a simple dialogue scene. Things you should avoid and aim for when deciding on the framing,

angles and lens choices. Here is a simple scene where two people are

having a conversation. The simplest and most common way to film a scene like that is with

3 camera angles. A wide shot that frames both of our subjects, and two over the shoulder

shots that move in a bit closer for each of the subjects.

Now as simple as this 3 camera setup is, I still very often see people make the most

basic of mistakes when setting it up… All because they either never learned the fundamentals

of good cinematography or because they forget it the second they’re on location. It’s

real good to know the theory but if you don’t ever remind yourself to apply it when actually

setting up your scenes then it’s useless. Some of the things I see people forget most

often is the rule of thirds. If you don’t know it then let me quickly explain it. Rule

of thirds is simply dividing the screen into 3 equal parts vertically and horizontally,

and using those lines when framing your shots. What that means is that you should frame your

subjects on those lines or in one of the 3rd portions of the screen to avoid putting things

dead center. Like if you have a very clearly visible horizon line, instead of putting the

horizon dead center, it’s best to tilt up or down to have the horizon fall on one of

the lines. This just makes the shot balanced a lot better. Same if you’re framing a person,

if you put the subjects head in the middle like most people do when taking a vacation

photo, then you get this. But if you quickly pan to place the subject on one of the lines

and then tilt to have their head fall on the other line then right away you get a well

balanced shot. AGAIN just because it called the rule of thirds doesn’t mean its an actual

rule you always have to follow. There’s many exceptions where this doesn’t apply,

like if you’re trying to show the importance of your subject and stress the fact that they

are actually the center of attention, in which case you would frame them in the middle like

you see here. This is a shot from a music video I did where I wanted to switch the viewers

attention from the first girl with the umbrella to the homless girl. But even here you see

that I keep her head on the top line, because if I were to keep it completely in the center

then we’d end up with a lot of empty, and pointless space above her head.

Going back to our scene with the two girls talking. A lot of people make a mistake by

framing both subjects dead center in over the shoulder shots like these. The reason

why this doesn’t work is because you end up seeing the back of the head of one of your

subjects. In this type of a shot it’s better to give 2 thirds of the shot to the main subject

by moving the camera over a bit and framing the less important subject in only 1 third

of the frame. And also to pan down so the subjects eyes fall on the top line. This way

we eliminate this empty space above their head. We do the same thing in the other angle.

As you can see It’s a small difference but it makes the shots look a lot more balanced.

Another thing to know before you attempt to setup a scene is what effects you get with

different types of lenses. Like, how depth of field or perspective is affected when using

long, telephoto lenses versus wide angle lenses. You can learn more about that by watching

my previous tutorials. In short though, long lenses such as this

100mm Im using here has a tendency to make your shots look compressed. Things that are

in the background seems larger or closer when compared to your subject and it’s also easy

to hide the surroundings with a long lens, since you’re only showing a small portion

of the background. That way you can make the shots be more about your subjects and not

where they are. As opposed to wide angle lenses such as this 35mm I’m using here. Where

you right away get a sense of where the scene is taking place. The framing of the subjects

doesn’t change here, we still see the girls full frame in both version but the perspective

changes and along with it the mood of the shot. Also when we use the long lenses in

the close up over the shoulder shots it tends to make the two girls look like they’re

a lot closer to each other. Makes the shot feel more intimate since all we really see

are the girls. But if I were to again use the 35mm lens then the shot looks a lot more

relaxed, and natural, since the 35mm lens on a 35mm image sensor more or less matches

the perspective of a human eye. Which is not the case when shooting with a long lens.

So as you can see the lens choice can drastically affect the mood of your shots... but unfortunately

a lot of the times I see people make mistakes where they switch from one angle to another

angle where they use a completely different lens, and because of that they suddenly change

the mood of the scene. Most of the time they are unaware of that, so they’ll keep on

cutting back and forth from one angle that is shot using a long lens to a another angle

that’s shot on a much wider lens which makes the editing and lens choices that much more

obvious because they’re in fact constantly changing the way the scene feels.

So next time you’re filming, if you decide to go for a more relaxed feeling to your scene

then choose a lens that looks that way and stick with it as you change the angles. You

can always reframe your shots from a wide shot to a close up by moving your camera closer

to the subject. It doesn’t mean that you can’t change the lenses from shot to shot

but try to keep them similar. A 35mm lens in one angle and a 50mm lens in another is

a small difference and doesn’t change the mood that much. But 35mm to a 100mm is drastically

different. Another thing to keep in mind when reframing

your shots is to make sure you’re shots are different enough from each other so that

later on when you edit the scene you don’t end up with a jump cut. Jump cuts occur when

you edit two different shots that are actually too similar to each other and end up creating

a noticeable jump from one shot to the other. Something that you want to avoid in most situations.

Like you see here. I cut from a shot of the two girls to a single shot which looks too

similar. I only moved the camera a few feet closer and kept the same lens. But if I were

to move in even closer to the girl creating a noticeably different framing then the cut

works a lot better. Same thing goes if you want to change the angle and not the framing.

Make sure you move your camera to a noticeably different angle so that the two angles cut

well together later on in editing. So in short, next time you’re setting up

your scene remember to pay close attention to the framing. Using the rule of thirds is

a good guide. Also, remember to keep your lens choices consistent

so your scene doesn’t drastically change the mood from one angle to the other.

And finally, remember to make each shot, whether it’s the angle or the framing different

enough from the other shots so you avoid jump cuts later on when you put the scene together

in editing. That’s it! Hope this helps you next time

you’re out there filming. Good luck.