In the last article/video, Talking the Talk, Malcolm Hall and Emily Jupp looked at different shot sizes and what they all do.
The wide shot tells us where we are. The big closeup shows us every freckle and twitch on somebody’s face and so on.
So how do all these shots fit together?
How do you change them from one shot to the next?
Moving Right Along
You can use something called a transition. That’s just the posh word that means moving from one thing to another.
You can use transitions in all kinds of ways. It depends on how you want your video to look.
Do you want your transitions to seem natural and be almost invisible?
Well, how about something a bit more dramatic? Whatever you decide, there’s a transition you can use to do the job.
When you stop putting your video together, you’ll find most editing apps include heaps of different transitions. Simple ones or some that are flashier and a few that, uh, well, a bit silly really.
Try them all. You can always dump the weird ones later and settle for something more sensible.
Right now, we’ll look at the simple transitions, the ones you will be using most of the time.
The Cut
The simplest of all is the cut- one shot ends and the next one starts. It doesn’t get much easy than that. It kind of happens instantly. So, if you set it up properly, it feels as natural as blinking.
The Dissolve or Mix
Next there’s the dissolve or mix. This one’s a much slower transition, that takes quite a while to happen.
So, filmmakers use it to say, time is passing between these two shots, or okay, we’re moving to a different place between these two shots.
The Wipe
Next up is the wipe. The first shot is wiped off the screen by a new shot. You can use this one in the same way as dissolve- to say we’ve moved on or we’re in a different place now.
Transitions in Action
Let’s look at how you’d use cuts in a sequence where two people are chatting.
What you’re aiming for is something video makers call a clean cut. When shot one ends and shot two begins, it all feels quite natural and your viewers don’t get confused.
We end up looking at what we expected to see. So, there are no sudden surprises.
Keep it Clean!
We can cut between single shots of the two people or use two shots where we can see both of them and their location, or we can mix them up.
When two people are talking, you don’t have to think about it. You switch your attention from one person to the other as they take turns to speak.
So what’s the opposite of a clean-cut?
No, sorry. It’s not a dirty one. It’s called a jump cut.
A Jump Cut
A jump cut happens when the shots you’re cutting between are almost the same. So, it looks as if somebody has bumped into the camera.
Another kind of jump-cut happens when the shot you’re cutting to just doesn’t seem to make sense. Take these two people, she’s on the left, he’s on the right.
We cut into a shot of the woman and everything seems okay.
But when we cut to the matching shot of the guy, he’s facing the wrong way.
Ouch. That feels kind of weird. This is what you’re expecting to see.
Crossing the Line
Okay, you’re probably thinking that’s pretty stupid. How could anybody make such a dumb mistake?
Sorry, but that is really easy to do. Filmmakers even have a name for it.
They call it crossing the line.
It can happen when you move the camera to get close-ups or matching shots and you forget which way the people are supposed to be looking.
So how do you avoid crossing the line? There’s an easy fix.
You just imagine there’s a piece of string stretched between the noses of the two people. Then you make sure you always keep your camera on one side of the string.
If you never cross that line, your people will always be facing the right way.
When you’re shooting, you have to keep asking yourself which way should everybody be looking in this shot? Then imagine that measured piece of string and you’ll be fine.
Hey, Get Me Out of Here!
Something else you might be wondering is how long should each shot last before you cut to something else? A couple of seconds or how about a couple of minutes?
It all depends. If your video is fast-paced, you’ll want to change the shot every few seconds. Creating a sense of excitement going by constantly changing shots.
When the changes between shots are less than a second, it feels like there’s a whole lot of stuff going on.
Don’t try that cutting style for a video that’s more mysterious or romantic though.
If you’re planning to make one of those, you’ll need to hold each shot much longer. Some movie directors let them run on for minutes, but that’s a bit extreme.
So, whether you use fast cutting or slow cutting, it all depends on what type of story you’re telling.
For your average story, try to hold your shots for at least three or four seconds, any shorter than that, they might not make much sense to your audience and they’ll start to lose interest.
In Conclusion:
Now you know what the standard shots are and how to use them. So, you are finally ready to pick up the camera and we’ll talk some more about that in the next video: Ready to Roll