Composition in Film

Composition research for A2 Media Studies.

1. COMPOSITION IN FILM LOUISE CHIVERS COMPOSITION IN FILM

2. WHAT IS COMPOSITION? WHAT IS COMPOSITION? Composition refers to the arrangement of everything in a frame of filming, and comes under the cinematography department. There are many rules to consider when filming in order to make shots visually and aesthetically pleasing. There are many subconscious and psychological cues that viewers can take from shots and their structure, and it is important to adhere to certain rules to create certain meanings, and simply to make a film that looks nice. Composition includes framing, camera angles and types, as well as movement, and other features.

3. SHOT TYPES SHOT TYPES Wide shot: shows full body, establishes location ‘Western’ Shot: shows knees upwards, to show props on belt Mid-shot: shows waist upwards; comfortable focal length Medium close up -shows chest upwards, includes more detail Close-up: top of shoulders upwards Extreme close up: shows huge detail, eyes/nose; more intense

4. CAMERA ANGLES CAMERA ANGLES The angle of the shot depends on where the camera is placed in comparison to the subject, and can imply certain things to the audience. For example low angles make the subject seem bigger and more powerful, whereas high angles make the subject seem smaller and weaker.

5. CAMERA MOVEMENT CAMERA MOVEMENT The movement of the camera can be used to change the perspective of a shot and put the audience in a character’s shoes. Pans can demonstrate the distance between subjects, or a zoom in could suggest impending doom.

6. Lead room (also known as lead space) refers to the positioning of the subject when there is negative space in the frame. Negative space is usually just background with nothing in the foreground, thus it is ‘empty’. The rule with lead room is to position the subject to be looking into or towards the negative space. This means it is clear where they are walking. It is often visually uncomfortable if the subject is positioned walking or looking away from negative space. LEAD ROOM LEAD ROOM

7. The rule of thirds works upon the theory of cutting a frame into 9 sections with two vertical and two horizontal lines. It is visually pleasing to place subjects along the vertical lines, and horizon lines along the horizontal. Subjects of interest can also be placed on the 4 intersections of the lines, where the eyes are naturally and comfortable drawn to. The middle section is often left empty. RULE OF THIRDS RULE OF THIRDS

8. Static composition refers to shots where the lines in view tend to be very strictly vertical or horizontal. As seen above, the lines of the people, the steps and the water are neat horizontal lines, as well as the people being in neat vertical columns. These lines tend to be “soothing, calm and tranquil” to a viewer. STATIC COMPOSITION STATIC COMPOSITION

9. The opposite of static composition, dynamic composition entails the structure of a frame being composed of many diagonal lines. Audiences gain excitement and interest from these lines as they break a the tranquility of a static composition. It can be quite hard to create diagonal lines naturally, but by using certain camera angles and tilts, lines that were originally vertical and horizontal can become diagonal. DYNAMIC COMPOSITION DYNAMIC COMPOSITION

10. Like many rules, compositional rules can be broken to create equally interesting and unique shots. For example, Jaws (1975) often breaks and reverses the rule of lead room, by having the subject look away or move away from the negative space. Some shots show a character with space behind them filled with the open ocean, the boat or other characters. This gives the audience a claustrophobic and nervous feeling, as it is in the middle of the ocean, and suits the concept of the film. BREAKING THE RULES BREAKING THE RULES