Guide: time inside a shot

trailer-guide.html

@@ -78,7 +78,18 @@
 <tr><td>the light and the place</td><td>the scene's background carries them; do not re-describe</td></tr>
 <tr><td>the length of the beat</td><td>one continuous action per shot; a "go get" plus the next beat over ~8 s is two shots</td></tr></table></div>
 <p><strong>Closing pictures are guesses; last frames are facts.</strong> Draw the next shot only after the previous one is filmed, from its last frame; if you refilm a shot, take its last frame again for the shot after it. Thrown to another person: end shot A on the throw, open shot B on the catcher already looking at the incoming ball - never show the flight twice. A hand-off stays inside one shot. If the object is meant to stay behind, say so, or the model brings it along.</p>
-<h2>10. A checklist for judging a script before anything is drawn</h2>
+<h2>10. Time inside a shot</h2>
+<p>The video model reads clock time. Its own guide writes cut points as <code>At 00:03.500</code> and pins pictures to second marks. We measured it: "in the frame for about four seconds" was obeyed to the second - and the two seconds left over got an exit the picture did not offer, so the car stopped. Used well, time is the most precise direction there is.</p>
+<p><strong>The shot's length is the whole budget.</strong> Set the length first (Estimate on the storyboard), then write the beats to it, in order, and give a second only where a beat must land:</p>
+<blockquote><p>The red Mustang, Dorothy driving and Toto upright on the front passenger seat, comes along the gravel drive from the right at speed. <strong>At 00:03</strong> she draws level with the tractor: her right hand presses the centre of the wheel and the horn sounds twice, exactly as her hand presses, then lifts in a quick wave toward Henry. Toto barks twice at him. The car keeps going up the drive, turns right where it bends toward the house, and <strong>by 00:07</strong> has rolled to a stop in front of the porch, its dust catching up. Henry straightens in the dust by the tractor and looks after the car.</p></blockquote>
+<ul>
+<li><code>at 00:03</code> is a moment, <code>by 00:07</code> a deadline. Marks increase; the last one sits inside the shot with about a second to spare. No more than three in a shot - five is two shots.</li>
+<li><strong>Never a duration for a beat</strong> ("for four seconds"): it is a wall the rest of the action must fit behind. Say when the next thing happens instead.</li>
+<li>The last beat ends somewhere the picture offers: a car leaves by the road in frame, or drives up it and stops where a car stops.</li>
+<li>Spoken lines are placed by their <em>quiet before / after</em> seconds under the line, not by marks; the picture follows the voice.</li>
+<li>Sounds sit with their actions - "the horn sounds twice, exactly as her hand presses" - and land within about half a second of them.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2>11. A checklist for judging a script before anything is drawn</h2>
 <ol><li>After the first 15 seconds, am I curious?</li><li>By 35-40 seconds can a stranger say who, what is wrong, what he wants?</li><li>Is every person identified the first time they are seen?</li><li>Does the opposition have a face and a reason by the middle?</li><li>Is every on-camera line the author's? Does each work with no context?</li><li>Does every effect have its cause on screen or in the narration?</li><li>Do the shots get shorter towards the end?</li><li>Does it end on a question, not an answer?</li><li>Would I want to read the book?</li></ol>
 <hr>
 <h2>Sources</h2>