Be Open To The World Around You
A few years back, I was working on a show where we had a scene that took place on the top floor of a parking structure. It was the tallest structure in the area and the director picked it because you could see most of the city. I can’t recall why, but we had a little bit of a delay and, as we sat there, I noticed that we were in the flight path of a local airport and planes were flying past us, somewhat low, from left to right every two minutes or so. I sat and watched (you could see the lines of planes extending to the horizon) and realized that every other plane (there must have been two runways) would come through pretty much the exact space every five minutes.
The end of the scene involved the lead actor stepping out of his car and walking towards the camera. I brought the director over and pointed out what I had seen about the airplanes. As I was speaking, one of them came through that space, right to left, and I mentioned that instead of coming towards camera, if it worked just the same, there might be something cool about having our lead walk across the frame left to right, just as a plane comes flying above, right to left. He loved the idea and we rehearsed it for timing a few times with our second team. By the time the actor had arrived, we were all dialed in and decided to shoot his exit first, nailing the timing on the first try.
I often find that using the natural surroundings, if something lends itself, can lead to incredible ‘finds’ on set. Being open to the possibilities of things that you may have not expected, and how they can help propel the story or at least make a visually pleasing frame, will not only elevate your work, but will show people that your head is in the game and you are an invaluable member of the team.
Embedded quick tip: if the camera was a lock-off, and if the plane did not intersect visually with the actor–meaning the two of them never crossed paths in the frame–another option would have been to shoot a clean pass of the plane flying overhead and then shoot the shot of the actor. It’s an easy fix to simply use both shots together with a vertical wipe so the shot at the bottom is the actor’s shot and the shot at the top is the plane’s. If the sky were full blue, even easier. Of course, nailing it in real-time is much more fun, but it’s always good to have an option in your back pocket.
