Learn 5 Things From Hollywood Rebels

Source: Daniel Kresmery, Raindance Budapest

I was sitting on a plane back to Budapest for something like 12 hours the other day and read through a book called Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman, about how 6 indie directors – Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher – managed to break in and put their stamp on Hollywood filmmaking in the 90’s with films like Traffic, Pulp Fiction, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, Boogie Nights, and Fight Club.

So in keeping with Raindance style, here’s 5 Things I Learned While Reading the Above Mentioned Book on a Very Long Transatlantic Flight.

10 Tips For Better Camera Direction

4. Think in Parallel
Think Edit - when planning your camera set-ups, try and think about how your set-ups will interact together. Eg: A tracking shot could also be reset to provide a reverse for your dialogue coverage.

Also if you are moving the camera to create energy, add a little movement into potentially ‘locked off’ ie static camera set-ups to ease the transition in the edit. These are the sort of things you do try in Pre-Vis, if in doubt try it out.

5. Coverage
Shoot more of the scene from all set-ups, as long as there is action in the frame keep the camera rolling. This gives you more options and can often save the scene in the edit suite.

6. Close-Ups
When we take the audience in close we are asking them to be very intimate with the character. On the big screen this can be ‘too’ much so that the audience mentally step back and therefore miss the message you wish to convey. Handle with Care.

See the rest of the tips HERE