Storyboard Imitation

Movie clip from "The Thing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtgFKdWcKXY&feature=fvwrel

This scene is from the movie “The Thing”, directed by John Carpenter. The scene actually starts thirty-two seconds into the clip.

The director follows the 180-degree rule during this scene. Between the first shots of the scene, the director moves the camera completely 180 degrees to go from looking at one end of the hallway to the opposite end. This works because he doesn’t cross the line and is focusing on the two groups of characters looking at each other. The next three shots are still on the correct side of the established 180-degree line. The camera is on the same side and follows the characters as they move along the hallway and look at the camera towards an unknown object.

The director does a good job of following the Rule of Thirds. During the first shot of the scene the two characters are in the middle of the shot. Then during the next shot the characters are in the top right area of thirds. From here the director moves the characters from the top left and right positions according to the Rule of Thirds. While these first five shots don’t show him using the bottom two portions of the thirds, he is placing the characters in the correct positions so people will look in the right spots.

Lastly, the director follows the 30 Rule. As I said before, the first shot moves 180 degrees to the second shot. From there he moves at least 45 degrees into the third shot while using a dolly to follow the character. From the ending position of the camera he moves about 45 degrees back to focus on the other characters. Finally, another 45-degree move of the camera focuses back on the other character.

The director, John Cameron, effectively follows each of the three rules: 180-degree Rule, Rule of Thirds and the 30 Rule. I think he directed this scene very well and it flows perfectly without any jump cuts or distractions.