Framing [between] Them: SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Chas and Mel talk about how this opening Shaun of the Dead scene establishes tone on the page in Draft Zero ep 117.
On the page, both ‘character introductions’ are prompted by a Liz (Kate Ashfield) and Shaun (Simon Pegg) “speaks off to . . . “ and both reveals are written as “we reveal”
[more conversation ensues]
On screen, a look off to the side still prompts both reveals, with one small tweak — it’s Shaun’s look both times, once to his right, and once to his left. This keeps the focus on him as the main character, and is potentially less confusing.
“we reveal” is a quick cue to the readers, which doesn’t go into details of how intrusive or funny the reveal is: that’s the shots’ job.
Shots are a great part of how the first 90 seconds establish tone, world, and relationships on screen. The scene uses two different techniques to show how Shaun’s and Liz’s friends come between them: Whip + Cut and Look + Cut.
Whip + Cut
Ed (Nick Frost) is introduced with a whip-pan-into-single, before the scene cuts to a shot of him standing between Liz and Shaun.
Look + Cut
Just as Shaun’s look ‘led’ the camera to whip to Ed, his look offscreen prompts the cut to David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis).
And voila! The joke-slash-commentary about both Shaun and Liz having friendships which hamper their romance is conveyed visually.
Takeaways
Whipping and cutting are two ways to demonstrate a literalisation of this theme, but there are many ways to show a character coming between two (or more) others — for example this very different film has a character walk into an established scene, then racks to her.
If the result will be the same, consider what method you prefer stylistically, or consider mixing and matching to set up how your film will use many different camera techniques. Killing two zombies with one stone, as it were.