Shot Question

i believe that would be called intercutting.

not sure on the formatting otherwise i would give an example. If i have the term right im sure someone else will pipe in and show you or correct my epic fail.

Parellel editing. But it is a film editor's term that refers to a film editing technique that is meant to express that two incidents or events are occuring at the same time. It is not a term that is used in scriptwriting.

If I remember correctly, D.W. Griffith was the one who invented this idea. As an example, the villian ties a damsel in distress to the train tracks while the hero rides to her rescue and the train is coming down the tracks. In fact, I think this is the first example of the use of parellel editing.

mate,

just like you use CUT TO: DISSOLVE TO: you have to use INTERCUT WITH:. this is almost similar to phone conversations except in phone conversations you use INTERCUT WITH: only once in the beginning but here you have the freedom to use as many times as you want or till the scenes are over.

regards,
Ace.Inc1

EXT. PLAYGROUND - DAY

Children at play.

INT. SCHOOL BUILDING - DAY

VILLAIN dashes from room to room

INTERCUT BETWEEN PLAYGROUND AND SCHOOL BUILDING

A girl steals a swing from a friend.

The villain looks out a window. Shakes his head.

A BULLY pushes a shorter kid.

The villain moves from window to window, while looking over the shoulder to make sure he's not detected.

The shorter kid starts CRYING

The villain finally finds a good angle and takes out his sniper.

The BULLY looks smugly as the victim tearfully hands him a bubble gum.

The BULLY is now in the cross-hairs of the villain's sniper... Trigger on the gun...

Click to expand...

Bad example, but you get the point.

I was just wondering about this too....
But what if you had a shot where you were using parallel editing in the same building, but instead of the scene just 'jumping' back and forth, you actually put the camera on rollers and rolled the camera down the hall (fast forward, so super fast) from one room to another where action was happening simultaneously, then rolled/drove the camera back to the first room (superfast) to the original action? Is there a name or term for that too? How would you explain that in the script? Is there a proper term for it?

sommemi said:

I was just wondering about this too....
But what if you had a shot where you were using parallel editing in the same building, but instead of the scene just 'jumping' back and forth, you actually put the camera on rollers and rolled the camera down the hall (fast forward, so super fast) from one room to another where action was happening simultaneously, then rolled/drove the camera back to the first room (superfast) to the original action? Is there a name or term for that too? How would you explain that in the script? Is there a proper term for it?

Click to expand...

How a director chooses to shoot a scene is really up to the director. You've seen several different kinds of intercuts I'm sure. There's ones where they actually divide the screen, there's ones where they flip back and forth, there's some that show three or more events at the same time. There's the zoom in and out like you're describing. It all comes down to style. How the director wants to present that particular scene and frankly unless you're shooting it yourself you don't get a say in it. All you can do is communicate that these two events are happening at the same time. Via intercuts.

icerose said:

How a director chooses to shoot a scene is really up to the director. You've seen several different kinds of intercuts I'm sure. There's ones where they actually divide the screen, there's ones where they flip back and forth, there's some that show three or more events at the same time. There's the zoom in and out like you're describing. It all comes down to style. How the director wants to present that particular scene and frankly unless you're shooting it yourself you don't get a say in it. All you can do is communicate that these two events are happening at the same time. Via intercuts.

Click to expand...

hmmm. so no matter how ''gifted" your vision is, the script really doesn't paly a part in the specifics then, right? lol

Thanks (AGAIN) icerose.

Well directors really don't like being told how to do their job is what it comes down to.

I'll use an example. We know how stylized the movie The Matrix is right? Here's the script and here's a portion of trinity's escape.

http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/matrix/Matrix.script.html

Cop holds handcuffs, ready to put them on Trinity, who is standing with her back to him, and her hands on her head.
Suddenly she spins round, kicks him onto the ground, grabs his gun, and beats up the rest of them.
She picks up the phone sitting on the desk.

Trinity : Morpheus! The line was traced, I don't know how.

Morpheus : I know, they cut the hard line. There's no time, you're going

to have to get to another exit.

Trinity : Are there any agents?

Morpheus : Yes

Trinity : Goddamnit.

Morpheus : You have to focus, Trinity. There's a phone at Wells and

Lake. You can make it.

Trinity : *sigh* All right.

Morpheus : Go!

Trinity drops the phone and bursts out of the room, just as Agent Brown enters the hall, leading another unit of police.
Trinity races to the opposite end, exiting through a broken window onto the fire escape. She looks down, and sees Agent Smith below,
staring at her. She goes upwards, onto the roof. On the roof,
Trinity is running as Agent Brown arrives after her, leading the group of cops in pursuit.
Trinity begins to jump from one roof to the other, in one fluid motion, in comparison to the wild jumps of the cops.
Agent Brown, however, has the same unnatural grace. They reach a huge gap between two buildings, which Trinity jumps with no problem.

(Rooftop)

Cop : That's impossible!

They stare as Agent Smith duplicates the move exactly, following her onto the next roof. She hides behind a chimney, as he looks around the rooftop, searching for her. Not far off, she sees a window, and makes a dash for it. She dives through the window, rolls down the stairs inside, and manages to land without much damage.

Trinity : Get up Trinity. Just get up. Get up!

Click to expand...

Now, it isn't in proper formatting, but it does give a very clear idea of just what they put in. It does not describe camera angles, techniques, or shots at all. It doesn't describe her spinning through the glass as she came through the window.

It does give a good vision of the movie though and as writers that's our job. To give a feel and vision of what we want it to look like. It's up to the director to take that vision and bring it to life through the tools and tricks s/he knows to do it the best they can.

sommemi said:

I was just wondering about this too....
But what if you had a shot where you were using parallel editing in the same building, but instead of the scene just 'jumping' back and forth, you actually put the camera on rollers and rolled the camera down the hall (fast forward, so super fast) from one room to another where action was happening simultaneously, then rolled/drove the camera back to the first room (superfast) to the original action? Is there a name or term for that too? How would you explain that in the script? Is there a proper term for it?

Click to expand...

The official term for the above is "directing on the page."

Now, inevitably, you're going to do a bit of this because you want the reader to get a sense of what the finished movie is going to look like and going to feel like.

And there may also be certain moments where, for the purposes of the story, events on screen have to be seen -- by the viewer -- in a certain way, and simply describing the action isn't necessarily going to convey what the audience is seeing on the screen. So you have to, in effect, "break the fourth wall" of the screenplay to effectively convey the experience of watching the movie.

But there aren't a lot of times when that's going to be necessary. In the same way, sometimes a line has to be delivered in a certain way -- not just because you imagine it being delivered in a certain way, but because the story *requires* that the line be delivered in a certain way.

If that's the case, it's not only permissable to use a parenthetical to inform the reader of this -- you definitely should do it.

That's because the unfolding of the story is not the director's job, or the actor's job. That's your job. And if the story requires having a particular moment in the story *seen* on screen in a particular way, or a line be delivered in a particular way -- then you should put it in the script, because that's not stepping on anybody's job.

That's just doing your job.

But zipping around rooms and quick cutting and having the camera race through keyholes and around corners and down some girl's cleavage and out the bottom of her skirt and out the door and down the street and around the block and ending up on a really big close-up of some guy's eye--

Leave that stuff to the director.

NMS

"But zipping around rooms and quick cutting and having the camera race through keyholes and around corners and down some girl's cleavage and out the bottom of her skirt and out the door and down the street and around the block and ending up on a really big close-up of some guy's eye-- "

LOL - ok - I get it. Thanks everyone!!!