ABSTRACT
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: constraints can be turned into a framework rather than a constriction. You have a suboptimal location – where the light is a bit off and one wall is unshootable – and a limited span of time to shoot a complicated scene. You can ask for time (don’t have it), a second camera (no money in the budget), or try to stage it in a different location (more money again). Or you can find a way to work the constraints into the equation. Treat it like a poetic structure – the tanka, sonnet, and haiku forms of poetry have very draconian limitations. But working within them becomes a creative challenge, and can lead to real brilliance (apparently Shakespeare thought so). Is there a way you can use the cramped location to your advantage – could it make your characters uncomfortable? On a logistical level, if you only have an actor for a brief period of time, can you shoot all the other angles first? If the location is still being dressed, can you pick a corner that’s done and shoot everything there? If you can’t get the camera through the open window because it’s too big, can you find a cut-point and pick up the shot from inside, or move the actors closer to the window and keep the camera on the other side? Sometimes, by working with what you have instead of what you don’t, you can come up with something a lot more interesting and alive.
