CAMERA AND STAGING: TOP TIPS FROM PIXAR

Five pro tips from Pixar’s Camera & Staging team on how to effectively and efficiently tell a story and evoke emotion with your film shots

01 UNDERSTAND SHOT FLOW

A big part of the camera and staging is shot flow: to connect a sequence of shots seamlessly and to direct the audience's attention from one shot to the next. A contrast in the size of the subject, change of lenses, and camera angle between shots can help with a smoother cut. To direct the audience's focus, you need to pay attention to eye fix and eye line. Eye fix is where your centers of focus between two consecutive shots are relatively in the same region of the frame. The eye line is where your character is looking in one shot, which can create an implied line and direct where the audience should be looking in the next shot.

02 FIND OPPORTUNITIES TO COMBINE SHOTS

The layout artist's goal is to cinematically interpret the 2D storyboards into the 3D shots of the film. In exploring camera and staging options, we often think outside the boards. For example, I try to find opportunities to combine shots – marrying the action of multiple storyboards, rather than cutting to different camera angles. This efficiently reduces the number of shots needed to tell the story. So, depending on the intentions of the scene, consider if a motivated camera move could help connect action from one location to the next. Or, if creative staging choices might allow a scene to be covered with fewer camera setups.