Learning Event 5:
DESCRIBE CAMERA SKILLS AND PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
1. Composition is the creative arrangement of the subject, objects, and
action. Good composition will stimulate a positive viewer response. It is an
artistic blending of shape, forms, and patterns. Composition is the heart of
production techniques. Composition, good composition, should give the scene an
emphasis and should manipulate viewer response. You as director cameraman need
to train your eyes and mind to work together to evaluate your scene's
composition. Why should it be necessary to arrange the subject or objects in a
picture? Why not point the camera in the general direction of the action? The
explanation is this: once a frame has been placed around a scene, it matters
very much how the subjects/objects of that scene are arranged within the frame.
a. There is a main point of interest in every picture. If the picture is
not composed, the eye is distracted from this center of interest. There goes
the audience interest.
If a picture is correctly composed, it is balanced.
There are no disturbing empty spaces and the eye does not have to wander over
the scene looking for a focal point. There are no hard and fast rules that
apply to something as creative as composition. What is good composition to one
person may not appeal to another.
However, there are classic guidelines.
Strict devotion to these guidelines would result in stereotype camera style.
Combine these principles with ingenuity and expression, and the results will be
creative and stunning. Artistic composition is improved when you develop your
ability to observe. The following are guiding principles to help you develop
an eye for good composition:
1.
Illusion of depth
2.
Movements
3.
4.
Balance
5.
Lines
6.
Forms
7.
Mass
The cameraman should master these principles of composition.
b. An important principle of composition is achieving the illusion of
depth. The television screen has a horizontal format. That means the screen
is 3 units high to 4 units wide. It is wider than it is high, i.e., the format
is horizontal as opposed to vertical. The TV screen has no depth, only height
and width.
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