THE GOOD FIGHT: Using Still Shots to Reveal (and eyelines to cut)
or 'how to make the simple, sublime"
This 45-second scene builds its plot and humour around steadily, methodically revealing key information to the audience.
Often a director would choose a pan or perhaps a 'zoom-out’ to make these reveals, but this scene is composed of entirely still (locked off) shots. It’s how these shots are put together which progressively reveals story and character motivations, with more than a touch of irony.
As an added bonus, the cuts to said reveals are all led by shifting eyelines, making the whole thing a seamless, tense, delicious comedy even as it lays out plot which impacts the season as a whole.
Let’s look at how the shots progress (in order in galleries below) and then back-engineer a shotlist at the end (just for funsies).
Shot 01 - 0:00 Maia asks “How have you been, dad?” Which leads to the cut to Dad/Henry
Shot 02 -0:05 Henry pauses, doesn’t reply. On his eyeline shift, cut to the reason . . .
Shot 03 - 0:08 a two-shot showing Maia has brought her lawyer, Yesha
Shot 04 - 0:13 back to Henry, who asks “How are you, Maia?”
Shot 05 - 0:17 in a CU mirroring of the first exchange, Maia pauses and shifts her eyes to . . .
Shot 06 - 0:20 a two-shot showing Henry has also brought his lawyer, Rupert
Shot 07 -0:23 as Maia claims “I’m good too” we get a high-angle of all four of them, revealing their awkwardly close proximity around a small table in the middle of a large stone containment cell. a bit of a pause until:
Shot 08 - 0:29 back to the M2S Henry asks for “a little space” from Rupert, which is especially funny considering the widest-possible-shot of the room we’ve just seen. Rupert claims he can’t, so Henry makes small talk to Maia “So, I hear you got a job . . .”
Shot 09 / 10 - 0:38 - 0:42 we get our first CU singles of Rupert and Yesha, eyes shifting, looking awkward as all hell
For a shotlist, then, seven shots: one wide, high shot of the whole room; one closeup on each of the four characters; two two-shots of each side of the table.
It’s Filmmaking 101, as basic a shotlist as you can construct. It’s how the shots are used, and making sure the actors direct their eyes at the person they’re thinking about to ‘lead’ the edit, which turn something basic into a telling and funny scene.
IMDB
The Good Fight “The Schtup List”