Composition Exercise

This week we had a go at shooting a short film, focusing on composition. The film was based on someone waiting for another person, them having a short conversation, then them both walking off with each other up the stairs.


While shooting most of the time we filmed using the golden mean which means splitting the screen into 9 boxes, commonly known as the rule of thirds. We feel we have took to the rule reasonably well with a few exceptions where we feel we could improve our work if we shot it again.


Another key point whilst thinking about composition is looking at the amount of headroom above the actors head. We had to make sure there was enough room, but not too much as if there was a large amount the viewer would be drawn to the space above his head, rather that the actor himself. If we could do this again, I think we would as on a few shots we have left a bit too much room and the viewer immediately spotted this and pointed it out.


In our short film we had to think about giving the actors lead room to walk into or talk into. We think we have given enough lead room for the actors whilst not having too much as it would appear to the viewer as 'dead' space.


When we came to editing the film we realised that we hadn't shot a clip which was necessary to make the clip flow. If we would have shot this, it would have improved our short film, whilst thinking about composition.