We don’t need no stinkin’ master shots.
Basic film coverage involves a master shot and closer detailed shots. The master shot captures all the action, and all the characters in question. In confined quarters, the only way for the lens to capture the full range of action is to put the camera in the corner, high and pointing down. You may not be able to visualize the shot, but you’ve seen it before. It’s a “nothing” shot – unmotivated by story or feeling, purely expositional. It lets the air out of the tires, and leaves you flat.
Milos Forman had other ideas for Loves Of A Blonde. In the classroom scenes, in the dorm room scenes, and amazingly in the dance scene, Forman did not “establish” the space. In fact, he opened the dance scene by shooting an empty piece of the floor! Shooting a scene with no master, with no safety net, without any guarantee that the shots will cut together, is a risk. But on tight schedules, with limited set-ups, it can pay off, and save time on lighting a whole room just to put the camera high up in the corner. Giles Nuttgens (cinematographer) and I were emboldened by Loves Of A Blonde to shoot several scenes in Saint John of Las Vegas with no master, and it worked.
Links: Wikipedia | IMDB | Netflix | Amazon
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