It can translate into an energized crew, happy producers, and less unoccupied room in your trophy case at home. Some directors prefer to shoot the first few seconds of the master shot, cut and then wait until the last few seconds of the scene to shoot the rest of the coverage.

One reason might be that the information contained with the 200 pages is instantly applicable—Kenworthy has an analytical, critical eye and he breaks down his observations/lessons into sections as varied as "Fight Scenes", "Entrances and Exits", "Dialogue Scenes" and, of course, "Love and Sex Scenes". This is one reason that some of the films from the 1930s and the 1940s are considered "stagey" by today's standards. A master shot captures all the essential action and elements of a scene—relevant characters, setting, props, lighting, and movement—without pause from beginning to end. Today, the master shot is still a key element of film production, but scenes are not built around the master shot in the same way that they were when professional filmmaking was in its infancy. Close-up and medium shots capture action closely for the audience to see and understand, but these shots don’t show the space and environment the characters are in.There are certainly hallmarks that many master shots share, including being shot as a wide shot to help include all the relevant characters and actions, as well as usually being recorded as a long shot with no cuts depending on the length of the scene. A complex master can play out as a long take but it doesn't have to if there is additional coverage to cut to. He directed the feature film The Sculptor, which played to sold-out screenings in Australia and received strong reviews.

The shots and coverage you get after your complex master will keep gaps out of your edit, and allow you to showcase important information in your scene that somehow didn’t make it in the master. The key is to organize and capture any missing coverage in your remaining setups so that it gives you options in the edit. Your best defense against missed shots or forgotten cutaways is actually one of the oldest tricks in the book — a shot type which might seem like a relic of a bygone era. If your scene is so complicated that filming a complex master would significantly increase your set time, consider scaling it back, or commit to the long take. On the other hand, if your master shot has overly tight framing, there’s not much you can do to reinsert people or objects that were cut out of the shot.Often overlooked or ignored, it’s never good advice to not record the best audio that you can for every shot or scene. Once you’ve labeled all of your scene elements, and gotten the logistics out of the way, now it’s time for you to stretch your artist legs.

He also created three Master Shots ebooks: Story, Action and Suspense, which use audio and video to expand on the original content. With all that said, there are some interesting examples in this book, and most readers will probably get something out of it. Staging and framing a great master shot is one of the elemental movie techniques for any aspiring director.In addition to including his protagonists, Ivory’s master shot includes the namesake house and its gorgeous English gardens.

The Martian (2015): For a scene depicting a secret meeting about Project Elrond, director Ridley Scott uses heavy cutting, multiple locations, and close-up inserts. Carefully crafted master shots can build tension by showing the audience lurking danger or a building threat that the main character remains unaware of. And remember, while a master shot can occasionally be used predominantly in a final edit, in most situations the master shot is often intercut with many different shot types and lengths, so don’t let it get you too bogged down. When going to the theater or a play, a person in the audience is most always getting a “master shot” version of the production. Doug’s defeat in the argument plays out visually, and we literally see the motivation of the scene play out in front of us.Contrary to the common conception of a master shot, this one ends in a wide instead of beginning as one. The film industry has established a production protocol that captures every scene from various angles, depending on the scene’s length, number of characters and actions. However, this deprives editors of the benefit of having a useful safety shot in case there are any unforeseen problems with other camera setups.