The Camera: A Cinematography Guide for Episode Writers

Originally published at: https://shanniiwrites.com/2020/04/12/the-camera-a-cinematography-guide-for-episode-writers/

One of the things that helps me to tell a good Episode writer from a great one is how they use the camera. It’s one of those things that can be very easy to forget about. After all, this is Episode we’re talking about! It’s more like a book than a film, right? I get…

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I’ve been waiting sooo long for this! (heart_eyes)

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We’ve only had 12 people check this out since it was released, but I’m really proud of it, so I was just wondering if anyone knows of a friend who would benefit from learning a little more about the camera in Episode stories?

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me :sweat_smile:

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I have already read this, but I never actually commented here. I think you make a great point by giving out all these tips. For example, isolating the character in a close-up makes the reader understand that they are feeling sad and/or lonely, but in comedies, it could be used to give the reader a laugh. It’s really great what good cinematography can provide to an Episode story. As a poorly directed film would be unpleasant, so would be a story in the Episode app. As an Episode writer, I like to use the camera a lot, as it gives more depth to your story, otherwise the scenes seem unloved and poorly made. I have noticed myself that in different story genres, zooms are used differently, and for different reasons. For example, in a horror, you wanna zoom on a character feeling scared, and as if they are alone in a room, when they basically are… not alone. It makes the reader feel scared, and that whatever happens, the character will have to deal with it themselves, and only. I really like this blog post! There are many stories that could be great if they had better use of the camera. I sometimes stop reading stories because the zooms are incorrect and unpleasant, and makes the story seem like it wasn’t given much attention.

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Absolutely! I have a big problem with authors who never use zooms at all, who use them too frequently, or just don’t even check their placements of them

I am guilty of forgetting about the camera in my Episode story :joy: Well, I didn’t forget about it, I just didn’t want to use it so I ignored it. I think some authors overdo it with using the camera and make a close-up every other second. But I liked panning over big rooms! Maybe I wasn’t that lazy with using the camera after all :thinking: I think I was quite okay with the foreground and background of the camera. But in the end, I just didn’t like coding, which made me stop writing on Episode completely :joy:

Just adding tags

Hey @Bloggers & @Episodians, for all those making Episode stories, make sure to remember you’re in control of the camera. Take a read of this and tell me what you think!


Remember that if you really enjoyed this blog, feel free to recommend it (it’s similar to liking it). This will help with it being higher in the results of search engines too.

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I cannot do the over shoulder angles… that’s a lot of work ESPECIALLY in Limelight. I prefer zooming close on characters in the same zone/different zones.