Framing the Picture

A well framed shot tells a story and is a pleasure to behold. Poor framing can be distracting, and make you miss what’s actually going on. The adage here is “if it looks good, it is good, if it looks bad, it’s bad.”

A lot of what looks good on the screen is subjective. But like focus and lens choice, there are minimum requirements in order to make a good shot.

Don’t let the action take place on the edge of shot. There is nothing worse than seeing half of an event happening on one side of the screen. Pan to the action as soon as possible and keep it center. Use a wide angle lens to capture as much of the scene as possible. You can add depth to a wide shot by placing something in the foreground. This can often be taken care of for you if shooting outside, whereas the careful placement of a household object or plant can add depth indoors.

It can also add depth to a shot if you shoot through a feature like a window, blowing leaves or something. Or think about changing the height or angle of the shot. Shooting from an elevation can add a completely different perspective to the frame. Be careful when changing the angle as it can be distracting. If you do shoot like that, make the angle enough that it is clearly deliberate and won’t be mistaken to sloppy camerawork!

Use a telephoto lens if you want to isolate something, or someone. Picking out a face in a crowd or an animal in the bush is best achieved with them in the center of shot and focused in on the subject.

Use a tight lens in an interview and have the camera at eye height, as near to the interviewer as possible. When the subject talks to the interviewer they will be looking close to the camera, or just “off-camera.” Leave some “looking room” at the edge of shot in order to allow the subject to look across the frame. Balance this by tightening up on them if there is nothing else interesting in the room, or going on around them.

If the interviewee is animated loosen the shot a bit to stop you having to refocus all the time. It will also prevent you losing them on the edge of frame. All interviews should be center frame if recording in 16:9 and they may get cut off in 4:3.

By bearing in mind what’s going to happen to the shoot once you have finished with it, before you even start you can ensure all your own shots are spot on. For example if you’re filming in 16:9 but know that it may be cut back to 4:3 then you need to frame accordingly. Not having subjects or action at the edge of frame will help a lot because the edge of frame may be trimmed during the conversion.

Framing is an art form and comes with experience, bearing these points in mind should help you a lot when making your own video productions.