This week we learnt about coverage, as well as the roles used in traditional cinematic film-making.
Coverage is the way you choose to shoot a scene, the camera angles, types of shots, and information you choose to include in the frame at any one time. We dissected a scene from American beauty and looked at how they chose to cover a scene involving a family dinner. We drew a floor plan explaining this:
As you can see there are a total of 5 set ups. We went through and prioritised the set ups based on what we thought would be most needed for the edit/film in case on the day it would be too difficult to fit in. We chose the wide shot first, as this is the most important shot, not only to set the scene and establish the environment (much easier to give context for a cut to close-up), but also as a safety, to ensure the entire scene is captured in case all the other shots cannot be captured. The next set up is the shot of the daughter, as her reactions are integral to the scene. After that it is an equal toss up between Benning and Spacey as their character’s reactions give the same weight to the scene. therefore the order would be up to the director’s creative choice or the first A.D’s efficiency choice (one character may have more lines than the other).
After that breakdown we proceeded with our own filming of a scene. Each class member had their own role. We had two actors, a boom swinger, an audio recordist, a cinematographer, camera assistant, director, second assistant camera and the first A.D. I was the first A.D, which was the most fun I have honestly ever had on a set. It wasn’t really telling people what to do that was fun (although I’ll admit that was a perk), it was more the liaising between departments and ensuring that each department had what it needed, that was what intrigued me. It was also the constant organisation, constantly having to be aware of the time needed for the scene as well as the total time allowed for the shoot and whether or not it would be achievable, that was probably the best part of the job.