Alright, I need some thoughts on the second part of the interrogation scene, starting with the entrance of General Ross. Based on the changes we've made thus far, Indy never climbs in that fridge, so we HAVE to remove the line where Ross says, "Don't you know it's dangerous to climb into a refrigerator? Those things can be deathtraps!"
The problem I'm having is that it's one long shot from when he enters until after he says that line with no camera angle changes, in which time Indy stands up, which makes it very difficult to cut out that line smoothly. I THINK I've come up with a solution, but I need another pair of eyes. Ironically, my solution would actually solve a continuity error in the scene as it is now, but I'll point that out in a second.
Alright, Ross starts talking pretty much the instant he starts entering the room, however, you don't see his lips moving until he's around the other side of FBI 1. When Ross enters, the camera moves to him, and as it pans back to take in the rest of the set, FBI 2, who had been sitting a second earlier, is suddenly standing. To solve this will, I think, take a rather sophisticated edit which will involve combining aspects of several separate frame sequences. Here's what I'm thinking...
OPTION 1:
- Camera cuts to Ross entering the room, it starts to pan back into the room, but before Indy comes into frame we cut to the ealier shot where FBI 2 sits down just before saying "... of America, my country." We take the frames of him going from standing to sitting and we reverse them and slow them down a bit, so he looks like he's getting up rather than sitting down. His mouth will be moving slightly, but it looks like it could just be exertion of standing ... this will especially be true if it's slightly slowed down.
- Now, we grab the shot where FBI 1 says, "you tell us.." to Indy and Indy turns to look at him. I'm pretty sure the camera is positioned exactly the same for this turning shot as the shot of FBI 2 sitting down above that we're reversing. We overlay the frames of Indy turning in response to FBI 1 (slightly sped up) over the frames that now have FBI 2 standing up, cropping off both the left and right sides of the frames of Indy turning so the two shots melt into each other and only Indy is replaced in the underlying shot. The effect is that when Ross enters the room, FBI 2 starts to stand (resolving the incontinuity of having FBI 2 sitting in one shot and standing a second later in another shot) and Indy turns to look in Ross' direction ... and because we're basically only replacing Indy in the reversed shot of FBI 2 sitting down, FBI 1 has not yet come into frame, so Indy turning to look in Ross' direction actually looks like he's turning to Ross because FBI 1 isn't in the frame ... making this whole thing seem like an unused shot. (You may need to read that again a few times)
- But we're not done. The primary problem we have is that Indy begins to stand WHILE Ross is delivering the lines we need to cut and it all happens in one long panning shot. So we need to be able to seamlessly cut out Ross' lines while not ending up with a continuity problem of Indy sitting one second and standing the next, shaking Ross' hand. The problem is compounded by the fact that we don't really have any unused shots that we can put in to have him stand up to greet ross out of frame. At least we don't have an unused shot to solve the problem yet. What we need is something to totally block the screen for about a second and a half that will block Indy from the camera's view, allowing him to seemingly get up off camera. So what we're gonna do is go back to the those frames of FBI 2 sitting down, cause a few seconds after he sits, FBI 1 leans into frame on the same side of the table as the camera is positioned and puts his hands on the table (though his hands are out of frame). We need to cut him out of those frames, increase his size and move him over to the right, which would be closer to camera, and slow him down slightly. The effect will be that he briefly blocks Indy and his surrounding area out of screen, right up to the top of frame, long enough to appear to give Indy time to stand.
- We then cut back to the original panning shot after Indy has stood and while he's shaking Ross' hand saying, "Good to see you, too, Bob".
So, put that all together and what we appear to have is Ross entering room saying "Thank God, Indy", followed by an unused shot of FBI 2 starting to stand, a split second later Indy quickly looking in the direction of the door and Ross, FBI 1 leaning into camera blocking view of Indy for a second or so, then the camera switching angles to get a view of Indy again who has already stood up and is shaking Ross' hand. And the great thing is it resolves a current incontinuity and everyone stays where they should be so that they'll be in the right place when we cut back to the original shot. The reason we needed to that bit about having Indy turn is because it will cut down the time one would expect for him to be standing and shaking hands with Ross. If he has already turned to look at him, you will expect it to take him less time to get up than if he's facing away one second and standing shaking his hand the next ... but it doesn't take much more than a second to stand and shake the hand of someone you see walking toward you.
OPTION 2:
- Find some shot in the scene we can cut to immediately after Ross enters room and says, "Thank God, Indy", long enough to allow Indy to stand and start shaking Ross hand before cutting back to him saying, "Good to see you, too, Bob." Of course, I've watched this scene literally about 40 times and haven't found one, but I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong.
So some people PLEASE take a look at this scene and try to picture my option 1 and see if you think it might work.
Ryan
