Making Better Movies with Your Camcorder

If you do have control over the subject, you can do some blocking. At a wedding reception, for example, you will want the shot to appear natural, but you can occasionally ask guests to move to a spot where the light is better, or angle themselves differently without being too intrusive. What really matters is that you get the shot.

Here is how to block a shot:

1.	Determine what the shot covers. Every shot has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The shot also has to match any other shots that are adjacent to it in the overall story.
2.	Break the shot into moves and positions. A move occurs during a shot when subjects or the camera changes position. A position is the location of a subject or camera between moves. Figure 1: Floor plan showing blocking of the Frank and Johnny scene.
3.	Have the actors walk through the shot. During a walkthrough, the actors move from one position to the next while you decide where the camera should go, and if there needs to be any additional lighting.
4.	Have the actors do a full rehearsal. Run the scene in real-time with the blocking and make sure everything looks natural and goes smoothly. After you are satisfied with how the shot looks, you can start lighting if necessary and setting up the shot.

To make it easy on yourself, keep the number of moves per shot to a minimum. Rather than shoot a complicated scene in one long shot, break it up into smaller manageable shots that you can cut together in editing. A long shot may not seem very complicated when you think about it in pre-production, but when you start shooting you may find yourself spending unnecessary time coordinating all the moves, and you may end up doing take after take because there are so many things that can go wrong. Breaking up a complicated shot also gives you more flexibility in the editing room.

If you have control of your subject, you can block subject and camera movement so that both seem natural and the shot stays composed. If you do not have control over the subject you will have to anticipate movement and block on the fly.

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