Composition in film is one of the greatest tools a cinematographer, videographer, or director can use to tell their story. What is unique about composition in film is that it is used by a filmmaker to speak to the audience about a character’s internal world when there is no speaking. However, composition remains one of the most elusive subjects to grasp when starting out as a video professional.
So, why is Composition Important in film?
Composition is the greatest tool of communication because it evokes feeling, tone, mood, setting, (F.T.M.S) and can support a narrative by reinforcing themes and symbolic representations that psychologically affect the experience of the viewer and how they feel about what you're showing them- without a character or artist having to say anything.
There are many strategies an artist can employ when deciding how they’d like to emotionally affect their audience. In this article, we will explore six of the most common devices artists can use in the second dimension so that we can then apply it to the third dimension. The six tools of composition in this article are:
The six tools of composition we will discuss are:
- Rule of Thirds/ Golden Ratio
- Leading Lines
- Framing
- Contrast
- Patterns and Texture
- Space
The Rule of Thirds & The Golden Ratio
The rule of thirds is often described as a guideline that separates an image into nine equal regions by using two bisecting horizontal and vertical lines. Similarly, the golden ratio is another math-based guideline that embraces the way some organic structures and phenomena organize themselves in nature. Both templates express a model for the most visually interesting points in an image. Aligning your subject in a frame according to these rules creates some of the most pleasing images to the viewers eye.
When executed “by the book”, these effects can often give an image a sense of stability, balance, or rigidity that may express a character or characters mental state or position within the larger story.
Framing interview subjects according to the rule of thirds creates a sense of stability.
Leading Lines & Framing
Leading lines are usually found in the architecture or environment that the characters navigate, but can also include any angles created in a scene that all face the same direction. Framing is also used to direct an audience’s attention through the creation of intentional shapes using elements in the scene to force how the audience is able to view the subject. Subconsciously, the audience’s eye naturally follows patterns or shapes throughout an image, which gives the brain notes about the priority of subjects in a frame to focus on.
Frames and leading lines are the director’s most obvious tools in drawing an audience’s attention to an area they want to highlight. These lines can be obvious, like the walls of a long hotel hallway leading to two spooky twin girls; or they can be more discreet, like a bearded assassin investigating a night club in order to avenge his wife and dog. In either case, the director chooses these devices to control the way their audience visually digests a scene, and therefore, how they feel about it.
The shelves of this warehouse draw the viewers eye to the center of the frame and, therefore, the subjects of interest.
Contrast
Contrast in filmmaking directly refers to the relationship between darkness and lightness in an image. Seen most notably in black and white films, which have high contrast, the value and direction of the light in a scene can evoke many different emotional responses- as it does in real life. Contrast exists in color film, too, and opens up a much larger palette of possibilities for a director to choose from when creating a scene with light.
The red, violent glow of a lightsaber in Kylo Ren’s pained eyes. The green overhead fluorescents in Tyler Durden’s mundane office. The soft spotlight glow of Norma Desmond’s famous, deranged closeup can tell us lots about the character’s internal world, and our own.
The high contract lighting on the subject’s face in this scene supports the character’s inner world of conflict and secrecy in Burning the Midnight Oil.
Patterns
Patterns refer to the repeated visual shapes and elements in a scene. This could look like wallpaper, a wall of windows, books on a shelf, or many other naturally-occurring shapes in everyday life.
Repeated elements in an image can evoke a sense of cohesion as the objects become familiar to the audience and shown throughout an image. The filmmakers choice of what exactly to repeat can create many different emotional responses and also inform the viewers of what to keep in mind- even to the point of visual overwhelm.
The repeated pattern of the stadium seats overwhelms the viewer with UNI panther purple branding, contributing to the overall messaging of this Panther Sports Talk Promo.
Textures
Texture is defined as “the visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something”. In composition, texture can be used to create a deeper sensory experience. Since the filmmakers are showing a 3D world on a 2D screen, adding textures can give the audience a more immersive sense of the world and characters that inhabit it.
A texturally dense scene can overwhelm, impress, or surprise the audience with its variety, while, similarly, a texturally-barren scene can raise questions, suspicion, or alienation in your audience. As a compositional element, the difference between a window with or without curtains, or the roughness of a tree line juxtaposed with a straight and narrow driveway or the worn, lived-in feeling of a Western saloon when a prim-and-proper gentleman gunslinger walks in, raises complex thoughts and assumptions about the scenes presented to an audience.
The bookcase in the background creates lots of vertical texture that differentiate the subject from their environment.
Space
Space in film composition refers to the amount of a subject of interest in an image. A director that frequently plays with these ratios in their films are often known for their intensity or mundanity (or both!). See Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Bong Joon-ho, or Wes Anderson for examples.
In either excitement or subtlety, space is one of the most impactful compositional devices a filmmaker can use to leave an impression on their audience. Judging space between objects is one of the most common universal signs humans understand to judge a subject’s relationship to another.
Filmmakers have many tools at their disposal to help describe space to an audience. Focal length can create the effect of depth, and shots framed as close up, mid- shots, and long shots position the subject of interest in ways that evoke different relationships with the audience.
The massive scale of the utilities structure behind the subjects creates a sense of awe.
Breaking the Rules
These tools of composition build on each other and combine to create specific psychological effects that the filmmaker can control.
Control means a filmmaker can choose to include or exclude elements in order to create a specific psychological effect- bringing intentionality to their work.
See how these rules are broken to create something different?
So What Makes Film Composition Unique?
So far, the examples of film composition in this article have been explored through still images, however, what makes film unique is that it uses all the tools of composition while moving in the third dimension, adding time to the mix.
This raises many questions for filmmakers to ask themselves, such as: “When should I reveal the subject?”, “How long should I hold a compositionally displeasing frame before correcting it— if at all?”, “How do the sequence of shots or scenes in this film influence each other and change the meaning of the others?” (See more about the Kuleshov effect below.)
Wondering How to Practice Composition in Film?
There are many ways to get the compositional juices flowing. Some of the most helpful exercises could look like:
- Create art—not just film. Try sketching, painting, or collage.
- Explore a space compositionally. Walk around a room and find ways to tell a story with the natural framing all around.
- Observe personal psychology (F.T.M.S) when watching a film or consuming art.
- How does this make the audience feel?
- What story does this tell?
- Watch the behind the scenes of a favorite movie to understand the “why” that leads to the “what”.
Try this exercise at home.
Composition Concluded
Composition is a practiced skill, one that takes time and feedback to develop. Collaborate as often as possible with other artists and different audiences. Talk more composition by contacting us at info@atc-p.com.