Passing Years in One Shot: DOCTOR WHO "A CHRISTMAS CAROL"
Doctor Who’s spin on A Christmas Carol involves more time and space travel than usual, as we visit the life of Kazran (played by Laurence Belcher as a child, Danny Horn as a young adult, and Michael Gambon as an older man) in jumbled chronological order.
By this scene, we’ve met Kazran at all his ages. Young adult Kazran makes a decisions which will drastically alter his life, puts the symbol of that decision in a drawer, then 50-odd years pass in a single shot:
Despite the Money Shot (0:42-0:52) being only of a plain tabletop, it’s immediately clear we’re far in the future; or rather, the present in which we first met Kazran, which is also Amy and Rory’s past, and the Doctor’s wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
The time passage is accomplished with a crossfade and involves colour change, set dressing, and props.
Shots and Colour
The preceding scene takes the time to set up the drawer beforehand. The first time we see it, it’s framed in a closeup similar to the Money Shot, then the camera follows the screwdriver up to Kazran’s face (0:13-0:24). This could have been a medium shot focusing on Kazran, but a closeup hints at the drawer’s significance, and gives us familiarity with the drawer in closeup. The reveal of Older Kazran will perform a similar pan up to his face (0:49-1:04).
The Money Shot shifts colour before our eyes from yellow to blue; you can read into this nostalgic times for Young Kazran shifting into jaded times for Old Kazran, or the warmth of old Christmases hardening into the cold frozen heart Kazran has now, or simply the cinematographer Stephan Pehrsson’s preferred colours.
Yellow and blue are heavily used through the scene; the Doctor is framed in blue, Young Kazran coloured mostly yellow with blue shading, and Old Kazran all in blue, every spark of his youthful idealism gone.
Set Dressing and Props
As time passes, scratches and a layer of dust appear on the table, showing us not just passage of time, but that the drawer has been mostly neglected. When the drawer opens, cobwebs crust its edges — a great touch which would have been painstakingly applied (and likely difficult to reset for take after take!)
When Young Kazran puts the sonic screwdriver in the drawer, everything in the drawer is smaller, and like the screwdriver is rounded or has softer edges and corners.
After the years have passed, large, hard-cornered, heavy looking objects clutter the drawer and cover the screwdriver.
The Transition
You could do a switch similar to this practically, with a theatrical lighting change and someone replacing drawer contents when the drawer is closed.
But to get effects such as the cobwebs, as well as make this easier on production teams, work with different actors’ shooting schedules, and not rely on perfect timing on both sides to get the shot, this is accomplished with cross-fade.
Whether this sort of transition is written into the script, or conceptualised by the director, how to accomplish it takes into account not only the shot, but what will look best for lighting and work with the production resources you’ve got.
Takeaways
A cool transition shot doesn’t need an excuse, but it does help to support it with elements of the scene around it, particularly if the shot is going to bridge a large jump in space and/or time. Colours, shot sizes, props, set dressing, and more can both strengthen your transition, and help orient your audience after the jump.