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"Clean" OTS vs "dirty" OTS

dandevans

dandevans

Hello - I'm just trying to storyboard / plan shots for my film and I'm wondering about using clean over the shoulder shots (eg without the closer actor in shot) vs "dirty" ones (eg where you can see the head and shoulders of the closer actor) - this is mainly for dialog scenes by the way.

Is there any kind of rule about this and the effect it will have on the viewer one way or the other? I seem to be erring on the side of dirty as it seems to me to hold the scene together a bit better. But I literally have no idea what I'm talking about so any advice is much appreciated!
 
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dont over think it..

go with what looks good to you.. you can play with it.. make up a visual system, like anytime the emotions are negative, make it dirty, and time they are positive make it clean...

dont forget even though OTS is in a 3d space, its still 2d medium. A person LEANING into the frame can "crowd" the subject.... sorta getting closer...

and finaly, don't forget Under you can play with the angles.. subject low in frame, dirty OTS high in frame.. or under the arm up to subjects face..

and im just talking, I have limited practical experience.
 
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OK thanks guys! I like the idea of using it to signify something perhaps, even if its just as simple as clean = true POV, dirty = bit more subjective. As what is seen from differing POVs is quite important in my film that might make some kind of cinematic language sense...
 
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A really good scene to study for this kind of thing is the conversation between Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in 'Heat'. It has a variety of OTS shots and very subtle variation in things like camera height and proximity that mirrors the balance of power between the two throughout the discussion.
 
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Thanks for that! Really useful when people can post good examples to learn from - I can never seem to remember which bit of which movie I should be looking at for reference :)

Great scene, obviously. Interesting that in a lot of the shots only a very small amount of the closer actor is visible - literally just the edge of the face in some cases (though looks like its been cropped to 4:3, so that might have caused this)
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dWI3ORHu_s

Really love how they are always kept together in frame, and we get progressively closer as the conversation reveals their similarities - especially how their opposed lifestyles have the same destructive result on their personal relationships. It's not until the very end that we have a clean view of De Niro (the extras in the background make it hard to tell, but it looks like the last couple of shots of De Niro are clean) - which is an interesting choice given that it happens when he suggests perhaps they'll never see each other again. Weird thing to emphasize since we all know that's not true (and so do they).
 
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Another thing to note is that De Niro and Pacino, generally, occupy similar amounts of frame space from shot to shot. Setting them up as equals.

Variations can emphasize one character over another by choosing who to show in a clean single, and who to give a frame that is crowded by their interlocutor. Interesting to think about *when* and *why* to chose dirty over clean.
 
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They aren't equals though. Criminals can operate without police, but without criminals the police wouldn't have much to do. While they do occupy roughly equal amounts of space on screen the camera angles tend to favor DeNiro slightly - his eyeline is always level with the camera, while Pacino is generally being looked down on by the camera slightly. In the wider opening shots Pacino looks much smaller than DiNero as well. As the conversation progresses this is emphasized by body language - Pacino is leaning in much of the time, trying to get closer, while DeNiro stays fairly upright throughout and maintains his distance. As he conversation becomes more personal the tight shots really compress the distance between the two, but Pacino is still always the one being looked down upon slightly - he's deliberately being more vulnerable as he tries to draw DeNiro in. This pattern suddenly changes when Pacino sits up and turns things back to business - from this point on their eyelines in relation to the camera angle are almost level. The cameras continue to push in, ending with DeNiro alone but Pachino still sharing some of the screen with him - back to my original point: DeNiro's ideal outcome is he never sees Pacino again - but Pacino's character needs to see DeNiro again to justify his existence.
 
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