Yesterday, in our live webcast (which you can see here probably by the end of today), Josemarie asked me what I meant when I said ‘the shooting has to be perfect’.
Today, I am going to try and give a visual answer.
The clip above is from Sergio Leone’s masterpiece spaghetti western – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.
To make matters go faster, I am just going to lift the first paragraph from the Wikipedia entry:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles.[4] The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film’s sweeping widescreen cinematography and Ennio Morricone composed the famous film score, including its main theme. It is the third film in the Dollars Trilogy following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). The plot revolves around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of gunfights, hangings, American Civil War battles and prison camps.
OK.
That saved a lot of time, but you get the concept.
It’s a pretty classic film.
Now, take a look at the clip above. (Spoiler alert: It’s the concluding scene from the movie).
You can rack ahead to around 5:20 if you like.
Take a look at how Leone shot it.
If you’re a regular here at nyvs.com, you’ll recognize the shots right away.
Close up on the hands.
Close up on the face.
Wide shot.
Over the shoulder.
Don’t move the camera.
(You see! You didn’t know that Sergio Leone was a graduate of NYVS.com, did you!)
See how cleanly every shot is.
Not a move (or hardly any, and when there is, very very carefully thought out. Another day we’ll talk about motivated pans. For today let’s stick with Don’t Move The Camera!).
When Leone goes to edit it, the ‘motion’ is in the edit, not in the camera.
This is what I mean by ‘cleanly shot’.
If you can shoot all your raw material like this – and you can – it’s only a matter of discipline – then the rest is easy.
Then your pieces can all be ‘good’
(not bad or ugly. Â Sorry, that was dumb, but I could not resist).
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1 Comment
John D October 16, 2011
A good example of not moving the camera and sending the desired message.
Composition.
Pacing.
Both are important to good video apart from the basics of focus and light.
Reading your post here made me wonder.
Do you teach your students anything about story-boarding?
Planning each shot sequence on paper before they ever go out and produce their video?
Shooting documentaries or news don’t allow someone the luxury of truly planning how something is going to be shot. Yet, understanding story-boarding does help someone quickly come up with shots during a “fluid” situation like news or documentaries.
Story-boarding can help someone make their shoot much faster. Time is saved. And other people involved don’t feel as if their time is being wasted either making them happier people to work with and around.
Lots of people will pick up a camera and rush out to shoot…but not have any real plan other than to frame a wide shot and hit the record button.
As your example of Sergio Leone’s work above shows, having a preconceived idea of what you want to do before you go shoot can make for a more compelling video message. You can bet Sergio Leone didn’t just walk out and start shooting without knowing exactly what he wanted to do. Alfred Hitchcock is another, as you already know, who was famous for story-boarding entire movies.
A little bit of planning can go a long way to making a more finished professional product.