SHOOTING ACTION

SHOOTING ACTION

Interviews give information, emotion, and narrative details, but action and motion illustrate and drive your video stories. Just as you prepared carefully to shoot your interviews, you must also prepare to shoot action or b-roll. When you are shooting your stories, you must be specific and precise about the footage that you need to capture. Shooting without a goal or plan will result in many wasted hours.

Should you shoot action or interviews first? In reality, it is best to interview and shoot b-roll of your characters several times. During an interview, your source might mention an exercise routine she does every morning to mentally pre- pare for her job. This is an interesting, active detail about your source. You will want to illustrate this by shooting your interviewee’s exercise routine. In this instance, an interview answer has led you to opportunities for shooting action.

After you have watched the footage of her morning regimen, you realize that you need her to explain how each routine helps her perform better at work. You will have to interview your source again, this time asking specific ques- tions about the exercises you have recorded. Here, action has led to another interview.

Avoid wallpaper. Your action shots, or b-roll, should be as editorially mean- ingful as your interview questions. You must avoid shooting generic b-roll or wallpaper. These generic shots do not add value to your narrative. You must look for opportunities to shoot genuine action or motion.

B-roll is used to visually illustrate and demonstrate concepts, behaviors, or ideas. You must be a keen observer and listener to identify active scenes to

158 PA RT I I : P r o d u c t i o n a n d P o s t - P r o d u c t i o n Te c h n i q u e s

shoot and include in your stories. You can look for shooting opportunities while you are reporting and while reviewing your interviewee’s answers.

Let’s return to the earlier example of the CEO of the tech startup. One part of the interview yielded these answers:

Reporter:

What are some challenges of running your own business?

Interviewee: It‘s really hard. It’s a big task. Reporter:

Can you be more specific? What are some of the big tasks you deal with?

Interviewee: As a startup, I have to do everything myself. I am the accountant, head of HR, CEO, and the cleaning crew. I have to do the spread- sheets and take out the garbage. It’s a lot for one person.

Reporter:

Describe what that feels like.

Interviewee: It can be great, but most days it’s frustrating. It feels like I’m out in the ocean and swimming to shore but the tide keeps on pushing me back. There’s always more to do.

In this case, you want to illustrate the fact that the source faces many chal- lenges as a CEO of a startup. One major challenge is that she must wear many hats and complete tasks that range from high level to menial. What b-roll should you shoot?

The CEO in this story says that her job is “really hard. It’s a big task.” This does not give us enough practical possibilities to shoot. You cannot point your camera at an object called “a big task” and hit record. “A big task” is only a vague concept. You must find out what your character specifically does as a CEO and visually illustrate it.

In her follow-up answer, the source says, “I am an accountant, head of HR, CEO, and the cleaning crew. I have to do the spreadsheets and take out the garbage.” Here, we have been given a bit more specificity. What are some of the active scenes she has mentioned? What does it mean to be an accountant? What does it mean to be head of HR? What are her tasks as a CEO? As her own cleaning crew, she takes out the garbage.

You must now decide what to shoot to illustrate your source’s responsibili- ties and struggles as an entrepreneur. Do you want to shoot her acting as an accountant? Is that visual enough? By her own account, this involves dealing with spreadsheets. Someone sitting at a computer typing does not make for very active or exciting footage. What does it mean to be a CEO? Later in the interview, you find out that she works with designers to fabricate her product prototypes with a 3D printer. This is a much more active scene than someone

Field Production 159

working on a spreadsheet. In this case, to illustrate the “big task” of being a CEO, you might choose to shoot your source working with her designers to develop prototypes.

Shooting scenes. Earlier in this textbook, we discussed the 3 × 3 Rule. This prin- ciple requires that you shoot every action from three angles and three focal distances (wide shot, medium shot, and close up). This ensures that you will get a variety of angles and shots. This is a good starting point for shooting b-roll and scenes.

