This is a good follow-up to the last post about pacing.? How do you know if a scene plays fluidly? Well, a lot of that does come down to pacing and its unofficial rules.? My business partner Shayla wrote in our podcast notes, that a scene should have a beginning, middle and end.? But even she had to admit that as storytelling has evolved, scenes don’t necessarily have to have an ending to play fluidly.???
?So… What does a smooth scene have to have to flow into the next telling a complete story in a series or film:?
- ?A beginning – I know this seems obvious, but there are storytellers that play with the structure of their stories from scene to scene meaning:? We may visit a scene at its middle or its end depending on how the showrunner and/or director wants the story to be told (i.e., Quentin Tarantino is notorious for this which audiences love about his films)?
- ?A middle – As an editor I believe a scene needs to have a middle for either a climax or a shift in the story before shifting your audience into the next scene (especially in drama).? For comedy, you can lose the audience or purpose of your story when telling one joke in a scene and then moving on.? One of the lessons I learned throughout my research is that when you cut comedy, once someone says one joke you then you should come in with the next joke and then the next, keep amp-ing up the stakes.? I say to cut a comedic scene until it almost feels cheesy because you can always cut back before you pivot to the next part of the story.? A couple of current series that Shay and I feel do it best are (Only Murders in the Building and Abbott Elementary)?
- ?Just because I cut in threes and believe stories are told better in threes – The last point is again qc-ing your work.? Does the scene feel like it flows into the next scene?? How does it play in your episode overall?? Does it add to the story or take away from it?? And as the series or film overall:? How is this scene adding to the big picture of the story you’re trying to tell?? That is when you know you have a fluid scene!?