Coverage
Coverage
*this will be a constant work in progress, but i’m always trying to find more interesting or clever ways to cover scenes. This is essentially white board for brainstorming ideas and concepts.
Efficiencies & Breath.
I’d love to find Scenes/ Moments that we cover in a single shot. These are usually small, transitionary pieces or scenes with little to no dialogue, but the more we can fine, the better. Why I like these:
Set it up, knock it down, move on. These shots/ scenes help us move quicker, which allows more time for the other work on that particular day. (It also seems to liven up the crew)
So much of TV ends up being Medium shot-reverse-shot which can remove a sense of scope and life. It also creates a world where characters are separate from one another. In my mind, one of the most magical things on screen is multiple actors sharing a frame. It allows the viewers’ eyes to wander and, when you’re lucky enough to have actors who listen well, it gives us the opportunity to watch characters react in real time and perform when they aren’t speaking.
Breath. I once heard a director call it “grace.” TV tends to have a constant cut-cut-cut-cut with all the air taken out. I love finding places where shots and characters get a chance to breathe. We let our actors “be” and let the audience sit with our characters, creating bonds with them.
Things I’m hunting for
Scene “Sections.”
I’d like to get better at finding these. These are places where a certain chunk of dialogue (an eighth, a quarter, a half page) is covered in one piece of coverage- maybe two people walking down a hall. Then they land in a place where we use standard coverage for the rest or for a section before they move on to the next section.
Below there are a couple examples.
Roofman.
Other than the “Scene Sections,” I’m also taken by the use of the zoom in the Two Shot. For us, zooms offer pressure, paranoia & some urgency. It also gives the actors space to perform together, allow dialogue to overlap and avoid the cut-cut-cut-cut rhythm that comes with a simple shot-reverse-shot.
When Harry Met Sally.
This is a simple execution of the “Scene Sections” concept. What’s difficult with these is that the actors have to nail that particular “section” of dialogue. I will always try to have a bail out angle that can help in the edit, but the dream is always that actors provide some magic that we don’t want to cut away from.
Superbad
This clip isn’t mind blowing, but it’s a great example of how you can break a scne of dialogue into sections. The characters move and change positions. Sometimes we have normal coverage- two shot, two close reverse shots- sometimes it’s a longer steadicam or dolly track.
Sequences
The Graduate
This sequence is a great example of how you can use multiple shooting styles within one small scene to illustrate and accentuate different characters’ states of mind, as well as power position. Handheld, Dolly, Zoom, Static. This 44 second clip has it all.
I’d also love to draw attention to a particular shot: a Static Wide of Dustin Hoffman standing still, awkward and pathetic. This is a great example of a shot/ edit enhancing comedy, as well as a character’s status.
Openings
The Graduate
Simple, but effective. This opening is a great example of setting a tone immediately through the use of music, image texture, color, pace, sense of place, style (zoom!), etc. I find this opening unassuming, yet unbelievably charming.