Framing and Composition
This is an episode of a “show” Mike Jones turned me on to over on Vimeo, called Videopia. This is a particularly simple and useful discussion of, you guessed it, Framing and Composition, and is applicable to any form of filmmaking.
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The Videopia series is excellent. This episode is one of the best. I just wish the narrator knew what to do with his hands (heheh). Thanks for posting. Videopia deserves a wider audience.
Comment by Ricky Grove — September 4, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
I believe framing is something which comes naturaly to everyone. Everyone, knows what they think look best. He’s right though, the center frame is boring. I must check this site. Thanks, Phil.
Comment by Trendy_Hendy — September 4, 2008 @ 4:48 pm
@TH - I dunno, I think I’m gonna go ahead and disagree with you a bit there, Trendy. While there’s no question that keeping in touch with one’s own sense of “what is good” has tremendous value, sometimes one’s compass can get thrown off, if you know what I mean. It’s not that there is necessarily a right and wrong with regard to framing, but there is definitely a sense of what has proven effective in cinema and what has not. And sometimes the techniques that work best are in conflict with gut feeling. (Gut feeling can be trained, of course, and probably should be to some extent)
The example I’ll use is this off center framing practice. Coming at machinima from a gamer’s perspective, first or third person shooters and so on, having a character centered on screen was the aesthetic I was used to and what “felt” right because my own experience with games exceeded my experience with making film. So once I learned some more about the language of the camera in film, I had to - for quite awhile - forcibly make myself knock things off center even though it went against those “instincts.” I think we all probably have to do that from time to time, in film and elsewhere. And once I’d done that, then I found a place of value for the centered shot within the new context of a larger language (i.e. better camera “vocabulary”).
So yes, trusting yourself is imperative, but making it an informed trust is even better.
Comment by Overman — September 5, 2008 @ 10:08 am