Film Craft 103: The Director - 19. Shooting a Scene

When it comes time to actually shoot a scene, you'd be amazed at how many directors get flustered and lose track of where to start. Fortunately, you're not going to have that problem. You're going to remember this simple mnemonic, believe in love, receive smooches. I know, it's corny, maybe ridiculous, but it will hopefully help you remember this very important sequence. B-L-R-S. Block, light, rehearse, shoot. Believe in love, receive smooches. Hopefully you'll never forget this. And if you want, make your own version, but whatever you do, try to remember those sequence. The first thing you want to do is block the scene. Walk the actors through the action. Now that you're finally on the real set, presumably you've run through the scene before during a read through or a rehearsal, but this is probably the first time that you're able to do it in the actual place where the scene is going to take place. Certainly the first time where there's going to be all the equipment and other obstacles. So you walk through the scene and figure out how much of your careful planning works and how much of it you're going to need to rethink or fix. The most important thing here is that you do your blocking before anyone sets up the camera or the lights. The action in the scene must determine where the camera and the lights go and not the other way around. I promise you that sometimes your DP is going to want to light the location before you get to your blocking, and even your first AD might agree with her, so as to save time, but this is a terrible idea. And yes, you did all your pre-planning, and so you already know where you think your master shot is going to be filmed from, so why not set up the camera? And this is where I tell you, remember that pre-production you did? Forget it. No matter what you planned, sometimes you're going to need to reinvent your coverage on set and you need to embrace this idea. Blocking in the actual shooting location can reveal all sorts of things that you had no idea of, and it's far more important to remain in the moment and be open to the inspiration that might occur. Now, it's not to say you should skip the prep. Absolutely not. Just don't be so beholden to it that you can't reinvent your plan on the spot if you need to. There are endless stories of the most magical moments coming through these sort of last-minute inspiration. And everyone on the crew should be there to watch the blocking, since it's going to affect what they're going to do during the shoot. Right here is where you're going to have your first moment, okay? So you're going to kind of follow her out just a little bit and you kind of, you know, make sure you kind of engage her. The camera team is thinking about where they can set up the dolly track or what lenses might be required. The boom operator is figuring out where she can stand or whether she's going to need an apple box to stand on and so on. Okay, once your scene is blocked and you're happy with the way it plays on the set, then, and only then, send in the lighting crews to add the lights. On a professional set, the first team gets sent to the makeup and the second team stands in so that the lighting crew can figure out how and where to place the lights. Then, once the lights and camera are all set up, then you begin to rehearse the scene. First, rehearse with the stand-ins as the first team gets finished and ready to shoot in the makeup room, and then you can rehearse with them. Now, the rehearsal is for everyone, not just for the actors. The camera assistants are going to need to set marks on the ground for each of the actors' positions. This helps them to keep the camera in focus and it gives the actors confirmation about exactly where they need to stand during the scene. Then, the camera operator may need to rehearse any camera moves required, and the sound mixer's got to set audio levels, and so on. You'll rehearse over and over until it seems like the scene is ready to shoot, and then, believe in love, receive smooches. Now we can shoot, finally. You can go watch the producing course to learn about how the first AD calls the scene and what the full procedure is in terms of using a slate and all that. Just be sure to never call cut too soon. Let the action complete, take a full beat, and then, and only then, call cut. As director, you should be thinking about how you want to go about shooting the scenes. Most often, it makes sense to start with the master, since it covers the whole action of the scene, and most of the coverage will likely only cover some of the beats required for that angle. Shooting the master first gives the actors, and everyone else, the opportunity to feel the rhythm and flow of the overall scene. But be careful. Don't overwork your actors in the master. In a master shot, the camera's typically pretty far away from the action, and so you don't want to tire out your talent too soon. There's still going to be a lot of coverage to be shot, and you want your actors to be fresh enough to still appear to discover their performances when it comes time for the close-up. Each time you complete a take, check with your actors and give them feedback. Check with your camera team, and then make the decision, go again or move on. Now, one very important rule. Always shoot a safety take. When you think you've nailed the scene, and you're sure that everything was totally perfect, don't move on just yet. Do one more take. You never know if you missed some tiny thing, or perhaps there's some technical problem that screws up that one perfect take. Always shoot one safety. Never ever just shoot one take of something, and then move on. Now, once you're ready to move on, reset the camera for the next shot or next setup, and repeat the process again. Since you're blocking, presumably covered the whole scene, you don't need to block again. So fix any lights that require adjusting, rehearse the action, and shoot. One more tiny tip. Don't spend all your time in front of the monitor. Watch the scene live. Try to stay in the moment, stay connected, and feel the performance. If you're stuck in video village watching TV, it becomes a little too easy to get disconnected from what's going on right there in front of you.