown Manhattan, and the bustling activity of streets indicateit’s another hectic workday in New York. The establishing shot hasgiven us a great deal of information.Laying Out the Scene — Establishing the GeographyA phrase that is often used is that we have to “establish the geography.”In other words we have to give the audience some idea ofwhere they are, what kind of place it is, where objects and people arein relation to each other. Other aspects of this are discussed in thechapter Cinematic Continuity.Establishing the geography is helpful to the audience to let themknow the “lay of the land” within a scene. It helps them orientthemselves and prevents confusion that might divert their attentionfrom the story. There are times when you want to keep the layout amystery, of course. As we will see throughout the discussion of filmgrammar and editing, one of the primary purposes is to not confusethe audience. There will be times of course where you will wantto confuse them, but if you don’t give them information and theyhave to spend time trying to figure something out, however subconsciously,you have taken their minds away from the charactersand the story. Kurosawa is a master of this type of establishing, as inthese shots from Seven Samurai (Figures 2.5 and 2.6). He uses it as away to make abstract ideas concrete and visible.An establishing shot, such as our office building example, mightalso include a tilt up to an upper floor. This indicates to the audiencethat we are not just seeing an office building, but that we are goingcinematography18