Grammar of the Shot, 4th Edition

Chapter Two The Basics of Composition

 

• Headroom

• Shooting Style: Subjective versus Objective

• Look Room/Nose Room

• The Rule of Thirds

• Camera Angles

• The Two-Shot

• The Over-the-Shoulder Shot

• The Power Dynamic Two-Shot

• The Three-Shot/Group Shots

Composition, as we are applying the term, is the purposeful arrangement of artistic parts selected for the “art form” being practiced. You can compose notes in music, steps in a dance routine, figures in a painting, elements on a web page, subjects within a film frame, etc.

Now that we understand how basic shots pictorially cover persons, actions, or events of varying magnitude/proximity, we have to look at how you can fill that frame with objects and information – meaning where, specifically, ...