Composition In Media

Depth of field (Deep/Shallow focus): refers to the range of distances from the camera at which acceptably sharp focus can be obtained.

-Shallow focus (Shallow depth of field) = when an object in the foreground is in sharp (non-blurry) focus, whereas everything in the background is blurred.

- Shallow depth of field is commonly used by directors to pull attention to a certain object that is important to the plot; for instance, Christopher Nolan uses shallow depth of field to focus on the spin top in 'Inception'.

-Deep focus (depth of field) = when the background is in focus and the foreground is out of focus.

-Deep focus is used commonly to make a character look out of place or isolated to everyone else.

180 Degree Rule / 30 Degree Rule: In film making, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. By keeping the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, the first character is always frame right of the second character.

-Prominently used when two characters are having a conversation. Allows the audience to remain focus on both characters at the same time.

Rule of Thirds: The concept of dividing a frame into nine separate boxes to act as an aid in framing a shot (as shown in the image below).

-The Rule of Thirds comes into play predominately when a character is featured on screen. If used properly, the focal point of the frame should be slightly off centre (precisely 1/3 or 2/3 across the screen) and the eye line (if a character) should be 1/3 down the screen. The image above shows this perfectly.

-Directors use this to draw the audiences attention to the composition of the frame rather than just staring at the centre. However, some experienced directors brake this rule to spark the interest of the audience.

-In certain cases the rule of thirds can be used to space out characters equally by only using the vertical lines (below

-Similarly, Rule of Thirds can be used in establishing shots to create an equal distance between the ground, focus point, and sky (below). This creates balance in your frames.

Symmetry: Most commonly known from films such as 'The Shinning', ' and 'A Clockwork Orange', Symmetry is when the proportions of a frame are perfectly equal.

-Symmetry is used in many films to create a sense of creepiness; it does this due to the unnatural perfectness (above). In contrast, some directors use Symmetry for comedic value (below).

From this list of different uses of composition symmetry is by far my favourite, probably because its used in many of my favourite films. Anyway, there you go. A little crash course in composition.