I define a scene as an action that results in a reaction. B-roll by itself is not a scene. Shooting complete scenes requires using the 3 × 3 Rule, as well as shooting both reaction and point-of-view (POV) shots. When you are shooting scenes, make sure that your raw footage, when properly edited, will provide information that fully complements or enhances your interviews.

Five shots. I follow a five-shot formula to ensure that I will have enough mate- rial to create a scene in post-production: wide shot, medium shot, close up shot, reaction shot, and point-of-view (POV) shot.

Wide shots. Wide shots provide context to your scene. Wide shots give your viewers a sense of place, the number of characters in your scene, and any other relevant details. For example, in a scene with students, a wide shot will establish that they are in a classroom or lab of some sort. Without a wide shot, the location or setting may be unclear. Wide shots are sometimes referred to as establishing shots because they establish the setting.

Figure 5.56 Wide shots provide context to your scene.

160 PA RT I I : P r o d u c t i o n a n d P o s t - P r o d u c t i o n Te c h n i q u e s

Medium shots. Medium shots can help you to focus your scene. In a classroom with many students, a medium shot will allow you to focus on two students in particular. I tend to favor editing with wide and close up shots, but medium shots are invaluable for building a scene.

Close ups. Close ups provide crucial detail to your scene. As a videographer, one of your main goals is to be a surrogate for your viewers. Close ups of people, the objects in the room, and other details will bring your viewers closer into the environment and give them a deeper sense of the scene. In general, approximately 60 percent of the shots I end up using in my videos are close ups.

Figure 5.57 Medium shots help to focus on the primary subjects of your scene.

Figure 5.58 Close up shots provide crucial detail to your scene.

Field Production 161

Point-of-view (POV). A point-of-view shot helps to place your viewer into the story. In your classroom scene, your wide shots provide context and setting, medium shots isolate your main subjects, and close ups present detail. Your POV shot gives your viewers a more intimate view of the scene. POV footage is shot from the vantage point of one of the characters, rather than that of the reporter or observer.

Reaction shot. Wide shots, medium shots, and close ups demonstrate action. To complete a scene, you need to shoot reaction shots. If one student is discussing a project with another student, then we must show

Figure 5.59 POV shots help to place the viewer into the story.

Figure 5.60 Reaction shots demonstrate the impact of the action in the scene.

162 PA RT I I : P r o d u c t i o n a n d P o s t - P r o d u c t i o n Te c h n i q u e s

Figure 5.61 A sequence of wide, medium, close up, POV, and reaction shots form a complete scene.

Figure 5.62 Footage shot from the same angle and edited together will result in a jump cut.

how the student is reacting. If a musician is playing on stage, we need to see the audience. If a politician is speaking, we must see the cheers or boos of the crowd.

Many videographers use a modified version of this five-shot formula. There is no absolute right or wrong formula, but the key point to remember is that you need a variety of shots to be able to edit a real scene with action and reac- tion. See how the five shots we discussed come together as a complete scene. Even in a very dull environment such as a classroom, you can create motion if you capture enough of the right shots.

Cutaways and transitions. Two other shots that you must be concerned with while shooting in the field are cutaways and transitions. Cutaways are shots you can use to cut away from your action. You will often have to edit footage to make your scene more concise or understandable. This editing may pro- duce jump cuts or edits that awkwardly juxtapose shots from similar angles. Jump cuts can be jarring to a viewer.

A cutaway allows you to edit in another shot then go back to your previ- ous angle. Cutaways should be meaningful—always avoid wallpaper. Avoid generic cutaways such as hands typing on keyboards or clocks on walls, unless, of course, the time of day matters to the scene.

Transition shots help you to get from one scene to the next scene smoothly. Establishing shots are often used to get viewers from one location to a new setting. For example, after the scene in the classroom, you may want to tran- sition to a scene that takes place somewhere else on campus. This may be an outside shot of another school building or the campus quad.