Entertainment desk
< April 23	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 25 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 24

Soap opera editing cliche

Hi all - I'm looking for the name of a specific film/television editing technique which has become a bit of a cliche in TV soap operas. When there is a discussion or argument between two on-screen characters and one walks out of the room, the camera will often pause in a close-up on the face of the remaining character for a longer time than would be natural, in order to focus on the emotions they are (often badly) portraying. If there is one, what (other than, potentially, long take) is the name of this technique? Thanks in advance, Grutness...wha? 07:46, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The technique has been around for a while. Mike Nichol's used it (sort of) in that memorable final shot of The Graduate and repeatedly in Carnal Knowledge. I hope these help others in tracking down the info that you are looking for Grutness. MarnetteD|Talk 14:34, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TV Tropes subsumes it among reaction shots (including more specific variations such as the eye take, the loud gulp, the shrug take, and so forth). Aha, we (as in WP) even have an article on reaction shot. ---Sluzzelin talk 15:28, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent - thanks! (PS - Reaction shot wasn't in Category:Film editing, which I hunted through, so I've added it there) Grutness...wha? 01:38, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What does a film story look like?

So take the film Mr. Bean's Holiday. It credits its screenplay writers, but it also credits "Story by". My question is: what does this 'story' look like on paper? Not a script presumably. Amisom (talk) 20:35, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I imagine it varies. For a film based on a novel, the novel itself is the story. More typically it might be a Film treatment. Staecker (talk) 20:57, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In many cases it's an actual script. If the script is heavily re-written the original author may not receive a script writing credit, but the author of the original script is entitled to at least the "story by" credit", under the principal of the Irreducible Story Minimum. (See WGA_screenwriting_credit_system#Story_by, "Screen Credits Manual", and this helpful summary from NextVEntertainment blog.)

ApLundell (talk) 21:45, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]