Establishing Shots / POV

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  • Establishing Shots / POV

    If you read the Worldplayer columns you noticed that one was devoted to this topic. It makes you wonder if we might have one or two establishing shots too many in our scripts.

    I know that there is no hard and fast rule -- sometimes we need to open up our script and establish a scene outdoors if we've been confined to the same apartment for a previous scene(s).

    But should we go outdoors just to tell the reader that it is DAY before we pick up again in the same apartment the next morning?

    As I said, we all know "that it depends...." But I would still like some advice on this topic, specifically if we should rethink adding an establising shot outdoors when -- what the heck -- we should just add DAY to the next indoor scene and move along.

  • #2
    Re: Establishing Shots / POV

    In a nutshell there are no 'rules' here. (In my book there are very few rules anyway; the main rule is make something people will want to watch...).

    It isn't necessary to go outside to demonstrate time change - there are plenty of ways to do it indoors. Waking up, breakfast, m*sturbating in the shower, getting ready for work.

    There's also sense in the idea that if it's not essential, lose it. From a production angle the establishing shot is an inexpensive second unit job but on a low budget movie these can be useful things to get rid of. If you mangage to lose $5-10k budget for every 10 pages of script, you are making signifcant savings. But I should add to that that sometimes the establishing shot can be the less expensive alternative, which reinforces the question: what is its purpose and is it the best way to serve that purpose?

    It also goes to genre and feel. Put you head in the scene - or the scene in your head, who cares - and play it through. Does the establishing shot work more toward creating the feel you want, or is it more effective to stay indoors. Nobody should call you out on it either way.

    M.
    "I've been in this business too long to worry about how long I've been in this business." M.

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    • #3
      Re: Establishing Shots / POV

      Establishing shots are essential most of the times to telling your story. And not just to show that it's day/night, but to help set the "location" and "tone" of the piece...

      For example, let's say you were writing about two lovers in Jamaica meeting at the beach. Would it be enough to just show them walking on a beach? No. You probably want to show an exterior shot depicting a landmark or an aeriel shot of say Ocho Rios. Of course reggae music playing in the background also helps establish the mood. In essense, these few lines, this short scene, will setup what comes next and "transport" the reader/movie goer to your magical place.

      Another example, what if you want to do an arms dealer negotiate a deal in Paris? Or Moscow? Or Italy? Your establishing shot of Eiffel or Notre Dame, Red Square or Colesium will be essential to help transport you (thus "establish") the scenes that are to come...even if those rest of scenes are shot in a Hollywood backlot.

      As for cost, yes these scenes can add some costs. But they are essential to the film's success... it's not enough to "tell" the reader they are in Paris, you must "show" them that they are.

      Remember SHOW not TELL.


      Writer / Director available for your project.

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      • #4
        Re: Establishing Shots / POV

        Originally posted by geozero View Post
        Establishing shots are essential most of the times to telling your story. And not just to show that it's day/night, but to help set the "location" and "tone" of the piece...
        As for cost, yes these scenes can add some costs. But they are essential to the film's success... it's not enough to "tell" the reader they are in Paris, you must "show" them that they are.
        Remember SHOW not TELL.

        I think you missed the point. To distinguish a day scene from the preceding night scene an establishing shot is not essential.

        It's rather obvious that if you are establishing a particular location, especially foreign, an establishing shot or montage is usually necessary, even if it's the horribly cliched shot of the Eiffel Tower. (Yes I know it's simple and 'effective' in a stupid kind of way, but no need to save writing these scenes for the day when you have zero creativity.)

        But in a low budget movie where you simply need to distinguish day from night for an interior sequence, an establishing shot is definitely something you could manage without.

        M.
        "I've been in this business too long to worry about how long I've been in this business." M.

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        • #5
          Re: Establishing Shots / POV

          I'm with Alfred Hitchcock in the idea that establishing shots suck because they break the audience point of view.

          Don't just show a building and then the inside of the building where the stuff is happening unless something is happening outside the building.

          Hitch kept the camera on the train in North By Northwest because "showing the train passing would only show the audience a cow's view of the train" (or something to that extent).

          Establishing shots suck unless something is happening that warrants the shot being seen.

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          • #6
            Re: Establishing Shots / POV

            I think it depends on the story you're telling. Hitch's idea of sticking with the POV in a Bond film would rob of its personality.
            "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

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