N.31 | "Bridge of Spies" (Spielberg’s 4 simple shots to film dialogue) plus more

JOURNAL ENTRY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: the film storytelling library

Mar 16, 2025: the school’s short film I was part of at the end of February is being edited now. We’re all learning with our coach on google meet’s sessions. The thing is, the footage is on raw files that are very heavy. The coach has the most powerful machine (an Apple M4) and he’s the one we all decided should edit the film with DaVinci Resolve.

I’m doing a lot of very small films (social media videos) that I call nano films. The point here is to practice and have those 15-30 “movies” under my belt. My philosophy is: I want to practice like the musician practices the instrument. I’m not trying to make something perfect for now. I want to “practice the guitar until my fingers bleed.”

I've been working on a script for a while now. What I want to do is splinter that into multiple nano/micro films and shoot them by myself or with fellow filmmakers. This will allow me to keep practicing, run tests, help me with the shotlist, the storyboard and more.

FILM STORYTELLING

Bridge of Spies (Spielberg’s 4 simple shots to film dialogue)

This clip from Bridge of Spies (2015) is a basic triangle dialogue scene, but a good refresher on how to shoot conversations: watch 2 min 10 sec clip here.

I like the idea of finding alternative ways of shooting dialogue, but it’s always worth studying how the masters do it. We’re looking at Steven Spielberg in this case.

Studying the masters is crucial. When you do that, you might find ways to improve upon their work. You might find yourself creating something special and unique while you break the rules. And if you fail to make it interesting, at least you got to practice some more.

Here’s the breakdown of the scene above.

The scene’s purpose is to introduce the main character — Donovan (Tom Hanks). It’s also a scene that shows how Donovan handles negotiations, which is relevant to the story.

We have two characters sitting across from each other. They stay seated the entire time. Spielberg decides to shoot the conversation with only 4 shots total. No more than that.

Here are the four shots:

1. MCU: we open with Donovan (Tom Hanks) talking in a medium closeup that brings us into the scene

2. Master: we move to a a mater shot to establish the line just before moving to the over-the-shoulder (OTS) shots

3. OTS: we move to the OTS and reverse OTS from one character to the other

4. Reverse OTS: in the final shot, Spielberg slowly dollies towards Donovan from a reverse OTS to show that Donovan is taking control of the moment and dominating the argument

Spielberg decides to use four shots only because that’s all that is needed here. There’s nothing relevant to cut away to or to insert. Spielberg doesn’t do anything fancy or clever. It’s all about how Donovan handles himself in such a situation.

This is a classic triangle dialogue scene that serves as a character introduction device.

Source: From the film storytelling library.

FILM STORYTELLING

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (point of view (POV) example)

The point of view (POV) can cover a wide range of perspectives: a person, an alien, a camera, a shark.

Very often, a POV shot is also paired with the POV audio, so that we can see what they see and hear what they hear.

Source: From the film storytelling library.