Master Shot
In film technology, a master shot is called a scene or sequence that is continuously filmed from start to finish in a long or medium-long shot .
The master shot is the uninterrupted recording of a scene. Taken with a wide angle , it shows all actors in the scene and covers the entire time of the scene. The uninterrupted master of a scene is considered a safety record. If problems arise in post-production , the master's constant overview of the room can be used as required. The master shot is important for the film editor as it always shows exactly where the actors are in the scene. During the editing process of the film, it can be supplemented with close-up and detailed shots as well as other interim cuts.
The dramaturgical purpose of the master shot in the finished film is to make the character constellation and the conditions of the cinematic space clear to the viewer at a glance. Formally, it is similar to an establishing shot . A master shot is particularly suitable for the introduction and intermediate orientation in dialogue situations. In Ridley Scott's Blade Runner , for example, the conversation between Holden and Leon is introduced at the beginning of the film by a master shot in the medium long shot and continuously accompanied, interrupted by closer shots of the conversation partners. Francis Ford Coppola goes the opposite way in the godfather trilogy, where he starts conversations with close-up or close-up shots and only during the course of the scene repeatedly cuts to a master shot from the medium long shot.
history
Historically, the master shot was the most significant shot of a scene. All recordings of the scenes were somehow connected to the master shot. This is one of the reasons why some films from the 1930s and 1940s are now called "theatrical". In the 1960s and 1970s, the way films were made and edited changed in a direction of showing more radical angles in order to create more subjectivity and intimacy. Today the master shot is still in use, but the other shots are no longer based solely on the master shot.
literature
- Christopher Kenworthy: Master Shots . Vol. 1: 100 Advanced Camera Techniques to Get An Expensive Look on your Low Budget Movie. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Wiese 2012. ISBN 978-1-61593087-6
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steven Ascher, Edward Pincus: The Filmmaker's Handbook. A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age. New York: Plume 1999. p. 227.