I said last week that I’d start a new sort of series on my favorite shots over my years of production. Basically, the idea is to take a screen grab of a great-looking shot and talk about some of the aspects in it that make it stand out. Though there are many aspects that make up a particular shot, I’ll try to focus on one or two of them each post. Today’s topic is framing.
The above shot was taken outside a retirement community in Minnesota. I needed some cover shots for an informational video and headed to the grounds around sunset to try to get some good-looking footage. Sunrise and sunset are known to filmmakers as the “magic” or “golden hour,” where sunlight creates an aesthetic look just about impossible to duplicate otherwise. But that’s another post altogether.
Framing deals with the way a shot is put together. It defines what space an object or character takes up, and how it relates to the other parts of the frame. The specifics of framing can vary according to the aspect ratio of the screen (4:3, 16:9, etc.) but generally, a way of dividing the frame called “the rule of thirds” is used to decide where to place objects as to be the most visually appealing to audiences. For this said convention, the frame is split into nine sections, broken into thirds both vertically and horizontally. There are a number of ways this helps to set up a shot, the horizon, for example is usually placed on one of the horizontal lines, one-third or two-thirds of the way down, rather than smack in the middle. Why? It gives precedence to either the sky or the foreground. Just like depth of field, framing can help to draw the viewer’s attention to focus on particular elements. Much in the same way, the vertical lines create areas of interest, most notably on the intersections of these lines. Often objects or faces are placed on the intersections.
In my shot, you can see that the sun shining through the tree lies on the left vertical division. The brightness of the sun makes it the most prominent object in the shot, and making sure that this “character” lies in a particular part of the frame creates balance. How uninteresting would it be if every character of a film occupied only the very middle of the frame? The V shape of the tree also creates another frame within the larger frame. By placing objects within such natural frames, the shot can again draw attention and create interest. It can sometimes even create an emotional response, for instance if a character seemed to be entrapped within a frame, symbolic or otherwise.
Many variables are active in making this shot, including contrast, color, depth, lens effects, movement and more, but framing makes up the very base of everything, defining what the camera is looking at. Under no circumstances should the rule of thirds or any other “rules” be applied all of the time, or used without exception. Much of what is new, interesting and original comes from the negligence of such standards. The conventions seen in this post are simply a proven way to set up a shot that most people would find pleasant to look at.
