1. Frame Composition
Filmmakers need to consider where things and people are placed in a movie frame.
Painters have been doing this for centuries.
When photography was invented, the rules of composition followed.

2. Things are no different now
Things are no different now. How a director decides where to place people and things helps convey a story. Unlike the written word for a writer, a director uses light, lines, color, angles, focus, composition, and audio to help communicate a vision or a story.

3. Ways of Seeing Rule of Thirds TV Safe Headroom Noseroom/Look to Space
Diagonal Lines

4. Rule of Thirds

5. Rule of Thirds
Start by dividing the frame into thirds

6. Rule of Thirds
Start by dividing the frame into thirds

7. Rule of Thirds Start by dividing the frame into thirds
Place major points of interest in the
scene on any of the four intersecting
points on the interior lines

8. Rule of Thirds Start by dividing the frame into thirds
Place major points of interest in the
scene on any of the four intersecting
points on the interior lines

9. Rule of Thirds Start by dividing the frame into thirds
Place major points of interest in the
scene on any of the four intersecting
points on the interior lines

10. Rule of Thirds Start by dividing the frame into thirds
Place major points of interest in the
scene on any of the four intersecting
points on the interior lines

11. Rule of Thirds Start by dividing the frame into thirds
Place major points of interest in the
scene on any of the four intersecting
points on the interior lines

12. TV Safe The video that you shoot is about
10% more than what people will
see. Everyone’s TV is different. You must account for this by not shooting any important elements near the edge of your frame.

13. TV Safe

14. Headroom Too much headroom makes the subject seem lost in the frame.
Headroom is also a waste compositionally as its often the sky or a blank wall.
It adds no information from the shot and may draw the eye away from your subject

15. Headroom
Incorrect
Correct

16. Nose Room
If a person is looking to the side, his gaze has “visual weight”. As a result we never frame the persons head in the center of the frame.
This “visual weight” must be balanced

17. Incorrect
Correct

18. Interviews

19. Leading Action Follow the action with nose room.
Give the action somewhere to go.

20. Joint Cuts
Don’t cut off people at the joints with your framing. (feet, knees, wrists, neck)