Camera Framing and Positioning

RULE OF THIRDS

The Rule of Thirds is a compositional rule used in visual arts which consists of dividing the frame into 9 equal parts.  It is used as a guide in which main compositional elements are placed along its intersections presenting the shot in a far more interesting manner.  The rule is applied to the subject by placing it along the guide lines and the intersection points; lessening the placement of a subject in the centre of a frame.  If filming or photographing people; they're usually placed lined up with the vertical line with the eyes at the intersecting point or the horizontal line.

  The Rule of Thirds guide - Subject's don't necessarily have to intercept with these points in the shots; it depends on the type of shot being produced. 

(source: Google images) Eg.  

FRAMING HEIGHTS AND COMPOSITION

Positioning and cropping a subject within a frame is crucial to a shot in building the tension and focusing on relevant aspects of a subject.  It presents the mise-en-scene and portrays certain aspects for the audience such as the location or a characters facial expressions in order to convey certain emotions.  There are 3 main common mistakes that are made with a subjects composition; the first being too much dead space left above the subjects head.  Too much 'dead space' can be irrelevant to the scene and doesn't present certain aspects that may need to be portrayed in the mise-en-scene.  Another common mistake is that too little space is left resulting in a lot of the subjects head that should be on view is clipped off; this is advisable for a close up shot yet does not work on a medium shot.  Sometimes; a subjects limbs are cut off if not framed right and this also doesn't look good in the shot and is not good for the viewers point of view of the actor.

Subject composition and framing are very crucial in a shot in portraying the certain message to an audience.  If there is an extreme close-up for example on a subject it may suggest how this is an important aspect of a scene- and should be focused on and highlighted.

Acronyms for framing 

ECU – Extreme close-up

MCU – Medium close-up

CU – Close-up

MS – Medium shot

WS – Wide shot

LS – Long shot

ELS – Extreme long shot

BG – Background

FG – Foreground

OTS – Over the shoulder

POV – Point of view