Composition Techniques

The four main composition techniques are rule of thirds, framing, unusual angles and leading lines. The rule of thirds is when you break down the shot into nine equal parts that form a grid with three horizontal and three vertical lines. You then find the most interesting part of your subject that you want to focus on and position the camera so the part you want to focus on is at one of four points on your grid. Framing is when you draw attention to your subject by blocking other parts of the picture with things in the scene creating the effect of a frame. Framing gives your image sense of context, depth and layers. It also tends to lead your viewers eyes to the main focal point. One other thing framing does is it intrigues your viewer. Unusual angles are when you make the image more interesting by changing the angle you're shooting the picture from. A variety of perspective is always a good thing. Some ideas for new perspectives are lying or crouching in front of the subject, or going for a birds-eye-view. Leading lines are lines that can be found in the image that can add a dynamic impact and change the overall mood of the image. Leading lines, like framing, tend to draw your viewers eye to the main focal subject, if the subject is at the end of the lines.

Three Shot Sequences

Three shot sequences are an important part of great visual story telling. They make the video much more visually appealing. They also have technical benefits such as the fact that they promote continuity. Also, sequencing compresses shot time, so your video isn't too long. They will also make your video more professional looking.

To make good three shot sequences you should use a variety of different angles and shot types. Sequencing can make a long boring shot into a shorter more interesting one. Also, in just one continuous shot it can be hard to see whats going on. A sequence will take you from seeing the entire frame to seeing just one detail. Sequences are key in making your video appealing and interesting while it still makes sense.

An example of a three shot sequence could be a wide establishing shot, then a cut in to a medium so you see the subject better, and then a close up to get a better view of all the little details. In our video "Kaya Drinks Water" we start out with a wide establishing shot of Kaya sitting in the grass holding a water bottle. Then we cut to a medium shot of her beginning to open the bottle. There is much less distracting the viewer from looking at Kaya in this shot, compared to the previous one. After the medium shot we cut in even farther to a close up shot of her actually drinking from the bottle, in this shot all you see is Kaya the water bottle, and the background.

Practice Story Reflection

We were assigned a project in which we had to interview a person and film b-roll to go along with what the interviewee said. My team's story was "Audrey Practices Painting". We had one day to shoot b-roll and one day to shoot the interview. Then we had to transcribe our interview word for word onto a document and plan out transitions the narrator would say to make the story flow.We had two days to film the narration and edit the videos.

In the beginning we had some problems because
 we couldn't come up with a story. When we had to film our b-roll and interview, though we worked really good and got back to class in time to import everything. Editing wasn't hard either, but we didn't have enough interview footage to make our video a minute long. We added an intro-screen and to add b-roll without interview to make the video longer. We didn't finish on time, so we turned it in a couple minutes late.

We could have improved a lot of things. For one, we could have made our interview longer and worded the answers so it's easier to edit. Also, we could've had more creative shots when we were filming b-roll. Communication would've helped us a lot because we just did one thing at a time with one person working and the others sitting around. I think, with the time we had we did an ok job.