Editing: Single Camera Mode (Discussion)

Single-Camera productions: Behind the scenes

• 

  The Addams Family, circa 1965

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  The Andy Griffith Show, 10/6/1961 episode

Review topics from Television

Explain these editing concepts, using a scene from The Sopranos. The scene's video is on Blackboard and screenshots from every shot are online. You may also wish to use illustrations from chapter 10.

• Group 1:
  • Establishing shot
    • Re-establishing shot
• Group 2:
  • The shot-counter shot editing pattern (also known as "shot-reverse shot")
• Group 3:
  • Match cut
    • Match-on-action
    • Eyeline match. There are none in this scene. What would one look like?
  • Jump cut. There are none in this scene. What would one look like?
• Group 4:
  • 180° rule (see Peter John Ross example)
    • Screen direction
    • How/when might this rule be broken in a TV program?

Decoupage exercise: #1

• 

  Figure 10.24 Grey's Anatomy diagram.

• Do a sample decoupage--as explained with a Grey's Anatomy scene--of a Chevrolet commercial (video on Blackboard and screenshots over here). Focus only on shots 33-44 toward the end of the commercial.
  • Each student should start by drawing an overhead view of shots 33-44, similar to Figure 10.24, but without the frames. That is, just draw the humans and the camera positions.
  • Each student should be prepared to answer the following decoupage questions from the textbook (p. 272), although you may talk about them in your group:
  1. How is the scene’s space, the area in which the action takes place (i.e., the car), introduced to the viewer? Does an establishing shot occur at the start of the scene (or later in it)?
  2. Skip.
  3. Do these angles adhere to the 180° rule? Can you draw an axis of action? Is screen direction maintained? If not, why is the viewer not disoriented? Or if the space is ambiguous, what narrative purpose does that serve?
  4. Skip.
  5. Is an alternating editing pattern used? Is shot-reverse shot used?
  6. How does the camera relate to the character’s perspective? Are there point-of-view or subjective shots? If so, how are those shots cued or marked? That is, what tells us that they are subjective or point-of-view shots?
  7. Is match-on-action used? Are there jump cuts?
  8. How does the last shot of the scene bring it to a conclusion?
  9. Skip.

Decoupage exercise: #2

If you finish early, do a similar analysis of a tricky scene from Scrubs (video on Blackboard and screenshots over here). Draw another diagram and work through the questions above.

Bibliography

1. Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Visual Storytelling and Screen Culture. New York: Routledge, 2018.

External links

1. Television, chapter 10 illustrations
2. Television Style video examples
3. Chevrolet commercial screenshots
4. Scrubs screenshots
5. The Sopranos screenshots
6. Classical Editing Examples