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Framing Shots for Better Storytelling When creating storyboards, framing a shot is part of the goal, along with telling the story. Framing or composing a shot is like taking a picture with a camera. Learning some basic elements of framing can help students learn to take well-composed pictures as well as teaching them how to create storyboards to visualize and tell a story.
Some types of shots and shot names that will be addressed are: Establishing Shot, Over-the-Shoulder Shot, Reverse Shot, Two Shot & Cut Away. But before we start looking at shot types, a brief word about framing: Framing a character: (from left to right) 1. This is a Long Shot of a character. A long shot shows the character from head to toe. 2. Medium Shot—the character from the waist up. 3. Close Up—shoulder and up. Notice the space above the characters head. This is called "head room." Using filmic terms makes it easy to communicate with a camera person or director of photography while shooting a project or designing shots (i.e. rather than saying "move the character down in the frame," a director would say "give the character more 'head room'").
Learning the language of film, such as the types of shots and when/why they're used, can assist students with successfully communicating their ideas. The examples of the shots that will be given in this article are examples of the typical use of these shots. Establishing Shot: Usually a wide shot which helps orient the viewer about where and when the story is taking place. (Wide shot: another term for a long shot which also shows a large portion of the scene or setting.) (Long Shot: when framing a person means showing them from head to toe in the shot.) We've put a man with a briefcase and a dog in front of a school. As the story continues will show and tell more about this man and the dog.
Here's an interior establishing shot of the same character sitting at a desk. It is also a long shot of the character, but in this case we'll call it an establishing shot because we are establishing that the story has changed the location to inside. The shot shows the audience that he is in an office. The viewer will mentally join this shot with the establishing shot of the school exterior and assume it's an office in the school. Here we see the character at the principal's desk. We see that it is a principal's desk because we put a sign on the desktop. When storyboarding to shoot a movie, an important element of the storyboarding process is showing the spatial relationship of the elements within the shot (i.e. the screen position of the main elements) so the crew knows where to set up the camera and lights and where to position the actors. This board shows the director wants a medium shot of the principal behind his desk.
When storyboarding to illustrate a story in order to pitch a concept, we would want to "dress the set" (in this case, the office) with visual elements that say "school principal." (Use props, i.e. books, flag, wall decorations.) When pitching an idea, it's important to sell the idea visually!
A professional script would indicate the location in slug line. That slug line might read as follows: INT. - PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE – DAY
Introduction of another character: Long shot of the new character coming into the room. A storyboard can contain a caption along with the picture. Sometimes it’s a scene description and/or dialog. To Continue Article, Please Click Here
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Storyboarding—Part Two |
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November, 2008 |
