Further Cinematography

Framing, The Rule of Thirds and Depth of Field

Framing• Character position within a frame can

say a lot about their status, power and personality.

• Because we read from left to right characters who, usually, occupy screen left or are positioned centrally are seen as the most dominant character at that moment in time. The same rule applies to characters who are positioned higher in the frame.

Watch the following clip from the Inbetweeners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3cXbrk4aIs&feature=channel

Discuss the status of the characters in shots that follow

• Furthermore framing can be open or closed.• In an open frame the character will be

surrounded by a lot of open space, possibly suggesting that the character is free, whilst if the frame is closed the character will be boxed in, prompting feelings of entrapment.

Closed framing – character appears boxed into the frame

Open framing – it’s easy to imagine what is beyond the frame

The Rule of Thirds

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.

Eyeline can help to convey the emotions of a character and their psychological state of mind, their status and power and finally their relationship with the viewer (encouraging or discouraging identification and empathy)

Notice the range of emotion the following clip. How do Framing, eyeline and distance work together to generate meaning?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M3moEeErr8&feature=related

Depth of Field• DOF is how sharp images are within a

frame. The frame for this purpose can be divided into the foreground, middle ground and background.

FG MG BG

• TV dramas usually adopt a standard depth of field (FG & MG sharp) or deep focus where everything in the frame (FG, MG & BG) is sharp and in focus. Doing this allows the viewer to register everything in the frame as important in the process of making meaning.

• However, on occasions a shallow dof may be adopted where only the FG is sharp, focussing the viewers attention on something particular.

Standard focus as the flowers in the BG are slightly out of focus.

Shallow focus making the flowers the main focal point and ensuring that the viewers attention is focussed on them

Notice the subtle use of depth of field in the following clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnSW2a_H80&feature=channel

Extension Task

• Follow up this presentation by making more detailed notes from the following source.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematography#Aspect_ratio_and_framing

• Then locate clips of British TV dramas from you tube and practice, individually, cinematographic textual analysis by making detailed notes.