Basic Training: Composition 102: Part 2 (page 2)

To quote Ansel Adams, "There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs" -- meaning, of course, that adherence to the rules does not guarantee results. The best example of breaking all the rules recently is the 1999 smash hit The Blair Witch Project, which was ostensibly directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who weren't even on the set most of the time, let alone peering through the camera setting up shots. Possibly the film with the worst compositional techniques ever to grace the big screen, the Blair Witch's first person hand-held POV shots, lit by flashlights and much shaking, succeeded because it made the audience believe the video footage was "real" instead of Hollywood fabrication.

One frequent mistake that even seasoned videographers and cinematographers make is forgetting that a particular shot that you are acquiring must match the ones before and after it in the finished production. This means that you must pay attention to background; for example, a wall that is brick in a wide shot can't mysteriously become stucco in a closeup. Keeping track of continuity is what makes a scene flow from shot to shot appear seamless. For example, if your scene of a criminal running to his car for a quick getaway has him reaching for the car door with his right hand in a wide shot, then the closeup cutaway shot is of his left hand grabbing the door handle, you've broken continuity and jarred the attention of the viewer from the story.

With a good grasp of the basic rules of composition, the next step is to learn to incorporate them wherever possible and to make good composition second nature. Study several examples of good cinematography and learn to critically analyze the content that you consume. Make sure your shots don't just start out well-composed but maintain their composition throughout their duration. Learn more advanced techniques, such as use of depth of field, and add them to your repertoire.

Contributing Editor Bill Davis writes, shoots, edits, and does voiceover work for a variety of corporate and industrial clients.

When asked how he is going to build a hospital set with no budget, a clever director will realize that a movie hospital can be made with a stethoscope, lab coat, and a clipboard, if they shoot everything in closeup.
Directors compose around daunting setups all the time -- a crowd at a basketball game may only consist of the twenty people you can see on the screen, jam packed into a small section of bleachers. A desolate Kansas highway might actually be a twenty foot stretch of suburban driveway with forty corn stalks from a craft store standing in the background; the giant ape holding Fay Wray might just be a giant hand, and that ship being rolled over by a tidal wave might only be two feet long. Oftentimes composition is the task of making something out of nothing.

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