Blocking and camera work in "I, Claudius"

[robcat2075]

"Blocking" has a several shades of meaning.

In animation when you are blocking, you are getting your character into all the main poses he will strike during a shot, maybe even before you have ascertained the exact times he will arrive at them.

In theater and live-to-tape TV, blocking is about setting the locations on the stage the actors (and the camera) will need to be in at various points in a scene.

I've never been very creative with blocking in that longer sense. I tend to set the camera up once and then make my characters do their stuff within that rectangle.

This video takes a look at the elaborate blocking seen in the BBC studio drama, "I Claudius".

The voice-over narration is pretty ghastly but... you get to see Patrick Stewart with a toupee!