What is a full shot? It is the time when the director takes all the important action scenes, exposition, climaxes, and endings and condenses them into one continuous shot.
The reason why an entire film has to be shot in one shot is that if you take away all the action, then you lose the key elements which make up the emotional climax of the film.
Take, for example, the opening credits. In a movie, these start off the movie with a series of shots where the director (most likely, the Production Designer) gives the actors their lines.
Then, after the credits roll, there are still several shots where the actors perform their lines.
FULL SHOT
What Is a Full Shot In Film?
A full shot is an image of the entire body of someone or something. This can be a person, animal, building, landscape, etc.
The term “full” refers to the fact that it captures everything about what it depicts and nothing else. A full shot might also be referred to as an “extreme longshot”.
In film, the camera may move closer or farther from its subject to capture their appearance. This creates different angles such as close-ups and wide shots which depict more details of what’s being filmed.
What Is a Full Shot in Film?
There is still one more shot after the credits roll and that’s when the director closes out the film with a shot of the last surviving character in the film (i.e., the character who just dies in the last scene).
In other words, you have three different shots which make up the three different acts of a film.
It may seem very complicated but in reality, it is not that hard. Consider a scene from Casino Royale.
In this scene, both Cassian Chase and his associate walk through the casino looking for a place to get out.
As they walk along, there are explosions going off nearby and one of the shots takes Cassian Chase by the head.
But how does this fit into the overall plot of the film?
Well, since he is the main character, the explosion should have taken him out of the scene and there would be no need for the explosion.
However, since he is not in the scene and it is after the credits roll that the whole sequence of the explosion takes place.
Now the question is, how do you take those three shots and condense them into only one shot?
This is where film editing comes in handy. By using film editing techniques you can turn your chaotic and lengthy scene into one that is easy to digest and follow.
Film editing software such as Adobe
By creating titles, backgrounds, and locations you can transform your ordinary scene into something that people will find appealing.
This is possible because most film editing programs have a feature that allows the user to add extra elements to the film that can easily be blended into the original footage.
For instance, one example of this is inserting a car chase scene.
When you click on the car icon, the camera switches to the car camera and moves forward, and pans left as the driver jumps out of the car.
This scene is played again at the end of the film when the bad guy drives the car towards the camera and gets shot.
The camera then pans back to reveal that the bad guy is being chased by the camera.
The problem with this scene though is that it takes place in an exterior location and because it is played once, the sun is shining onto the action, which makes everything look fuzzy and hazy.
You can also insert other actors into the shot. One way to do this is by assigning one actor in the role of a driver.
Full Shot – Wrapping Up
You could also move the camera from one point to another and change the actors’ positions to allow for dialogue to take place.
Editing is the key to making a successful film. It doesn’t matter if your film is short or long. Film editing should be done while the scene is actually happening rather than trying to edit afterward.
A good editor will know exactly when to take action away from the audience to make it look smoother and more natural.
There are a lot of complicated techniques involved with film editing, but if you’re willing to learn, the job can be done without too much trouble.
