Film Making Tips 101: The Rule of Thirds

A well known method but still relevant. Mentally divide your frame into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. The subject you’re filming should fall along one of the four points where the lines end up crossing.

Examples:

Falling within these settings isn’t something you have to do, but it works well and our attention is pointed towards it. If you don’t follow the rule, there tends to be some time where the viewer will browse the frame before locating what you’re trying to show. This can work, it also may not. Bear this in mind when you’re composing your frame.

Leading Looks

The positioning of a subject within a frame is extremely important as well. If you take a look beneath, the photo is quite awkward.

Being centered hasn’t worked for this image, but if the subject is a little further towards one side, framing the subject differently, it works considerably better.

Balance

It’s important to try to make your frame seem balanced and have the viewer take in what you’re trying to show with a sense of ease.

If a frame is empty on one side and all that we can see is something on the opposite side, bulky and unbalanced, we feel uneasy.

If the frame is adjusted like this, it becomes less imposing.

The main concern is that you want the image to look a certain way. You want the depth perception to be what’s within your vision.

Colours

Bright colours attract the viewer’s eye such as red, white, yellow etc. You don’t want them to concentrate on the colour (or maybe you do, if you do, disregard this) and so if you have a duller colour with the subject you’re trying to capture standing out, your viewer’s eyes will gravitate towards them. You have to try to balance out the frame though with a colour contrast that fits.