Take a look at progression number one, six shots of a couple talking in a restaurant. It's abasic progression that starts far away and neutral and ends up in an extreme close up
featuring one character. The script may start out with some chit chat between the characters,
and intensify to where in panel six the woman makes an important statement (ie: " I'mpregnant, or "I'm leaving you", or even "oh crap­­ I left the oven on" etc etc). For all intents
and purposes, this is correct. The shots slowly intensify to a visual climax.

Now look at progression 2; same six shots, but I've jumbled them around. For the script we'reusing in progression one, this would be considered wrong. The shots are all over the place.
Sure the woman could say "I'm leaving you " in the close up in panel six, but what impact will
it have after the extreme close up in panel one? How is it building intensity if we're going to awide neutral shot, then close up , then out to medium shots?

Now the tricky part. With a different script, the second progression could work. I added thepanels at random, so I'll try to work backwards from this and come up with a scenario thatworks. Say the woman gets a phone call from the man and he says " Sally, the money's gone;meet me at the cafe".
With that intro, the script for progression two may go like this:panel one: (woman) "what do you mean the money's gone?"panel two: (man)(looking around nervously and whispering) " I don't know, the suitcase wasempty"
panel three: (man) "we've got to find that money"
panel four: (woman) "all right but being here is making me nervous, they could be following us"panel five: (man) " what do you think we should do?"panel six: (woman) "we need to get out of town"
The most important bit is the woman's reaction to the money being gone and the XCU opens
the scene with a punch. The second biggest bit is "we need to get out of town", so that gets a
close up in panel six although not as big as panel one. The lines of them talking about being
scared of being followed are in wider shots to emphasize the people around them and thatthey're in a public space.
Now while this isn't perfectly ideal, I just wanted to illustrate that a progression like numberone, although visually solid, isn't always the right one. Your shot progression will depend on
what is happening in your scene. Make sure your shots best emphasize what's happening inthe story.

SHOT PROGRESSION

Leon : The Professional
33:53 mins into the film.

Matilda has such a strong sense of who she is. See how the two characters (Matilda andLeon) get along so well, despite their difference in age and backgrounds. You can really feelthe bond between the two.

Just before this scene begins there is a huge action sequence where Matilda’s family,including her little brother, get shot up by the cops. Matilda narrowly escapes this ordeal
because she is down at the milk bar getting milk. Leon, who lives at the end of the hallway,
reluctantly lets her in to his home, saving her from being killed. Now she is telling him why she
is crying.

The camera before this, for the most part, has been quite tense. There have been a lot oftruck ins, wide angle lenses, forced perspectives, and panning with the action. So this is thefirst scene that has really stayed up close and is steady. The camera, for the most part, is set
up in the same position at a medium­close­up/close­up. This is a bold move because it means
the story relies heavily on the actors.

Looking at the first and second shot, we can see that the positioning of the characters, theirclothes, and the background all draw our eye towards their face. This is where we find out
who the characters really are, so the attention has to be on their expressions.

Even though the shots are divided up into three, where the characters takes up the middle
and the silhouettes and empty space fall to the side, Leon is positioned on the left side of thescreen while Matilda is on the right. This is to be clear of who is talking, avoiding the ‘pop cut’.
It is only until frame 19 (page 3) where Leon actually walks away that Matilda takes up theother side. Then, only when he returns, do they go back to their original sides.
Moving back to frame 4 (page 1). The camera has cut in slightly closer. This is as Matilda
reveals more about what has happened. It also cuts in equally close to Leon, who is moreinterested in what she has to say. As she starts crying in frame 7 the camera does a slighttruck in, putting a bit more emphasis on what is happening. The camera only ever trucks inslightly, so not to bring attention to the movement. It moves like this right until the end of thescene, where everything has been revealed. Here it trucks into an extreme close up to makeit obvious of what the characters are thinking.
Looking at frame 10 and 11 (page 2), I have made a note about the light and dark. This is
another method the director has used to make the characters stand out. It also gives theshots a sense of balance.
Going to frame 19 (page 3), when we cut to a wide as Leon gets up, the lighting on the backwall creates an bridge from the doorway where Leon has gone to chair where Matilda issitting.
Two frames along, where the pig comes into screen, the shadows on the top right and bottom
left balance the shot. This shot also uses a deeper perspective, shot from below, than theprevious to bring attention to the puppet pig. Only until frame 25, when Leon is shown holding
the puppet that the camera returns to an eye level perspective.

Moving to frame 35 (page 4), the camera jumps to an extreme close­up, shooting up atMatilda, as she says, “Cute name.” to Leon, openly showing her attraction to him. This is
makes her feelings obvious to us, letting us connect with her more.

In summary, the camera in this scene is quite subtle in its movements allowing the actors togive their performance. It’s a stark contrast from the previous scenes which have been very
action driven. I responded to this moment so well because the actors are so convincing. They
are real people and they have a real bond between each other. Luc Besson is a very action
driven director so I am glad he included a scene like this to break up the pace.
There's a scene in there that has a really nice dramatic and suspenseful build to it, so I
decided to break it down into shots to figure out what made it work. This is a really great
exercise for anyone who is interested in storyboarding or what makes a good scene work.
There’s a lot to learn from it.