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Dialogue-heavy moments of character interaction can quickly bog down a film's pacing. Energize those situations with a cinematic shot reverse shot.
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Early in history of cinema, filmmakers learned that standard two shots of character interaction could get boring pretty quickly. Many realized that they could push a film's pacing along by changing shots intermittently during these moments, leading to the creation of the classic shot reverse shot technique.
What Is a Shot Reverse Shot?
A shot reverse shot is a framing technique used for continuity editing in film or video production. This type of framing, when edited together, gives the audience a sense of continuous action, making it seem as though the scene they're watching is happening linearly in real time. As stated above, this technique became a staple of classic Hollywood. But how do you set it up?
When setting up for a shot reverse shot, you'll want to use a minimum of two cameras. The cameras will rest on one side of the 180-degree line, with each camera focusing on one specific actor. There are several ways to frame this action, with the basic method being an over-the-shoulder shot (like the one above from Casablanca) to establish the presence of the characters.
Moving forward, you can cut to another over-the-shoulder shot for the reaction, or you can frame your second actor tighter. The choice is up to you, obviously. Either way, by capturing the same performance with at least two cameras, the editor has options when cutting the scene together and it's more visually pleasing to the audience.
Now that we know the basics of the technique, let's look at some examples of well-crafted cinematic shot reverse shots.
1. Using Motivated Lighting in Framing
This opening scene from The Godfather showcases an incredible shot reverse shot. What makes this particular scene so amazing is the choice of introductory framing, as well as the lighting. Director Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis begin the scene in complete darkness. We hear a voice and then the undertaker is revealed, shrouded by darkness. As he continues to speak, the frame slowly zooms back to an over-the-shoulder shot that reveals Don Corleone.
The undertaker approaches Corleone and whispers in his ear. The two characters nearly cover the frame in complete darkness, which alludes to the nature of the discussion. We move to a more traditional setup as the scene progresses, but this introduction is a great example of how to use a shot reverse shot to establish the mood and tone of both a scene and an entire film.
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2. Creativly Capturing a Single Actor Conversation
In 2002's Spider-Man, we watch Norman Osbourne have a conversation with his alter ego, the Green Goblin. Director Sam Raimi and cinematographer Don Burgess used a mirror to capture a two-way conversation that featured only one actor. The scene begins with Osbourne hearing voices. He sees his reflection in the mirror. The Green Goblin alter ego walks toward the frame. This is broken with the reveal of Norman walking toward the mirror to complete the opening over-the-shoulder shot.
We move to a shot reverse shot where the rest of the conversation takes place in opposite angles of the mirror's reflection, the camera slowly tracking into a tighter shot. By utilizing this framing, the audience gets a sense that Osbourne isn't just having a conversation with himself — but with the manifestation of his alter ego. It's an effective and creative way of capturing a shot reverse shot with a single actor.
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3. Composing the Frame With Motivated Movement
In this scene from The Dark Knight, we get a fairly straightforward shot reverse shot. However, the key to this scene is the movement of the camera. Gordon and the Joker are situated in the shadows. The camera slowly tracks in as the conversation moves along and the tension between Gordon and the Joker intensifies. But the key takeaway here is that the camera movement is smooth, implying that things are under control.
That all changes with the appearance of Batman. At first, the scene sticks with a standard shot reverse shot — but the camera becomes more active, implying to the audience that the very idea of control is beginning to fade. During the final section of the scene, the shot reverse shot moves tohandheld, and the camera's movements become even more active. This (along with the swelling music) highlights that the Joker, an agent of chaos, has gotten to Batman, affecting him emotionally and mentally. This is the mark of using motivated movement to perfection.
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4. Changing the Frame Without Moving the Camera
While the whole of The Wolf of Wall Streetis an incredibly insane ride, one scene arguably stands out above the others: the meeting between Jordan Belfort and Mark Hanna. Martin Scorsese creates a sublime example of the classic shot reverse shot technique. He places the characters on opposite sides of the frame to allow for a smooth conversation.
However, Scorsese changes things up in the framing. In the beginning of the scene, the shot of Hanna is fairly wide, giving the viewer a sense of the surroundings. Then Hanna leans in, and without even moving the camera, Scorsese crafts a close-up shot. Using this technique instead of dollying in helps retain the wide scope of the background action while keeping the audience at the same distance to Hanna as Belfort, placing them at the table, privy to the conversation.
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5. Effectively Using the Dutch Angle
The shot reverse shot is traditionally the go-to technique for making conversations flow and seem genuine — but sometimes the script calls for a break with convention, especially when filming a scene for a thriller like Mission: Impossible.
While director Brian De Palma does utilize standard coverage for the scene, the conversation starts with a harsh dutch angle. By using the dutch angle to frame the shot reverse shot, De Palma mirrors the feelings of Ethan Hunt as he discovers that his whole world is being turned upside down. What makes this shot reverse shot even more effective is the fact that Kittridge's angle begins leveling out into a standard frame while Hunt remains in the dutch angle. This is a great example of using off-axis framing to capture a character's escalating emotions and internal drama.
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What are your favorite shot reverse shots? Show us in the comments below!
The Purposes of Editing
Determine the Speed at Which Events Move Along
Filmophile's Lexicon
Insert shot: A shot of an object that generally informs or reminds the audience of some-thing it needs to know: the missing gun lying in a gutter on the outskirts of the city.
Xamarin studio community edition. Detail shot: A close-up of a graphic element of the previous shot.
Shot-reverse shot: A series of two shots, the second of whose angle is approximately 180 opposed from the first. Generally used to show two characters speaking, or to show the relationship between a character and the object of his gaze.
Sometimes editing gives you access to bits of information that will be important to subsequent events. We see a long shot of a man in the street. He looks harmless enough. But then we cut to an insert or detail shot of a hand holding a gun behind its owner's back. We realize that the man is waiting for someone he is going to shoot. Sometimes information is withheld in order to surprise us. Only at the very end of The Usual Suspects (1995) do we get detail shots of the various elements of the police chief's office out of which Verbal Kint has fabricated the elements of the tale of the phantom Keyser Soze: a coffee mug with the name of a made-up company, a bulletin board with the names of places and characters, and so on.
How do you know when you are supposed to like a character? How characters are supposed to feel about each other? Music and casting of course help. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts don't usually play the heavies. But the way characters are edited also says something about who they are. For example, when a man and a woman talk to each other they can be shot either in a two-shot or in a shot-reverse shot. The two-shot can imply (though certainly not always) a level of intimacy between them that crosscutting may not, because the characters in a shot-reverse shot sequence can seem emotionally further apart when they are not physically close.
Editors cut together material from disparate sources to give the illusion of unity and continuity. This editing constitutes the practical Hollywood use of the 'creative geography' the Soviet filmmakers theorized about. (See 'Eastern European Film.')
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Movies and Film 2001 by Mark Winokur and Bruce Holsinger. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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