Hi guys,

     Today, I want to talk a little bit about the importance of including entrance and exit shots. A common mistake that beginning filmmakers make is that they do not include their subjects entering a scene or leaving a scene. Without these, the often-dreaded “jump cut” tends to happen, in which characters seem to have been magically placed in a scene or magically disappear from one. You want to avoid this. It’s confusing for the viewers to follow and just isn’t good visual story telling.

     It’s simple. Say you would like to show your character in one location, and then you want to take that character to another:

1.     Take a shot of your subject walking out of the shot. It does not always have to be the subject physically exiting a door, but you want them to walk out of the frame.

2.     Leave the scene “empty,” or devoid of the character, for a few seconds so the viewers know that they’ve made their exit.

3.     Now, show your subject entering a scene at another location by having the character walk into the frame. This way it doesn’t appear like they’ve teleported themselves there.

     Check out this site for some great visual tutorials on how to accomplish exit and entrance shots successfully.

     It does not always have to be this cut and dry. Once you get a handle on the basics, you can try to get a little more creative, like this scene from one of the greatest iconic movies of all time, Dazed and Confused:

     Notice how the camera follows their car into the shot and then the scene cuts to a straight-ahead shot of them walking into the Emporium. It's clean and concise. This is a creative way to show a exit and entrance scene.

    Have a great weekend! And tune in next Friday at 7 p.m. to learn about the rule of thirds in film.