Building a sequence

Nothing is more impressive than a resume tape that shows a terrific ability to edit. A tape without jump cuts, with great use of natural sound, can make a good resume tape into a great one.

But very rarely do I ever see what is known as a "sequence" anymore. You might not know what a sequence is, but you've seen one. They generally appear in feature stories, but they can greatly enhance a news piece as well. They can be made up of two shots or as many as you care to include.

Here's an example of a simple sequence. You're shooting a man at his desk, talking on the phone. You have a camera in front of him with a tight shot that includes his face and the phone. Then you shoot more b-roll from another angle as a wide shot, but in each shot the man must be doing the exact same thing. You shoot the man hanging up the phone in both shots. Now, when you edit the two together, you cut in the middle of the action of hanging up. If you've shot your b-roll correctly, these should match perfectly, as you are going from a tight shot to a wide shot of the same thing.

You've just built a two shot sequence. Easy, huh?

Want to get more creative? Add more shots to your sequence in the same way.

Let's use an example of a man getting on a horse for a ride. You'll have to shoot him doing the same thing a few times for this to work. Once again, the man must be doing the exact same thing each time.

Shot one, wide shot of man approaching horse.

Shot two, tight shot of saddle, man's hand reaching into frame.

Shot three, medium shot of the man's foot going into stirrup.

Shot four, front in front of the horse, wide shot of man pulling himself up and grabbing reins

Shot five, tight shot of hands grabbing reins.

Etc. You can build as elaborate a sequence as you like. It's just like building a little movie with the camera offering different points of view.

Put one of these in your resume tape, and a News Director will take notice.