Waiting

Looking out to sea

In the first clips, the boy is looking out to sea. He gets the text message and looks around. The sequence uses framing (what’s in the shot and how it’s arranged) and camera position to help show what’s going on.

Often a film starts with a wide shot or a long shot and then moves closer.

The first shot - called an establishing shot - shows us the setting, and then we get closer so we can see what the characters are doing and the expression on their faces.

Put the wide birdseye shot (left) and the long shot (right) in your film. Now play both of them together.

The film will seem very slow.

Adjust the duration of each clip (how long it lasts) so that it’s on screen long enough for the viewer to see what’s in it, but not so long that they will get bored.

From now on, choose just the amount you need from each clip.

Now you need to show the boy’s expression. Put these shots in next.

The first is a medium close-up, the second is an extreme close-up.

Watch them together. Because the shots are fairly similar and they are filmed from the same position, there’s a bit of a ‘jump’ between them. You also can’t see that the scene is set on a beach.

Put the wide shot of the beach between them.

This makes the editing less obvious, and it shows us what the boy is looking at.

Showing a scene from one camera position, and then from more or less the opposite position, is called shot-reverse shot. Most films use this technique.

Getting the text

The mid shot shows the action of the boy getting the text, looking around and then putting the phone away.

You could just use this shot. But you can give the viewer more information by using inserts (detail shots) and a point of view shot.

Start with the mid shot and then use the other shots. You will probably need to use some shots more than once.

Edit them together so that the action seems to be continuous.

The editing will be less obvious if you edit during a movement rather than at the beginning or end. This is called editing on the action.

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