Cinematography : Continuity and breaking the rules by Vital Butinar

Very insightful post. Did you know we have great cinematography education here at Stage 32?

You can check it out here if you want to learn more: https://www.stage32.com/education?search=cinematography

or contact me at edu@stage32.com if you have any questions

First off, I LOVE TESTS! Not just in school, but as a means to check something before the big day - camera tests, lighting tests, make up or costume tests, LOVE IT! It really does feel like film school all over again, doesn't it?

Second, are you talking about the early shot where your camera has crossed over the 180 line? I don't think it really detracts because that character hasn't started talking yet.

OHHH... "Now, go - get out of here", yeah the handing of the gun. The normal shot is so close to the line, though that when you cross it, it is only obvious when the gun is out of frame because the gun covers your face. Once their is no gun, yes, it becomes a problem because the eyeline does not match (you're looking right and she's on the left).

It can work, but if this is a test, I wouldn't duplicate it for the shoot day LOL!

Thank you very much Kristin Holloway. I actually know that but thank you anyway. :)

Karen "Kay" Ross well yeah the video has a lot of close calls. But I love it that there's a huge continuity mistake and it is really not noticeable because of the action in the scene.

The continuity mistake is when in the close up I grabe and hand the gun with my right arm and hand it to Leya in the other shot with still my right arm on the reverse short but when it cuts to the wide shot I'm handing the gun with my left arm. So the gun changes hands mid shot.

The funny thing is that I had about three takes of this shot and this one was the only one that worked. I guess because the arm and gun in the frontal plane makes more of an effective element than if it was in the background, but I guess when it works it works.

Oh I love doing tests too. I've done a bunch of different camera test for different shots or transitions for our projects. It's so much fun trying something low key, like with a phone or something and editing it together or doing a transition test and then later shooting the actual thing and seeing it work in final edit of the project.

Right now we're doing a huge commercial for a company that I'm directing and I love that we have a really nice story to make. It's kind of like a short film with actors and dialog replacing the voice overs of classic commercials. But I'm playing around with messing with this exact kind of continuity break in one shot just because I have a feeling that it will work.

So next week we're doing a quick test to see if it does. We'll be shooting to versions of a couple of shots and then editing them together.

Being in Cinematography might shed some LIGHT on a CONTINUITY issue you FACE in the video. As you made this a few years ago, I’m certain Leya and you would do even better now.

Thank you Andrew Sobkovich. Oh of course. But I was glad to get the extra credit and these kinds of projects at the beginning were always meant as something to learn with and I think that with every project that we did and even do now we learn something.

In fact I try to intentionally do something to challenge myself that I haven't done on every new project just so that I can try something.

The thing is that what surprised me is how using the wide shot that break continuity worked better than the shot that didn't.

Vital, moving the gun back and forth between hands covered the continuity error nicely. Yep, we get away with a lot of things, but those are the nice little surprises that we find in screenings.

I found the 4 different lighting looks on your face in the piece to be far more noticeable in terms of continuity.

Still looks like you had fun doing it. Which is the point. What would you do differently now in a remake?

Andrew Sobkovich actually it was fun. I mean I decided to shoot it like really quickly and actually didn't have much gear on hand. All we had was my DSLR, shot the audio on a phone, a working light and that was basically it. Everything inside was light by house lights or used a white peace of cardboard as a bounce.

But what I would do differently would probably be the lighting. I'd use the lights that I've got now and shoot the thing with our Pocket 4K and do the sound a little differently.

The problem originally was that we were alone so we were kind of limited with what we could do.

As for the shots I kind of liked them, although they were improvised and I think I would still like to use the same continuity error as here because I kind of liked it.

I might recycle this scene in something else I shoot sometime down the line.

That was rather enjoyable. Great use of what you had!

Vital, it looks to me like both of you had fun making the short. The obvious lack of gear just means you apply more creativity,. Which you did rather well.

Continuity impacts all areas and everyone on every set needs to keep it in mind. The lighting on you was obviously an issue when it changed sides and balance. Lighting with the aim of adjusting as little as possible between shots is reasonable. When changing any of the lighting, usually to make the actors look better, the look and feel of the master shot has to be maintained.

.

Thank you Lindbergh E Hollingsworth.

Well we tried use what we had.

I actually loved the 35mm vintage lens that I put on my dslr we shot with. I don't know why but it was so smooth while focusing and I liked the image.

I loved that I could use my boots and hat for it. :)

Andrew Sobkovich oh yeah. I'd say that we put a lot more effort into lighting now and at the same time pay more attention to post production with regards to balancing the shots to make them feel the same.

Two things I hated most on the dslr when we shot stuff was that I had now way of consistently judging the exposure without using my light meter. Which is a lot easier on the Pocket 4K.

The second was focusing on the very small screen which is also easier on the larger screen with the addition of focus peaking and ability to zoom the image while recording.

You know what the worst part of shooting this thing was. It was the smoking. :)

I don't smoke and never have but for this scene it felt like there should be some ambiance so I fake smoked the entire time and think I went trough half of the pack of cigarettes and it was horrible. The smoke kept going into my eyes and Leya was laughing at me.

Maybe if I recreated this scene I would now make the lighting from the top between both of the characters from in one of those gangster movies.

I almost exclusively use a light meter to set exposure and to ensure a consistent contrast ratio. Much more accurate than most of the other methods. But you have to do the camera tests and apply what you’ve learned about a given cameras response.

Re-thinking how you would shoot something is an important exercise. Having had fun the first time around, except for your cigarette issue, time to kick up the production values. Use the directors weird penchant for cigarettes to justify smoke in the air. Your light outside will give a nice beam in the smoke inside the room wrapping around your character. Cut the beam below Leya’s face so that she is somewhat dark until she leans into it matching your somewhat silhouetted character. Some choreography with a moving camera and the cuts will be great playing with the flare from the outside light. More pictures or props covering the light walls and keeping them as dark as possible will help the mood. This would keep it as a daytime scene. The night-time noir you suggest would also be fun to play with.