Hi All,
quick question, how to write a series of shots in Causality?
Let’s say the actor goes from A to B and we follow him on his journey. I could write a quick series of shots to describe what I think is how he get’s there.
However, in the scene header there’s INT EXT and I/E only. Should I add “SERIES OF SHOTS” maybe?
Or is the approach to create a list of beats?
Thanks in advance and kind regards, Guido
Typically “A SERIES OF SHOTS” is used to signal that what follows is a list of specific list of shots, emphasis on the actual shots. For example:
A SERIES OF SHOTS:
- Footprints leading into the forest.
- Sunbeams piercing the canopy.
- A bead of sweat rolling down Michael’s neck.
- Michael's free hand fidgets with a carabiner.
This construction is often used (mistakenly in my opinion) to create a montage or mini-montage whose purpose is to build up a particular impression (“Michael working out,” “Michael studying,” even “Michael aging.”). There are many ways to format a montage, but a typical case is:
MONTAGE BEGINS:
Bruised and bandaged POLICEMEN in riot gear sit on the curb
slurping instant noodles.
On a department store rooftop, CHILDREN enjoy a live
performance——a masked hero battling villainous creatures.
Lights flicker on inside hundreds of concrete pods stacked on
top of each other, a stark structure against the evening sky.
Cars on an elevated highway streak through a labyrinth of
skyscrapers.
<More beats…>
MONTAGE ENDS.
The “beats” in the montage are like mini-scenes, rather than shots. And though there is overlap between usages, I would say that A SERIES OF SHOTS is best used for short runs of very specific images, while a montage is a little more expansive, perhaps a bit less specific in terms of actual images, and meant to gradually build up or reinforce a particular impression.
How best to follow your character from A to B depends on the length and complexity of their journey and on how important each particular stage of the journey is. If you are trying to show “Michael crossing Manhattan” you could do this using with a series of actual scenes (each with a scene heading) of Michael stepping onto a subway, hailing a cab, crossing a busy intersection, etc. Using actual scenes makes it easier to integrate dialogue, for example, or more complex descriptions. A SERIES OF SHOTS and montage-style constructions really work best if the beats are wordless and limited to shorter descriptions (less than a line each for SERIES OF SHOTS and just a short paragraph for MONTAGE).
A SERIES OF SHOTS and montage-style constructions have their uses, but they are often used as a shortcut, a stand-in for something more complex, or a way to reduce screenplay page length. Don’t do that.
Remember, there is nothing wrong with using actual scenes, even super short scenes, wordless scenes, or scenes that imply just one image. So try writing it as a series of actual scenes before switching to A SERIES OF SHOTS or a montage-style construction.
(my opinion)
Hi,
Thanks for the answer and sorry for my delayed response, this week was stressful.
How would I do so with Causality technically? It doesn’t have series of shots or montage.
I also suppose that you would write a list of beats then?
Thank you so much and best regards!
I suspect that the beat you really want is the entire journey or task, start to end, not each individual step along the way.
BEAT [Michael makes coffee.]
If it were me, I would create one beat for the entire montage or series of shots, and place everything inside there, though I suppose it depends on how narratively significant each image or shot in the sequence is. Just leave scene header blank and see how it appears in a formatted script.
I like to put paragraphs or even pages in beats, not single lines of screenplay. I want the Whiteboard hide some detail while revealing plot and structure, not expose every moment.
I suppose if you wanted to go micro, you could split a montage or series of shots into individual images or micro-scenes, thus exposing them in Causality as beats (which you might then encapsulate in a group). But do you really want…
GROUP {
BEAT {Michael roasts.}
BEAT {Michael grinds.}
BEAT {Michael brews.}
BEAT {Michael adds milk.}
BEAT {Michael adds sugar.}
]
?
Hi,
I think that Michael actually has the right answer. In Causality, each montage item should be a beat, and then all of those beats should go into a group.
Those montage things in script are of course fine for quickly writing out what should happen, but production-wise, each of the line items is a scene that happens in a location that has to be booked and scheduled. So a montage in the script will eventually be turned into separate scenes with numbers.
If you do this as beats in Causality, then you get the added benefit of rearranging the order of events in the montage visually, and turning some of them on or off. It’s also easier for someone else to come in later and drop scene headings between them.
So that would also be my suggestion.