Shooting for the Sequence - Understanding Cinematography

"Oiseaux de Nuits, Edit by Edit" Tea L

In documentary style production or research people often go out to shoot their first video sequences thinking in terms of what "information" they need to acquire.

• I need to get documentation of the books my subject wrote.

• I need to get documentation of this location that features heavily in the interview.

• I need to get documentation of the subject at work, showing what they do.

When they come back to build a montage out of this B-Roll, they often run into issues.

• B-Roll: Shots with visual interest or relevance to the content of your film, but not containing important sync sound of their own. Typically laid over interview footage or used in montages.

This is because they may only get a single shot of something important, or when they look at their footage they realize all of their shots of an element are very similarly framed and feel repetitive. So I want to discuss a way of thinking that can solve this problem before it occurs: shooting for the sequence.

What exactly does that mean?

Simply put, shooting for the sequence entails a certain degree of thoughtfulness when you are shooting documentary. Put more concretely, it is a repeatable axiom you can use as you collect shots:

What is this going to cut with?

By reminding yourself of this as you shoot, you encourage yourself to get multiple shots of varying kinds of each important element you need for your film. Put in another way; this encourages you to get coverage.

• Coverage: The amount of shots you have of a given element of a film. Having no coverage is having no shots of something. Having a lot of coverage is having multiple. Having too much coverage can be a problem.

But more than just getting a bunch of very similar shots of the same element, shooting for the sequence encourages you to get coverage that will function when you get to editing.

Thinking of editing while shooting

In practical terms, when editing non-fiction / documentary / education works you will be to some degree working with interview for your content (or "text") and b-roll footage to illustrate or keep your viewers engaged.

However, b-roll also has a much more direct less glamorous function... it allows you to render your interviews more succinct and to portray your interview subjects in the best light. (Or if you work in reality television, it allows you to completely manipulate the audience's perception of events; see the term villain edit.)

Portraying a subject in their best light can be as simple as cutting out "umms", "ahhs", tangents and restatements. But it is considered bad form to leave these small cuts visible, so you cover them with B-roll.

However, one shot thrown over interview often seems jarring or like a visible "patch". It can draw too much attention and pull your audience out of the narrative as they wonder "What was that covering?"

Additionally you may need to cover multiple smaller cuts, so we often end up editing multiple small montages. This is less jarring and more visually interesting for the viewer.

In all these cases, our ability to make these changes is dependent on the footage that was shot, which we are often not any position to get more of.

So how do you shoot for the sequence?

Simple, every time you shoot something think:

What is this going to cut with?

• Did I get any other shots of this? (Or something related)

• Were they different sizes? (Wide / Medium / Close-up)

• Were the framings different enough? (Were they all from the same position and angle?)

• Were they long enough? (At least 4 seconds.)

By doing this you greatly increase the possibilities you have when editing, which will allow you to shape and problem solve much more efficiently and creatively.

If you feel you need help figuring these things out, you should check out the cinematography basics article on the blog!