Shooting Conversations

Shooting a conversation might seem pretty straight forward, but there are a few things worth keeping in mind to help your audience feel comfortable in the film-space, as well as to help 'tell the story' visually.

The 180 Degree Rule

This rule is pretty much universal.  Since we live in a 3D world, but our screens are only 2D, our audience can easily become disoriented if we don't follow the 180 Degree Rule.

The first step in following the rule is to establish the 'line of communication'. Once this imaginary line is drawn, all shots are taken from one side or the other, but NEVER do you shoot from BOTH sides of the line.

See if you can work out which one of the images on the right is from the green camera, and think about why that image is disorienting.

When you've worked that out, watch the videos below to reinforce the 180 degree rule and get you thinking about framing your film for emotion.

Emotion

Conventionally, we would frame our subject up more loosely for less emotional moments in a film, say, a medium shot.  When things become more emotionally intense, we would frame up more closely, say, a medium close-up, a close-up or even an extreme close-up.

Shot-Reverse-Shot

Shot-reverse-shot refers to the kind of shooting and editing we usually use when producing a dialogue scene.  The framing each person 'mirrors' the framing of the other person, so if we film over the right shoulder of one character, we would shoot over the left shoulder of the other character.  We would also match the framing of the person 'facing' the camera.

Watch the videos below and think about how you might frame up your own short conversational scene.

Exercise .

1. Write a very short conversation between two characters, say a teacher and student.  Say, five sentences of dialogue each.

2. On a blank page, draw a top-view plan of the set, or location that you plan to shoot in, including the position of each person.

3. Establish the line of communication.

4. Choose at least three, and no more than six, different camera positions, and draw cameras in with lines to indicate the intended framing.  Consider the kind of shot you would use for establishing shots, shot-reverse-shots and emotional moments.

5. Complete a storyboard for your conversation.  

6. Shoot and edit the scene.

Note: remember to consider what you have learned about framing and composition when you are in production.