Before I learn any cinema knowledge, I am so confused how to film a dialogue scene in a concrete way. I also usually consider the way of the shot change between the different people in a conversation.

This video mainly talks about the framing and angels, which we need think about when we film a dialogue scene. As the author mentioned that the most of dialogue scenes are begin with a wide shot for all people. The common and simplest way of two people’s conversation is with three camera angels:

*The wide shot of both sujects

*Two over the shoulder shots

*Move to each other’s shots

In general, when we doing the scene of train, we also use those shots to film the characters. This way to film a dialogue scene is simple, but it give use a natural and clearly way to show the talking situation between the characters. Also, this train exercise directly eliminates my confusion about how to design the camera position when two people are talking to each other. I think we did a good job about it.

Let’s come back to the video, the author also explained one of the important thing in framing, which is the rule of thirds. Rule of thirds is simply divides the screen to three equal parts vertically and horizontally. We need frame our subjects on those lines or in one of the third proportion screen. This rule can make the shot balance better.

 

Also, when we put a two people in one frame, putting the less important people in one third proportion of a screen is a balance way. Just like this:

But it is not rule we must apply in every scene, we are able to do some exception depending on concrete situation.

So this is a simple and common way to film a two people’s dialogue, but is there have any creative way to do it? And how to film a dialogue over two people? The question will never end, maybe I will think about it in next post.

 

Here is the video: