The devil's in the details...

I've been counting - in an almost obsessive-compulsive way. Since my mind has turned to all things movie, I have found myself counting things I never thought I would.

For instance - you know that scene in 'Pretty Woman' where Julia Roberts goes back to the shop that wouldn't serve her, and does the "...big mistake" thing? How many different shots do you think there are in that one scene? Let me tell you....

...HEAPS!

For our dear Julia to have us all silently cheering for standing up to the woman in the bad head-band, someone took HEAPS of shots. And heaps of shots means heaps of takes. And heaps of takes means time. And time isn't what we have heaps of, especially if you're going to shoot a movie without a camera crew - and probably on one camera (provided someone will lend us one).

These are the details that I'm starting to notice - and it's more than a little bit daunting.

Let me demonstrate - I have an idea for a scene in the movie that I have pitched to Lisa where one character runs past another,and doesn't notice the other character's behaviour (I know it sounds a little dull and odd - but it's one of those 3 second scenes that are needed to keep a story going). For this 3 second scene to play out on a screen as it does in my mind would require the following individual shots:

1. Scene of car pulling up on street - taken from across the street.

2. Character 1 gets out of car in a hurry - taken from pavement where car has pulled up.

3. Character 1 runs down alleyway - passing character 2 and making comment - taken from inside of alleyway with car in background still on street.

4. Character 2's reaction to character 1's comment in passing - taken as close up on character 2's face as character 1 passes.

5. Character 2 follows character 1 into alleyway - taken from same angle as 3.

OK - that's about the gist of it. If all was to go to plan - this tiny, incidental scene should take a minimum of 4 shots. With extra takes - this will increase. If we said 3 takes per shot - we're looking at 12 takes - minimum - for a tiny, 3 second scene. And if each take, to set up and shoot, takes on average 2 minutes each - we've just wasted close to 25 minutes - all for a tiny, 3 second scene. And movies have LOTS of these tiny, 3 second scenes in them.

Good lord! Each scene will need to be written, mapped out, shots decided, the works. And in a 110 minute film - that's a lot of writing, mapping and deciding. Peter Jackson did this for 3 movies all well over 110 minutes each and all being shot at the same time ,and while he had money and lots of help, it's still a big job and I take my hat off to him!

The other thing I've realised is that, despite what the finished product would have you believe, some of these shots will have to be made over multiple days. And that, my friends, means 'continuity'.

Now, I'm not the fussiest guy on the planet, but if there's one thing that really stands out for me when I'm watching a movie, it's poor continuity. Boromir's arm moving from being on Aragorn's shoulder, to off again, to on again, to off again as he lays dying in 'Lord of the Rings', Julia's magically changing choice of breakfast food as she moves from table to chair in 'Pretty Woman' - these are the things that annoy me most in movies - and the things we'll need to work out how to avoid. It would all be very easy with multiple cameras and scenes being shot in one go - but I have the feeling it is not to be!

But it must be done. And it will be done - for this is the challenge we've set ourselves. 

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow and flying to Sydney to meet up with Lisa, drink some, laugh some, and talk some. I hope some of our talk includes this project. If we've got that much thinking to do, before we even push 'record' on a camera, we'd better start sooner rather than later - or we'll miss something tiny - some small detail - and someone else will notice it - and they might even blog about it.

Or worse, our 1 year timeframe may become completely unrealistic (I have the feeling it already may be a little tight - we're nearly in March!)

1. Matt sighs heartily - shot taken looking 'through' monitor to him

2. Matt looks at keyboard - shot taken from beside Matt

3. Matt starts typing - shot taken from over Matt's shoulder

4. Matt finishes blog entry - shot of monitor as last words are entered

5. Matt takes final look at blog entry - shot taken from 'through' monitor

6. Matt publishes entry - close up of hand hitting mouse key.

7. Matt publishes entry - close up of hand symbol clicking on 'publish post' button

7. Entry published - shot of monitor as 'your entry has been successfully published' notice appears on screen

8. Fade out...