the master scene technique and to maintain screen
direction through the 180-degree system.
Master Scene Technique This technique is
based on the principle of coverage, meaning that a
scene is photographed with a variety of individual
shots, running from the general to the specific
(long shot/medium shot/close-up), and taken from
various distances and angles; in other words, all
the shots that comprise the cinematography of that
scene. Coverage is, at heart, a strategy employed
specifically with the editing in mind. Usually, direc-
tors begin shooting a single scene with a long shot
(sometimes known as the master shot) that covers
the characters and action in one continuous take.
The master scene technique then proceeds to cov-
ering the scene with whatever additional shots
(medium shots, close-ups, etc.) the editor might
need to create the finished scene. Covering the
action in this comprehensive way gives the editor
the tools, as well as the creative freedom, to choose
the shot types and angles needed to tell the story as
effectively as possible.
Typically, an editor starts a scene or sequence of
shots with the master shot in order to establish loca-
tion, situation, spatial relationships, and so on, then
cuts in on various subjects as the drama and action
dictate, regularly cutting back to the master to reac-
quaint viewers with location, what’s happening,
who’s doing it, and how the characters are positioned
in relation to one another.
Although some of today’s mainstream directors
are far more experimental with continuity (we dis-
cuss several in this chapter) and do not always
adhere to the conventions of the master scene tech-
nique, note that those conventions are common in
films in which place is paramount, such as West-
erns. For example, John Ford opens The Searchers
(1956; editor: Jack Murray) with a master shot of
spectacular Monument Valley framed in the door-
way of a darkened house. The point of view is that
of Martha Edwards (Dorothy Jordan), who has an
instinct that someone is outside, coming to her
house. This orients and prepares us to understand
the following shots. She steps out on her porch
and—in an extreme long shot—soon sees a horse-
man riding in her direction. An exterior shot shows
us the isolation of her house in the vast landscape,
and we will soon learn why she has had this intu-
ition and why this horseman is so important in her
life.
Martha is joined by her husband, Aaron (Walter
Coy), and their children, by which time they sense
also that the lone rider is Ethan Edwards (John
Wayne), her husband’s brother. In a few shots of
great economy, Ford establishes that Ethan has
been away for a long period of time but that, some-
how, his home is here. These shots establish two
motifs—the vastness of the desert valley and the
intimacy of the pioneer home—that Ford will
develop throughout the movie.Screen Direction In the early years of cinema,
the evolution of films containing many shots from a
variety of angles (especially those containing the
types of action shot that occur in a chase scene)
demanded that filmmakers find a way to maintain
consistent screen direction, the direction of a fig-
ure’s or object’s movement on the screen. The fun-
damental result of their search—established as
early as 1903 and used with occasional inconsisten-
cies (often for deliberate comic purposes) until
about 1912, when filmmakers first began to adhere
to it—is the 180-degree system(also called the
180-degree rule, the axis of action, the imaginary
line, and the line of action).
The axis of action, an imaginary horizontal line
between the main characters being photographed,
determines where the camera should be placed to
preserve screen direction and thus one aspect of
continuity (Fig. 8.1). Once this axis of action is
determined, the camera must remain on the same
side of the line. The resulting shots orient the
viewer within the scene, ensure consistent screen
direction across and between cuts, and establish a
clear sense of the space in which the action occurs
(because something, an object or person, remains
consistent in the frame to identify the relations
between sequential spaces). The axis of action
shifts, though, as the characters move within the
frame and as the camera moves.
To summarize, in reaching the goals of continuity,
the 180-degree system depends on three factors
working together in any single shot: (1) the action in aMAJOR APPROACHES TO EDITING: CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY 359