Script Writing 3. Recording your work

O.K. So you need to film your work. Here’s where it gets tricky. How are you going to get it done? Do you know what a one shot is? Do you know what a two shot is? Do you know what a cut is?

A lot of problems videos have is that they are “boring.” This seems obvious, yes? Well of course it does. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. And what makes videos seem boring? More often than not it’s that they don’t play into our limited attention span.

If you can’t do homework without listening to music, you’re part of the problem – but that’s not bad. As we all slip into this problem, we just need to think about how to drag ourselves out of it.

Think soap operas when you are recording conversation. Honestly, think about them. Or John Stewart’s the Daily Show. That works as well.

When we see two people, or even one person, talking – it’s not a still shot. We see cuts between them. For a normal dialogue, you should set up the following camera angles:
1. person A
2. person B
3. person A + B in the same frame

There is an easy way, and a harder way to do this. The easy way is obviously to have three cameras set up (provided you can get these angles and keep the extra cameras out of frame.) The other way is to do it – probably the way you’ll want to – is just film the same scene three times over, with the different angles.

Yes, it may sound tedious, but when you can cut together a variety of shots, depending on who is speaking, you’ll have a much more interesting conversation.

For a good example of what I’m talking about, check out this clip from Kill Bill 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdWF7kd1tNo





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