What is it about Hollywood movies that draws the audience into the shots? Of course, cameras, lenses, lighting, and performance play a major part, but at the core of a great shot lies a great composition. So in this video, we’ll look into the art of composition and find out how it can help you become a better filmmaker. I’ll show you seven cinematic composition techniques used by some of the best Hollywood filmmakers. These are things you can start applying to your own work right now and bring a whole new level of creativity to your film making. Composition is the way elements of a scene are arranged within the camera frame—in a nutshell, what is in the frame and where is it located. And although that sounds very simple, a certain frame or a thought out composition can draw you into the story, make it more impactful, and make something appear more cinematic. It’s all about directing the viewer’s eye.
Let’s begin with one of the most essential elements of composition: focal points. Focal points or points of interest can be used to draw the attention of your viewer to a specific part of the frame. Where does your eye naturally get drawn to in this shot? The composition of the shot pulls your attention to the focal point. Focal points are highly effective in wide shots. Filmmakers often opt for a minimal shot to eliminate any distractions. This directs the viewer’s eye straight to the focal point. But even in busier frames, when your frame has a dominant subject or focal point, the audience will know exactly where to look and what is important in the shot. Usually these focal points are used together with other compositional guidelines such as the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is one of the most common and important compositional guidelines that you’ll find in cinematography. This rule breaks your frame into thirds with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. The four intersecting points of these lines are fantastic areas of the frame to place your subject or focal point. This is because the viewer’s eyes are naturally drawn to these points and it will create a much more appealing shot. Just watch any Hollywood movie and you’ll notice that the main subjects are almost always placed on one of these points.
When it comes to mastering the art of composition in cinematography, having access to great references is key, and that’s exactly where the sponsor of this video Frameset comes in. If you don’t know Frameset, it’s basically an incredibly useful online library with a huge collection of over half a million assets from movies, commercials, and music videos. One of the most valuable things about Frameset is that it organizes images in a way that makes it easy to search for specific styles, but also for example search by particular cinematographers. Frameset gives you the option to enter up to different filters to really fine-tune what you might be looking for. A filter that I use a lot is frame size, so let’s say I want to look for medium and medium wide shots and I also want the shot to only have one person. Now I can even add a composition filter, for example symmetrical shots, and right away Frameset is showing me a bunch of great shots I could use as inspiration for future projects. If you also want to start using Frameset to access tons and tons of reference images, all you need to do is click the link in the description and use the code stand for a discount.
In film making we’re representing three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional medium and the best way to do this is by making use of depth. You can divide space into three sections: foreground, mid-ground, and background. These sections can then be used to layer a composition. Shallow depth of field can be used to separate the subject from the background and provide more emphasis to that subject. Naturally the viewer’s eyes will get drawn to whatever is in focus, and blurring out the background can also remove any distractions from an otherwise busy scene. Pulling your subject away from the background helps in creating depth within the shot. If you film someone directly up against the wall the image will have absolutely no depth. So even if you’re shooting in a very small space, try putting your subject as far away from the background as possible or shoot into a corner of the room. This will naturally create more depth in your shot. Adding something to the foreground will also add depth to an image. Even smaller out of focus objects will add another visual layer to the shot. The image will then have foreground, mid-ground (typically the subject), and background, and these layers create depth.
Now there is no doubt that all of these techniques, rules, or methods can help you improve your cinematography, but a very important thing to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as right or wrong in film making. There’s only more interesting and less interesting, so whatever compositional technique you’re using, just make sure it’s interesting.
