There are over 100 composition rules for film making. As film makers it all starts from what we are trying to say, our hypothesi and our meaning, which we will convey threw our pop videos to the audience where we will try and use at least 10 of these compostition rules.
1) Different Types Of Shot Size:
Shots are the vocabulary of film and television, having an undestanding of shot sizes and what they communicate is essential to every professional and amateur video producer.
These are that set the scene, in television the establishing shot is usually the first thing the director shoots, so that the director and everyone else involved knows what is going on. The rest of the shots evolve out of the information given in the establishing shot.
- Extreme Long Shot:
The extreme long shot shows scale, distance and geography. It is great at creating an overall atmosphere, although people will be extremely small. It works best when there is action: e.g. a train coming towards camera.
The Long Shot intro duces people at full length and creates a sense of place, time and atmosphere; showing an interior or exterior, day or night. It shows any components of the mise en scene. This shot is oerfect for the picture i have chosen because it really capture that iconice moment in the Titanic.
- Medium Long Shot:
The medium long shot is good for showing character and location. If someone is on the move or going through a door this can be very useful shot. In the picture i have chosen the shot is useful to capture the action of the actors beeing chased down the hallway.
- The Mid Shot:
The mid shot is close enough to see facial expressions but far enough away to capture bodily gestures, like in this shot of the actors walking but showing awkward facial expressions.
The close up delivers emotion from people and impact from objects. It gives a great detail of expression like in this picture it shows the intensity of his gaze.
The Extreme cloe up is an unusual shot. especially as you don't often get this close to someone in reall life. It is used to shock the viewer. ECU of objects can bring a new perspective to the story.
2) Camera Position and Angles:
The angles are about how you want your subject to be seen by the viewer. When Oliver Twist asks Mr Bumble for "More" the scene is enhanced by the camera being at a high angle above Oliver, and at a low angle below Mr Bumble.
Size of characters and backgrounds are important in emphasising the significance of a shot. A good camera position is the difference between seeing and not seeing.
3) Camera Movements:
The Tracking Shot: keeps the lens at a fixed angle but moves the camera towards or away from the action and so keeps the same perspectives. The tracking shot can be done on foot (but its wobbly), with tripod wheels, in car etc…
The Panning shot: because the television screen is fixed format the panning shot (left to right or right to left) allows for things that are too wide for a static shot, e.g. landscapes, to be conversed.
Titlting: the classic example of tilting is in the wedding video. The shot starts on the spire of the church and tilts down to find our newly weds, still young and in love.
4) Lighting:
The best way of lighting is to position the light as high as possible without losing the eyes in shadows from the eyebrows. The lighting must never cast an ugly nose shadow across the subject’s cheek. Avoiding nose shadows is key. When lighting a scene you must also beware of nasty shadows across the eyes from spectacle frames. Try to pinpoint light reflected in the eye pupils from a filler light. Another thing to remember is to use as little extra light as possible.
5) Rule of Thirds:
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography, design and film. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.
6)Leading the Eye:
Within film making, almost one of most essential elements is to encourage the viewer to follow the main character or subject. This can be done in two ways; rule of thirds or converging lines
7) Colours:
Colours within films are always used to create moods, biases or opinions. Colors also have positive and negative qualities, for example if we take the color pink, which represents loving, nurturing, emotional, the positive qualities are understanding, sympathetic where as the negative qualities are immature, needy, unstable.
8) Shapes and Lines:
The “line” of a picture is determined by outlining the subjects and/or the objects in the picture which would give its line content. For instance a picture of a sunset usually has a horizon that communicates peace and harmony. Its principal line is a horizontal.
An example of this is in the film, Strangers on a Train (1951), the first minute tells us who is good and who is bad, one enters from the left (bad) and the other enters from the right (good). The good guy walks straight and it fades out to the train tracks which turn right (with a few bumps) this is a perfect example of how lines and shapes can give u a idea of what will happen in the rest of the film.
An example of this could be the colours used in the film Wild Bunch, there is very little colour, brown, pasty, flat, grainy, dirty effect and it also goes to black.
