B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
Framing Good Shots
The images you record are the building blocks and foundation of your video productions. As
your foundation, some thought and planning should go into how your shots are composed. A
well-composed shot grabs and holds your viewer’s attention. It also influences the mood of the
scene or the comfort level of the audience. When done right, the composition will not draw
attention to itself. Instead, it will instill a sense of normalcy and stability. On the other hand, a
poorly composed shot will have the opposite effect. It will distract the audience, or worse, make
a scene entirely unwatchable. Following are some basic composition guidelines that experts use
as their foundation, as well as some common pitfalls you should try to avoid.
The Rule of Thirds
A basic rule of composition is the rule of thirds. This guideline gives you ideas on where to place
your subject within the frame. Though your tendency may be to position your subject dead center
on the screen, the rule of thirds will give you a more compelling picture.
First, imagine that two vertical and two horizontal lines divide your viewfinder into thirds.
(Think of a slightly elongated tic-tac-toe board.) The rule of thirds suggests that the main subject
in your shot should fall on one of the points where these imaginary lines intersect. The resulting
Image will be much stronger than if you simply place your subject in the crosshairs (see the
following Figure).
When videotaping a person, that person’s eyes are your main focal point. Whether using a wide
shot or a close up, compose the shot so that the person’s eyes fall on one of the uppermost
imaginary intersections. The intersection you choose depends on which direction the person is
looking. Frame someone looking screen left on the right third of the screen. This places the
subject slightly off center and builds in another element of composition called “look room.”
Eye Liner—Keep the eyes on the upper-third line, even if you lose the top of the
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
head or hair.
Look Room, Lead Room and Head Room
Look room is the space that you leave in front of someone’s face on the screen. This space gives
the person room to breathe, as well as gives the impression that the person is looking at or
talking to someone just off screen. If you don’t leave enough look room, your subject will appear
boxed-in and confined (see the following Figures).
Be aware that the amount of look room necessary is dependent upon the angle of the subject to
the camera. A person looking directly toward the camera will require less look room than
someone shot in full profile.
Moving objects such as cars require a similar buffer called “lead room.” Allow extra space in
front of a moving car so that the viewer can see that it has someplace to go. Without this visual
padding, the car’s progress will seem impeded.
Head room is another element you should consider when framing your subject. Headroom is the
amount of space between the top of someone’s head and the top of the frame. If you leave too
much space, the person will appear as if sinking in quicksand. If you don’t leave enough room,
the person will seem in danger of bumping his head. By positioning the subject’s eyes on the top
third imaginary line, you will be building in the proper amount of headroom. When considering
head room, be sure the shot is loose enough so that you see part of the subject’s neck or the top
of the shoulders. If not, you’ll end up with what looks like a severed head on a platter. However,
don’t be as concerned with cutting off the top of someone’s head. Viewers do not perceive this as
abnormal as long as you frame the actor’s eyes where they should be.
Look Room—The left image doesn’t leave any look room. The framing in the right
image is much better.
The Background
Many composition pitfalls lie in the subject’s environment. Trees and phone poles, vases or
pictures on walls may all cause problems. Be aware of lampposts, trees or other such objects that
are directly behind your subject. A flagpole protruding from the top of an actor’s head looks
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
ridiculous, as does a vase that may seem balanced on someone’s shoulder. Likewise, a power
line running through the frame may appear to be going in one of your subject’s ears, and out the
other. Steer clear of any such visual distractions (see the following Figures).
Even if these objects are not directly behind your subject, they can still cause problems. A
lamppost running vertically through the middle of the frame will not only disrupt the balance
achieved by the rule of thirds, it can also isolate or box in the subject. It may also take away the
look room that you’ve built into the shot. Be aware of these background objects, and work to
avoid them whenever possible.
Framing Using Objects
While objects in the background can cause problems, objects placed in the foreground can lend a
hand. This technique can add depth and character to your shot. Try using something in the
environment to obstruct part of your shot (see the following Figures).
Place a piece of furniture in your foreground and shoot past it by framing it to the extreme right
or left. You can shoot through open doors, where the doorjamb frames the edges of the screen.
Be careful, however, not to overdo it. Using the environment to frame your shots should not be
so blatant as to distract from what is happening in the scene.
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
Watch the Background—Poles protruding from your subject’s head can be distracting. The
receding lines in the shot on the right add depth.
Natural Frames—Look for objects (natural or artificial) in the environment that act as natural
frames.
