Video Maker's Journey Introduction

Beyond Basics:  start | story development | pre-production | responding to criticism | editing refinements | transferring cine film to video | pace

The Videomaker's Journey: part twenty-two Beyond the Basics: Putting Pace into a Movie Use the links in the text to move between sections.

Contents

There are three elements in this operation:

(a)	How the story is written	An experienced writer will automatically put pace into a drama. I have included some comments below for the benefit of beginners.
(b)	How the video shots are planned and taken
(c)	How the video shots are edited

Unusual stories and very funny jokes get the best results in competitions.

(a) HOW THE STORY IS WRITTEN

• Dialogue should be brief and rapid.
  It must advance the plot. Keep words to a minimum, delete unnecessary words. A well written joke will have all this.
• Have lots of fast action, reaction, arguments and confrontation.
  
  
• Incidents and different locations should happen in quick succession.
  
  
• Vary the pace a little bit, if appropriate.
• Cliffhangers - the action is suddenly interrupted and left unfinished by a jump to a new threat.
  The Handyman has a very good example of this - Fred and Bob nick off to the darts competition and leave a great unfinished mess behind them.
• Occasionally show emotion, reaction - use this to shorten long video clips.
• Prolonged outcomes increase tension and enhance the movie. Accentuate the action, dwell on the final resolution of the problem.
  Pass the Parcel shows an example of this - I was the second postman. In the past I had delivered letters to households as a pamphlet and letter deliverer - as I approached the letter box, I would look at the house, then at the letter box, look at the letter again to check the house number, then check the number on the letter box a second time. This noticeably enhanced the movie and made me look to be a competent actor.
  If your prolonged outcome does not noticeably enhance the movie - delete it.
• Foreshadow future problems at the end.this gives the pace a final kick.
  The Handyman contains this feature.
  The movie The Handyman ticks all the boxes, there are also good twists and turns in the story. Watch the film here.

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b) HOW THE VIDEO SHOTS ARE PLANNED AND TAKEN

• Length: Ideal maximum clip length is 4 1/2 seconds. 3 seconds is a good minimum. Many Hollywood movies use even shorter shots as standard.
• Shortest reaction: - generally 1 second 17 frames is the shortest clip to use, make it 2 seconds if you use 5-frame cross fades.
• The opening scene: - get the attention of the audience. One of the best opening shots I have seen was by John Westwood: a car drove up and parked outside a farm house, then two dogs ran out to greet their master. The camera was high up, looking down on the scene, from ahead of the vehicle - this is what made the shot so successful. The dogs were not essential to the scene, but they enhanced the shot. It made me sit up and take notice.
  Fay Finlay told me a very useful type of shot - a car drives past and screeches to a stop - it backs up and parks so the driver can read a sign in front of a house.

Refer to sample movies in the Video Makers Journey: parts 17 and 22.
Part 22, look at more tips on how to start the movie.

• New Beginnings
• The Wild West Frontier
• Violets are Blue
• Goodbye Paddy
• Dressed to Kill
• Also look at The Handyman.

Drafting a shot list

Parts 6-9 describe how to frame the shots.
Download the annotated script of The Problem with Harry as a pdf - click here. (Note the pages are numbered 4-11.)

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c) HOW THE VIDEO SHOTS ARE EDITED

• If the movie is dramatic with conflict: donʼt use crossfades. They slow the pace.
• If the movie is full of happiness, but there is lots of quick action, with short clips to break up long scenes: use 3-frame to 5-frame crossfades - they slightly soften the cut.
• Refer to the Video Makers Journey parts 17 and 22.

Editing generally

• Delete dead time.
• Use a mixture of different types of shots - different angles and different lengths.
• In shots where someone is to walk in or out of the frame, cut when subject is half in frame.

Sample Movies

Mumʼs the Word - a good example of breaking a 20 second shot down into a series of short clips. This movie was a semifinalist in the 2008 BIAFF one-minute Knockout Competition , there were 16 entries.

The Handyman - a very good example of a fast paced movie.

This movie is commented on in Part 18 and Part 22 of the Video Makers Journey.

The following has been extracted from Part 18.

Act 1 is well crafted -- it introduces the characters, tells us what the story is about and foreshadows heaps of trouble. Act 2 unleashes the handyman (Ross Wilesmith) - the subject matter would have been  well sorted - but there was no script  Ross is in his element, it is all ad-libbed. Act 3 is also well written -this is where the housewife saves the situation- but at the end, the handyman foreshadows more problems inthe future. This team has made about 130 movies over the last 30 years. Fay is very quick at writing good original stories, complete with a useful shotlist. Don and Ross are both very competent camera operators and editors. Ross has given me valuable advice on directing and story telling on various occasions.

On writing these notes and looking back   I find that Fay and Ross have a very good understanding of how to put pace into a movie. Ross has good story telling abilities, this is why he is very good at ad-libbing.

I also discovered that I was also going about putting pace into movies in the correct manner - Refer to Mumʼs the Word script above.

Pass the Parcel - this movie was awarded 3 Stars at the 2008 BIAFF. It is a very good example of an unusual story
A Col Tretheway and Arthur Bullock Movie.Written and directed by Col - camera work by Arthur.

Judges Comments:-
A good build-up of tension as the postman approached the house. The old crone was quite convincing. There was a break in the sound as the postman reached the gate. As the door opened we could see the black cloth, perhaps more attention to the lighting would have helped to hide this.
There were lots of well framed camera angles which enhanced this production.
The storyline was well thought out and came over quite clearly and we enjoyed watching this film.
A very good subject for a one line joke, especially with the surprise twist at the end.

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Video Maker's Journey Introduction
Beyond Basics:  start | story development | pre-production | responding to criticism | editing refinements | transferring cine film to video | pace

© copyright Arthur Bullock, 2013

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