Terminology

• Wide shot * - We only really have a single type of wide shot, which is the entire room (antechamber or dungeon).

• Mid shot * - Smaller than a wide shot. Usually a mid shot doesn't get any narrower than a character's torso (at which point you're starting to get into closeup).

• Closeup * - The face and shoulders of a character (or narrower).

• Over the shoulder * - Somewhere between a mid shot and closeup - shows character A talking to character B from the perspective of just behind B's shoulder.

In the case of wide shot, mid shot and closeup, the subject should be stated. The subject is not exclusionary (unless the script says so). That is, other things might be visible. Over the shoulder shots explicitly having something else visible (but potentially out of focus) - usually the dungeonaut.

Guiding principles

• These principles are made to be broken (where appropriate)

• The general concept of Notmare suggests editing should be done badly/lazily (if doing so would be funny). BUT bad editing isn't something that the average person will consciously notice. Indeed, bad editing might disrupt the funny elsewhere. In general, therefore, we should be doing good editing. Where we do bad editing, we should make it very obvious that it was intentional.

• Wide shots are usually used to establish the relative positions of characters. For this reason, most scenes should start with a wide shot of the dungeon/antechamber before using tighter shots.

• One reason not to do this would be if we started a scene mid-action or if we wanted to hide something from the audience to make it funny.

• Wide shots thereafter add little to the scene, but for Notmare they are generally used in the following circumstances:

• When guiding the dungeonaut - because seeing the entire field of play is important

• When the dungeonaut is addressing the advisors - because in this instance the reactions of any characters in the dungeon is (usually) unimportant (although, equally, we might choose to show the advisor reactions)

• Obviously where the action requires it

• Mid shots are obviously important when the action is wider than a closeup permits.

• Mid shots can be used to simultaneously show both the action and reaction of two talking characters. E.g. two advisors conferring or Trebake berating Gerkin. This is useful where flipping between shots quickly would be weird (e.g. if you have a fast back-and-forth or lots of back and forth between NPCs)

• Closeups are obviously used to show something in detail. Long closeups tend to be disconcerting and/or boring.

• Fast cuts are disorienting. Particularly in the case of fast closeups.

• Over the shoulder shots are good at showing dialogue between characters. It allows you to see the reaction (or speech) from one character while simultaneously reminding the audience of who is in the conversation.

• Particularly long dialogue might alternate between over the shoulder shots while one character speaks.

• There is obviously little point in showing a closeup of the dungeonaut during conversations because their facial expressions are covered by the helmet. This is also helpful, since it means we only need a single over the shoulder shot for conversations with people in the dungeon

• There needs to be a fairly substantial difference between shots. Otherwise they'll look like jump cuts. Usually this is achieved by rotation.

• Remember the nature of the set - there is no fourth wall. We cannot therefore easily shoot over Trebake's shoulder

• We could, with difficulty, set up a 'magic chest' or 'magic pool' shot to show the advisors watching the action. We probably want to do this only as a noddy shot since it's not clear how well it will work.