The Ultimate Goal
Good composition is a means to an end. When it’s done well, the audience should not notice it.
Instead it should help create a mood, or at the very least, a sense of normalcy and stability. The
next time you watch a movie, pay attention to how the cinematographer frames the shots. You’ll
notice that he or she uses the rule of thirds as a foundation, and builds from there.
Compositional Vocabulary
There is a language of composition just like there’s a language for football. Learning the various
parts, their definitions and usage will help you immeasurably, not only in composing your own
shots, but in being a critical observer of other work.
The Rule of Thirds
The “Rule of Thirds” is possibly the most crucial lesson you can learn in composition. It asks
that you divide the frame into nine equal rectangles (draw a tic-tac-toe board on it) and that you
place your area of interest at the intersection of two of those lines. Next time you’re looking
at still images or watching a movie, see how often this is used.
Leading Lines
Leading lines draw a viewer’s eyes in a particular direction—railroad tracks, rivers, fallen trees,
are all things that can be used to funnel the viewer’s eyes across the screen to a particular object.
Juxtaposition
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
To “juxtapose” something is to place two things together for comparison. Sometimes this can be
literal, like the millionaires in Trading Places juxtaposed next to Eddie Murphy playing a
panhandler, or it can be symbolic, like the scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, where Obi Wan
Kenobi and Darth Vader first meet. They are shown on the opposite sides of the screen, one
good, and the other evil, representing the breadth of the human condition.
Headroom
Headroom is the space above a person’s head. Too much or too little headroom and the image
will look unbalanced or cramped.
Nose Room
For some reason, it bothers us when we see someone looking into space with no room in front of
them. When shooting a 3/4 or profile shot, leave space in front of the subject’s nose.
Lead Room
Lead room is nose room for moving objects, like a moving horse or a car—leave space for the
horse or the car to move into rather than crowding the side of the screen.
Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid over your viewfi nder and frame your key elements in the
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
intersections. Both of these subjects have a similar background, but the shot on the left is
framed with a more interesting composition.
In the shot on the left, we have a good example of nose room. The man has breathing room to
walk into. The woman in the shot on the right appears to bump her nose on the frame and
doesn’t have lead space.
Background
Be wary of what’s behind your subject. Through the viewfinder you’re often very concentrated
on the principal and don’t realize until later that there is a telephone pole growing out of his or
her head or a window sash that looks surprisingly like an arrow going in one ear and out the
other. The background can also be used to add to your shot. When interviewing your grandfather
about his experience in the war, for example, hanging his uniform or a map in the background,
slightly out of focus, can add visual interest and useful information to the shot.
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
Framing your subject with good background gives your shot more interest. Try not to have him
too close to the wall so he has more punch and depth.
Foreground
Likewise, the foreground can be used to add information—two people lying on a blanket in the
foreground, for example, might suggest that the grassy expanse we’re looking at is in a park. Put
a deer in the same place, and, suddenly, it’s a meadow in the woods. Place in a few well-dressed,
out of focus people playing croquet, and it becomes an English manor.
Balance
Our own brain’s function to keep us upright makes us seek balance in composition. An equally
weighted frame appears to be at rest and makes the viewer calm. “Balanced” doesn’t necessarily
mean two people equal-distant apart. A person on the right-hand side of the screen might be
“balanced” by a clock hanging on a wall on the left-hand side.
Tension
You don’t necessarily want the viewer to feel peace and harmony all the time. One thing you
often want to achieve is tension, which can be done by skewing the balance, adding vertical or
angled lines that take away from a balanced frame. Tilting the camera a few degrees to one
side will keep your audience from relaxing. They might not even notice the horizon being off,
but subconsciously, there is a feeling that something isn’t quite right. Using a wide-angle lens
that distorts a shot so that lines aren’t parallel or perpendicular also creates tension.
Maintaining Your Composition
It’s important to keep consistency in your composition to keep from confusing your viewer.
Your actors need to look and speak in consistent directions, two characters facing one another
over a dinner table, for example, shouldn’t be shown in close-ups looking in the same direction.
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B.A. Mass Communication Semester – II Television Journalism
Using Color
Color composition is a major part of many motion pictures—M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village,
for example, made good use of the color red to represent evil and cooler blues to represent good.
Months before shooting begins, many directors, production designers, and directors of
photography will choose a color palate for a movie, deciding what types of colors will work
together to give the audience the proper “feel.” For an example of hyper color composition watch
Peter Greenaway’s The Cook the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.
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