This scene in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith gives a great example of the 180 degree rule, the rule of thirds, and the 30 rule (either 30% or 30 degrees).
When shooting this scene, the director (George Lucas) refers to the 180 rule in order to get a good shot. For example, when Anikan Skywalker and Obi Wan are talking, he never crosses the 180 degree line. He skillfully does over the shoulder shots in order to show the viewer who is in the scene and who the character is talking to. The two characters (Obi wan and Anikan) make up their own 180 degree line. This two person line is broken when Lucas shows R2D2 coming to save them in shot 4. From there, the 180 degree line is established between R2D2 and the three characters trapped in the ray shields (Anikan, Obi Wan, and Palpatine).
George Lucas also focuses his camera shots around the rule of thirds. In shots 1 and 3, Anikan’s face is centered in the intersections of the horizontal and vertical thirds. This also happens in shot 2 with Obi Wan. In shot 4, R2D2 appears from the top right intersection of the horizontal and vertical thirds, focusing your attention on the android while he entrances. In shot 5, Anikan and Obi Wan’s faces are placed in both intersections. With this, we can see who the important characters to look at are when watching the scene.
Lastly, the director uses the 30 rule in these first 5 shots of the scene. In shots 1 through 3, Lucas moves the camera more than 30 degrees to show the face of the character who is talking. In fact, he creatively uses over the shoulder shots in each of these scenes to show both characters. When R2D2 comes in, Lucas changes the size of the image of the camera so that it would not be a jump cut.
Lucas is a great director. In just these first five shots, he was able to use all three rules. There never was a bad jump cut, and the shots were interesting enough so that it kept my interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment