Directing for the Screen
Fully half a video director's job is staging action for the screen. If you think that's no big deal to accomplish, you're ripe to join the list of big shot Broadway stage directors who failed miserably in Hollywood. Directing for the screen means setting up the camera at the right place with the right lens aimed in the right direction at the right time, and then moving subjects in front of it. Two inescapable conditions complicate this basic process.
First, each shot is just one tiny project fragment that must match the preceding and following shots in some ways, but contrast with them in other ways. In addition, because the screen is essentially flat, all apparent depth upon it is an illusion painstakingly created by the director and videographer.
Videomaker has examined the director's many jobs we've covered continuity and screen direction as well as camera angles. (We've also examined the other half of a director's craft, working with talent). This time around, we'll focus on the specifics of staging action for the flat world of the video screen. We'll look at four major directing tools: point of view, composition, perspective and mov…
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