Film Directing Shot by Shot

As we all know, the universal units of composition are the long shot, the medium shot, and the close-up.

This is the logic that determines the breakdown: use any actor, set, location or other resource as much as possible on any given day. Since actors are paid a day rate, it is very inefficient to bring an actor to the set to recite a few lines of dialogue for three scenes each shot on a separate day. Often the breakdown/schedule will require that the actor say all his lines for each scene he's included in on one day

Visualization is a way of coming up with new visual and narrative ideas before shooting begins. This may be merely a single arresting image in a scene or the decision to stage action for a long sequence shot rather than fast cutting. It may help you find the dramatic center of the scene, or it may reveal a dishonest line of dialogue. Surprisingly, the individual compositions in a storyboard are not necessarily the main benefit of visualization. If the staging of a scene is previewed on paper and subsequently improved, then the storyboard has helped focus the vision in the final film.

Reflection is really nothing more than a good night's sleep between drafts of a screenplay, versions of a storyboard or rehearsals with the cast. Reflection is the process that restores balance to the intense and myopic relationship to the materials that immediacy produces. Visualization must include hands-on picture making in