I have a technical question about who does what behind the scenes of a movie. Do you know the answer?

Question

Hard to explain, so I'll give an example. Imagine a scene where a man and a woman are talking. First the audience sees the man and the woman. Then we just see the woman's face. Then we see the man's face. Then we see both again, but from a different angle. Who controls what the audience sees when it does? Is that all done in the editing room? Does the director decide that? Is it written into the script? Or something else? Thank you.

Answer 1

Actually, it's part of film law so to speak when filming dialog between 2 people. You never want the camera to Cross the line. You'll notice in many movies that it is all the same. You have the male talking and the camera is over the Girls Left Shoulder and then when he talks the camera is over his Left shoulder. They teach this in film school and it is common practice to film this way. Of course, when filming, they are filming each of the actor's dialog separate and then they combine it all in the editing room to make the scene.

Answer 2

ulitmately, your answer is the editor, though the director will often have input. for a simple scene like what you describe it would be left up to the editor. the scene would be shot in its entirety from all of the angles and then the editor chooses which shots to use at which point in the scene. some writers try to write editing instructions into the scripts but that would not usually be appreciated or considered.

Answer 3

Great question, I've often wondered the same thing myself. I would have to guess it's the director.