Planning

No director creates with a protractor and squared paper. He thinks in terms of pictures – of visual arrangements that produce a particular effect or mood. But good shots, coupled with smooth compositional continuity, do not just happen. They need forethought and planning. With experience, ‘guesstimates’ can be made. Real accuracy requires scale calculations. But they are a creative aid, not a substitute for imaginative thought.

Working it out

Paper planning saves studio rehearsal time. Moreover ideas can be worked out in private, without having to trundle dollies around to see what will happen. The tools.are a scale plan, and a transparent triangle representing the lens angle (an adjustable protractor is ideal).

The principles involved are quite simple. The angle at the apex of the transparent triangle is the same as the horizontal angle of the camera lens to be used (e.g. 25°). Wherever it is placed on the studio plan, it shows the same field of view as covered by the studio camera with its lens positioned at the apex. When the angle does not fall within the set, then the camera will be shooting off if set up at that point in the studio.

Shot proportions

The lines that form the angle represent the left and right edges of the screen. If an object is positioned so that it touches both of the lines, it exactly fills the screen width – whether it is a small close object, or a large distant one.

Suppose an object is required to fill a certain proportion of the screen width (say, one third). Multiply the object’s width by that proportion (e.g. 3) and, taking a piece of paper of this marked length, move it until it fits. The object will then appear to fill one third of the shot width. Suppose the subject is a person (full face is in wide on a ¼ in scale, for a person is roughly 18 inches across the shoulders*). To fill one third of the screen with a person full-faced, move a 3 × in marker until it fills the angle. On a 25° lens, the measured result is 3½ ft away.

Opposite is a quick shot check for a 25° lens. This shows all the subject distances at which the standard shots can be obtained with a 25° lens. If you are using another lens angle, multiply the table distance by that factor:

* 1 :50 is 2 em = 1 m. Metric scale: People are roughly 0.45 metre across, 0.25 deep.

How can we get this shot?

Check your scale used. (If ¼ in = 1 ft, a man is 3/8 in across.) 1. How much of shot does he occupy (e.g. ½). 2. Draw scale line with man ½ its length. 3. Fit line across lens angle (at X-X). 4. Read distance needed to get shot.

What does this setup give?

Man is 14 ft away on 25° lens, therefore: This is a 3/4 Shot (knee shot) in table below. For any item, draw line across angle at that point (e.g. X-X). Th is shows shot width at that distance. What proportion of shot is occupied by desk? Desk is at Y-Y, 6 units wide . Shot width 10 units at that point, therefore desk fills 6/10 = 0.6 of screen.