Multiple camera angles

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rockydm92

Hello! I am new to the Indie Talk and new to film-making. I had a question and I hope someone can help. I f i'm shooting a feature with one camera (Sony vx2100) and I wanted to get multiple angles like I had more than one camera, Whats the best way to accomplish that? Do I set the camera up in three different positions and react the scene from every angle? Then what about my audio? If I'm switching camera angles from actor to actor mid sentence will that also cut the audio? I hope my question is clear and someone can help me. Ex. Lets say actor 1 is talking and has a good amount of dialogue, and while he is in mid-sentence I want to get teh reaction of actor2, should I wait for a pause in the dialogue to switch?
 
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Say I can't afford a dolly in my new short film(and i can't). So I want to use a cheap way like a rolling chair or a kids "radio flyer" wagon, how would i cancel the noise from it rolling around. Any suggestions would be some help.
 
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dollies

Hey bigpat,
If I were you I would look into using a wheelchair, if you can get one. It rolls alot more smooth on the pavement. You can mount a piece of wood on the chairs arm rests and mount a small tri-pod to that. See if that works.
 
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A few people have brought up good ways to replicate a dolly. Just by leaving a closed or folded-up tripod attached to the camera you get a lot of nice weight off the bottom that lowers its center of gravity and can make even your handheld shots smoother.

I've taken shots out the back of [slowly] moving vehicles to truck alongside a walking actor, and used one of those rolling carts for a semi-circular surround shot (along with some WD-40 to grease up the wheels :). Using a wheelchair sounds like a great idea; my folks have one at their house from when my grandfather lived with them, but I've never thought about using it before! Maybe I'll go make an "unannounced family visit" run this weekend. heh heh...

Think about other things that have wheels, both mentioned above and others - rollerblades, skateboards, wagons, bicycles, etc. You'll be hard-pressed to find many that track completely silently, but those hybrid/electric cars are getting quieter and quieter these days. Of course I'm not suggesting that you film a high-speed chase hanging out your car window. And definitely not if you're also driving.

Complicated motion shots are often used for effect or transition rather than to capture lines of dialogue, so depending on your situation you may not even need to worry about noise!

Of course, if you're wealthy enough to afford a segway... or a steadicam for that matter...
_____________________
The Comprehensive Guide to No Budget Filmmaking
 
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rockydm92 said:
Hey bigpat,
If I were you I would look into using a wheelchair, if you can get one. It rolls alot more smooth on the pavement. You can mount a piece of wood on the chairs arm rests and mount a small tri-pod to that. See if that works.
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You can also (if you're handy) construct a small 6' or 8' "Slider" out of pipe and skateboard wheels. you mount the skateboard wheels to some "cheese plate" (a metal plate with holes drilled for your camera's tripod mount), mount the camera to that, and make the track out of the pipe.
 
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filmscheduling said:
This is called "blocking" your shots. Before the shoot, work it out with two standins and a digital still camera (this is often much quicker than storyboarding)



Most basic setups for two characters in dialog:
You will have 3 setups and perhaps 3 takes per setup (9 takes total)
1) Master: Shot entire scene w/ both characters in a wide shot
2) Over the shoulder of character 1: Shoot entire scene
3) Over the shoulder of character 2: Shoot entire scene.

You can decide in the edit how to cut it together.
Be aware of how actors move during the sequence so you perform edits plausibly.
If you have an actor sipping a drink, etc. then you can cut on that action. But make sure that they sip the drink before a specific line so you can do the edit.

There are many more possibilities but those are the most basic setups.

Get Katz's "Shot by Shot" for more info
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This is the best explanation available.
 
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Just remember that some of the best movies ever made were movies made almost entirely of master shots(ex: To Kill A Mockingbird) and when the camera moved, so did the people(Ex: Howard Hawks' films like His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosiland Russell). Sometimes directors do tend to forget that a good story can be told with good character actors and a good script WITHOUT all of the fancy camera work. Not just old movies either. E.T had a little guy in a suit, and a puppet for special effects for most of the movie(except for the flying bicycles and U.F.O) and set cameras for the most part. They liked the zoom lens too.
In Jeremiah Johnson they built a Camera rail for a parrallel shot of Johnson(Robert Redford) being chased into a log cabin by a bear, running through the cabin, and jumping out the back window. It IS a fantastic shot. Then in Silverado the brothers two, built a camera rail for their movie and pretty soon every director just had to have one! They are neat and they made good shots but does the scene in your movie just have to have one or do you just want one because everyone else does it?
I myself get somewhat annoyed when the camera is all over the place doing everything and jumping from place to place especially when I can't for the life of me see any reason for doing it other than the director wanted us to know that he could have and did make all of those shots and angles. The purpose should always be to tell the story in the best way possible. If that involves the technical aspects, by all means use them. But if without them, the story is presented better, why use them? I believe that the best director is the one who can tell the story in the best way. I'll leave you with this: A quote from Horton Foote who took me back into a corner and gave me a ten minute lesson about films. "If you have a good story and good character actors to tell the story, just put the camera there and turn it on!"
Of course he was a film writer, not a director, but he was right. Tell the story!
 
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Josh Boelter said:
For what it's worth, I've heard that the DVD set is very good (though you get sick of looking at the same 3d expressionless models after a while). I'm debating whether to fork out the $400.

Cheers,

Josh
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I don't want to ruffle any feathers or bring up the piracy debate, but if you know where to look, you can find these files to download for free. I just checked, so they are available for sure.
 
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Just remember the 15 degree rule. When you shoot a shot, follow it by a change in 15 degrees by the next shot. Only change 15 degrees each time.

I'm totally kidding. But really, that was something actually told to me by a DP...no joke, he was serious. I thought it was funny. It's an inside joke now.

You guys pretty much exhausted the answers and suggestions on this thread, so I'll just say great posting.

Happy New Year!
 
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