What is the term blocking and how do filmmakers choose the locations of actors and their movement in scenes?

In previous articles in the Cinematography category, we talked about the mechanism for distributing lighting and its positioning in relation to the camera and the actor, and we also talked about the mechanisms for adjusting the exposure correctly, and today we will talk together about the mechanism for the correct positioning and movement of actors on the filming site, which is called blocking, and how filmmakers plan in advance for this topic. What is blocking? The human eye moves around the place where we are usually located and explores and watches what it sees based on the main lines and focus points subconsciously. In cinema, filmmakers are keen to exploit and develop these methods so that the viewer’s eye is drawn in a specific direction in the image through what is called staging or presentation method. The word staging symbolizes the things that appear in the scene in their general form, their locations, their mechanism of movement, their angles, and their composition. There are many types of formations that contribute to attracting the viewer’s eye toward a group of points in the scene, for example, regular geometric shapes such as rectangles, spiral shapes, or the so-called golden rule, or even through the corner of a room.

A cinematographer is a person who has a large amount of examples and has abundant visual feed that he can use to create these compositions, but he must first know what the director is trying to achieve with the actors while training them in their movements and performance on set, and from there the cinematographer’s task is to capture that performance by focusing on the camera movement, the use of lighting and its angles, and other tools so that it helps the audience feel what the actors are expressing. The director of photography - cinematographer works side by side with the director to achieve the best form of presentation or staging, so that the final formula provides the best way to express and display the performance in the correct manner, as well as the compatibility of that performance with the camera locations and lighting according to the filming location, such as the mechanism for exploiting windows and others. Therefore, blocking is the mechanism of movement of actors and their positions on the filming site, according to the scenario, camera movement, lighting, etc.

Blocking - Blocking and the rule of the Makaya Triangles As we talked about at the beginning of the article, there are many ways to create cinematic compositions and display the scene, but in reality the more actors in the scene, the more complicated filming the shot becomes. Therefore, filmmakers resorted to adopting a simple method to capture the scenes, by confining the actors and their performance in a group of invisible triangles called the Makaya Triangles, which connect the elements through the movement of the camera, its angles, and the movement of the actors. And their positioning. Analytical example: In the example below from the movie “Knives Out”, in the dialogue scene we have 5 actors on set, which means that covering the actors’ movement and performance in the scene will be complicated. We notice how cinematographer Steve Yedlin was able to use groups of triangles to confine the actors’ movement within the shots: ||| We would like to warn you that there are spoilers in the following clip before watching it ||| If we analyze the scene above, we notice an extensive use of triangles in the movement mechanism of the actors and their positioning in the scene, as we notice the use of two triangles to cover the scene as a whole, a triangle for the main actors (yellow), and a triangle that includes the secondary actors in the scene (purple), with alternating cuts in between. The alternation between the two triangles was done according to the nature of the shots in the text in general. The movement of the main actors was covered within the first triangle, then it moved repeatedly to the second triangle, which includes the secondary actors: every time the director wanted to move between the two triangles, he cut to single shots of medium size while maintaining the continuity of the scene through the 180 degree rule, or by showing the actor in both the first and second group of triangles.

Notice the movement of actor No. 1 between the two shots: while the director preserves the reaction shots by moving between the dialogue taking place between the main actors, to a shot showing the secondary actors, so that we have a more complex formula of triangles, since the third point of the triangle is what the actors are looking at, which is the basic dialogue outside the shot: Through the previous relationship between the shots and the distribution of the actors according to those triangles, we learn about one of the ways to cover the movement of the actors in the film. In fact, there are an infinite number of ways to cover a scene and move the camera to show the actors’ performance, Therefore, watching and analyzing scenes from films will be the best practical school for deducing methods and mechanisms for correct presentation. In this brief article, we wanted to talk specifically about the role of Mackay triangles in covering the movements and performance of actors in scenes. The discussion of the mechanisms and methods of coverage is many, complex, and lengthy, with more examples mentioned. So, if you would like to delve deeper into the topic, choose a scene from a movie that you would like to analyze, then start identifying the triangles in the scene. Observe the movement of the actors and the pieces in the scene, and how they integrate with each other to form for us the final material that we watch in the form of a movie with an integrated format. One. I would like to remind you that if you have any questions, you can send your inquiries through our accounts on social media sites. 

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