When you’re making a film, the composition of shots is crucial. It helps to tell your story visually and can make your film a more immersive and engaging experience for your audience. This isn’t an exhaustive collection of compositional techniques, but it’s a good starting point to learn more about the subtle and complex art of shot composition.
Here are a bunch of examples to get thinking about how you might use composition in your film.
There are a number of resources you can use to further your understanding of shot composition and improve your use of framing in your own films.
- Books. There are a number of books available that take an in-depth, exhaustive look at cinematography as an art form, including: Film Art, Grammar of the Shot, Master Shots, Master Shots Volume 2, Master Shots Volume 3, Setting Up Your Scenes, Setting Up Your Shots, Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb, The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media, and Film Directing: Shot by Shot.
- Video essays. Thanks to YouTube and Vimeo there are dozens of people producing video essays that take an in-depth look at film, television and visual story telling. Prominent video essayists include Tony Zhou, Raccord, Steve Benedict, Nerdwriter and Sean McDougall.
- Supercuts. If you’re interested in finding out more about a particular technique or director, it’s always worthwhile exploring YouTube and Vimeo for supercuts. Whether its actors standing with their backs to camera or Kubrick’s use of one point perspective, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a supercut of that compositional technique you’re interested in. This is often a quick way to develop an understanding of how this technique has been used throughout film history.
- Screencaps. Thanks largely to the effort of film buffs across the globe, there are dozens of sites that feature screen shots from films and television programs. These are a good way to isolate particular shots and think about how they function within a particular scene.
- Films. Of course, one of the best ways to understand how shot composition works is to study shot composition in one of your favourite films. Select a scene, make a list of all the shots the director has used and how the scene progresses from one shot to the next.
Check out this archive dedicated to shot composition to find out more.