CHOOSING LENS ANGLES

How do you decide what lens to use? Experience will guide you, but if you apply the basic precept of 'do with the camera as you would with the eye' you won't go far wrong.

Here are yet a couple of two shots; the one on the left is a close-up on a medium wide lens - the shot on the right is just the same, but using a narrow lens. Because the depth of field is reduced, the background becomes blurred and the concentration goes on the girl's emotion, not on the flowers behind her.

MORE ON LENSES

A television screen is two-dimensional. The picture it shows has height and width but no depth. The director and cameraman can imply that depth in many ways. We get depth information in many ways; the most important of them is perspective. Things which are near to us look much bigger than things a long way away. The road or railway line is a classic case.

	Now have a look at this two shot. It's OK, but it's rather flat.
	So get the girl to walk a couple of steps forward. Not really any better.
	Not terribly exciting. But zoom in and the picture comes to life - we're seeing into her eyes and experiencing her emotion.
	Even better, track into her. Now you've got depth as well as concentration. If you can't track smoothly, can you find a reason for her to walk forward? It doesn't have to be the cliché 'pouring a drink' shot; there are lots of good reasons for people moving about. Watch a group of people talking. If the mood is relaxed, they're often fairly static; when the excitement mounts they'll move more and more. And drama (story telling) is more about excitement than relaxation.

CLUTTER

Don't just presume that the shot tells the story you want to tell. Look at it dispassionately if you can. I know it'll take two minutes to shift the camera and it's getting late, but have you got a shot like the one on the left?

The one on the right is essentially the same, a mid-shot of the presenter with the object, but it's far less cluttered (and a clock in shot can be dangerous).

Here's how the two shots were taken; from the left hand position the camera can see the clock and the skirting board - by moving back and zooming in it sees a much less cluttered shot.

BRING IT TO LIFE

And are you making good use of the shot? An empty shot of a landscape may be OK but it'll soon run out of interest.

Put a herd of cows in it or a couple walking through holding hands and it'll come to life and last much longer on screen. A little work like that can save you hours of shooting and editing time as well as being much more pleasing. Even a boring old chap with a briefcase can bring a shot to life (as long as the commentary isn't all about child molesters!).

That's quite enough for now about the pictures themselves - the visual words, if you like. What about the visual sentences?

Grammar Part Two

Grammar Part Four