Storytelling Through Composition

Visual Composition

As a director of photography i need to analyse films that show excellently visually a story, that even without the support of the script give the audience a clear image of what is going on throughout.

A fantastic example i found is The Division of Gravity - A short film directed by Rob Chiu. "A young man and woman feel the strain on a once loving relationship, with neither coming to realise what they have lost until it is too late." With gorgeous cinematography and moving performances, you are taken on the journey with the characters from the beginning of a relationship all the way to the bitter end.




The Visual Story:

1) - In the beginning everything is happy, they are always together and in love. There is obviously lots of kissing which is symbolic but the composition itself always leads the eye to the couple who are always together.

2) - Something starts to go wrong, loneliness is portrayed. The balance that was initially shown has gone, an emptiness in the frames becomes apparent and the shots feel like they are a bit off and missing something.

3) - A gap is created. The couple are growing apart emotionally and mentally. There is always a visual element in between the couple, showing the separation between them. This is extremely clever composition and strong imagery.

4) - The Breakup and Division. The first screenshot shows the complete contrast in characters feelings to the very first screenshot in the same setting, the perspective now looking down and lighting gloomy and murky. Each character is now alone and a space is always left beside them.

5) - The aftermath. The two both go through a reflecting period which is symbolically shown with their reflections.

This whole film contains what is referred to as 'Visual Metaphors'. As written in Cinematography Theory and Practice by Blain Brown:

"One of the most important tools as filmmakers is visual metaphor, which is the ability to convey a meaning in addition to their straightforward reality. Think of it as "reading between the lines" visually. In some films, things are simply what they are. In others, however, many images carry an implied meaning that can be a powerful storytelling tool." As we see above and as previously mentioned, the whole story is lead by a strong visual story that gives the literal meaning to the metaphor being shown in each for the characters.

Framing and movement has so much play in the storytelling through composition. A short example i found was from the film Birthday by Pietro Malegori:



This shows the story of a man and a woman, once parents, mourning the death of their son on the day of his birthday. There is no dialogue and the story is not very strong however we see beautiful composition throughout the short piece with the camera movement always moving in or sliding across to reveal more of the image. We definitely get the feeling of separation and loneliness from the couple with the empty space that is left beside them when it feels like something should be there. Also there is a lot of central framing, this feels very dramatic and shows you that they truly are the only one person, they are very lifeless in their motions and all the colours are very desaturated. The camera movements are constantly 'pulling us in' to try and build a connection and understand what is going on. Whilst i do not feel this is as strong as the example above i really enjoyed the framing in this and is an excellent example of how to make your visuals pleasing to the audience and create a strong presence on screen with the characters.

"Many of these still shots could be hanging in a gallery somewhere, in fact, this entire film as a piece could fit well in a gallery setting. The dolly moves in particular pulled me in. Each time the camera got a bit closer to the characters, I leaned in a little more, and paid a little more attention to the faces and the emotions of the two characters. There is always the opportunity to be heavy handed with these types of films, but even without any dialogue, I was fully engaged in the story. Being able to tell a story without dialogue also means it can mean more to a wider audience. If you don't have to worry about subtitles and different languages, it lets the universal emotions affect the viewer rather than the delivery of the lines." - Joe Marine

The Rules of Composition:

Looking at the examples above it is quite apparent that there is a certain structure of framing being followed which is always very aesthetically pleasing to look at. Composition rules and conventions are older than cinema and photography. Most of the concepts in this page have been used for hundreds of years in painting. Filmmakers and photographers have borrowed many techniques from painters and used them as a springboard for new ideas and practices.

Lead Room - If a character is looking frame left, then he should be positioned frame right. This makes the framing comfortable because the subject is looking at the open space in front of him. This open space is called lead room or lead space.

Rule of Thirds - Another basic composition notion is the Rule of Thirds. The basis of the rule is that a visual composition is most pleasing to the eye when its compositional elements conform to an imaginary set of lines that divide the frame into equal thirds, both horizontally and vertically and stems from the theory that the human eye naturally gravitates to intersectional points when the image is split into thirds. So basically aim to always frame on these spots and avoid the centre frame.

(Example of The Rule of Thirds in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)


Symmetry and centre frame - Though it is not best advised to have symmetry in shots and centre frame because of the psychological effect is has on the audience and not fitting with the rule of thirds, when executed will and used for a particular purpose, symmetry and centre framing can work well as shown by these two examples from Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick: