5
Visual design
Introduction
An unbalanced composition appears accidental and incomplete. There is no structure to the image and any part of the frame could be masked with no loss of meaning. There is insufficient arrangement of shapes to assist in grasping the reason for the image. It is ambiguous and unable to hold visual attention beyond the initial search for understanding.
Figure 5.1 Changing size relationships in the frame is a simple way of eliminating competing visual interest (a). Moving the camera left and either changing lens angle or camera distance will establish one subject's dominance in the composition (b)
This style of ‘non-composition', although sometimes used in alternative technique productions, is seldom the preferred practice in mainstream broadcasting and film making where it is customary, when framing up a shot, to employ various visual design techniques to emphasize one aspect of picture content. This may be one person amongst a group or one object amongst a number of objects.
The need to guide the attention of the audience is usually part of the overall aim of a production which, by selectively structuring its material, communicates the intended meaning. Composition is part of filmmaking technique employed to solve the perennial questions of what does the audience need to know, how will they be told and at what point in the production should they be told?
Visual design is another way of describing this process. It is the selection and control of a number of competing elements for the audience's attention within the frame. A shot of a railway terminus, for example, may provide information about train times, train types or feature a perplexed traveller who has lost his luggage, as well as the main storytelling reason for the shot, which may be to show that a railway employee is carrying a gun. Apart from this essential element, the rest of the visual information is superfluous to the storyline and must be subdued or eliminated. How the shot is set up will reveal the film maker's priorities but frequently the audience's interest in the location or setting will intrude and compete with the main subject unless all competing visual elements are unobtrusive.
One of the aims of good composition is to find and emphasize structural patterns that the mind/eye can easily grasp. One of the problems in compiling a ‘flow chart’ of how the mind perceives an image is the speed at which the perceptual process functions. There are rarely discrete steps that can be listed in order, as frequently the mind/eye instantaneously uses all the component parts of perception to grasp the relevance of an image. The speed at which visual information is absorbed and often unconsciously acted upon is an everyday activity. Visual deductions, evaluations and decisions flow through the mind/eye at a rapid rate without pause to consciously analyse or deliberate on the continually changing visual ‘cacophony'. Television and film images frequently have the same complexity. The difficulty in describing how effective composition works is that no one ingredient acts in isolation. Each of the different groupings by shape, light/dark contrasts, line, colour, etc., can be individually part of perception or they can, depending on the content of the shot, be the dominant element.
It is worth stressing the flexible nature of composition ‘rules’ for film and television productions before we discuss the variety of visual design techniques that can be employed Think of the various visual design components as a list of cooking ingredients that can be combined in numerous different recipes. What ingredients are used will depend on what meal is being cooked. All of the visual design ‘ingredients’ cannot be used in the same shot.
There is also the compositional effect of pleasing the eye. Should all shots be aesthetically pleasing? Should slum shots be beautifully composed? Obviously every shot need not be a ‘Rembrandt’ but essentially it should be subservient to the overall purpose of the production. Like any aspect of invisible technique, if a shot is so striking that it disrupts the flow of images, it may draw attention to itself and defeat its main purpose of advancing the story or factual explanation. A visually dynamic shot is sometimes deliberately placed by the director (for example the shots of Monumental Valley in a John Ford western), to create atmosphere or location identity.
Two aspects of a film/TV production often dominate and cancel the deployment of any visual design principles. Movement takes precedence over compositional balance and also sound will frequently direct attention to a part of the frame and create atmosphere and space beyond the visual aspects of the shot. However effective a composition is in emphasizing the principal subject in the frame, movement or sound will often distract attention and override the visual design of the shot.
The ‘movies’ have always emphasized this unique selling point. By staging spectacular action, and by means of story structure, camerawork and editing, the audience is given a roller-coaster ride of nonstop movement. Even news camerawork often gives a priority to movement over a static frame.
Movement
There are many visual design generalizations that can be applied to art, photography, graphics, film and television compositions but with one significant and influential exception; as well as considerations of space, tone, mass, colour and line when creating an image, film and TV compositions also have to accommodate movement. Human perception is invariably attracted by movement. At one stage in human history, survival may have relied on instantly being aware of change in the environment and movement indicates change. It may have tilted the balance between successfully gathering food or being ‘gathered’ as food by a predator.
In many ways this is an advantage, as movement is a strong attention grabber. Film and TV images can hold the audience's attention simply by movement, but there is a compositional price to pay. A well composed static shot is easily unbalanced by subject or camera movement. Either attention is switched to the element in motion or the frame becomes unbalanced.
Camera and subject movement interact and there are customary ways of dealing with the compositional problems this involves. Through long experience, film and TV practitioners have evolved a number of visual conventions to accommodate and to maximize the value of movement within the frame. These techniques are discussed in Chapter 16, ‘Movement'.
Frequently a shot will have to be set up for a constantly changing image pattern. All the following comments about the variety of visual design techniques available should be read with the understanding that movement will always interact and upset the dynamics of a static composition.
There is a further composition distinction between how movement can be dealt with in the separate shot technique of film and video productions and the limitation imposed by multicamera ‘real time’ television productions. This latter type of programme has to deal with movement as it occurs with no opportunity to smooth out compositional difficulties that occur from shot to shot in the timescale of the action. With thought and subtle editing technique, movement can be rearranged in the ‘screen time’ of the single shot film/video technique to eliminate distracting movement between shots and still maintain continuity.
In multicamera ‘real time’ productions, for example, every step and every arm movement will remain through succeeding shots only modified by the director's ability to stage movement of camera and artistes to avoid the most conspicuous disruption. In film, an actor can leave shot and can be cut to immediately in the following shot seven paces away. In multicamera productions every step has to be accommodated in the camera coverage.
In general, movement within the frame usually takes precedence over all other compositional devices in attracting attention.
Sound
Dialogue or other elements of a soundtrack will often control which subject in a frame is dominant, overriding any visual balance/compositional design of a shot. The design of a soundtrack is a large subject, comparable with composition. Sound and pictures complement each other and the influence of sound on how an audience will understand an image must often be taken into consideration when framing up a shot.
It is a well-worn truism that radio drama has the best pictures. Sound so often breaks the boundaries of the literalism of images. With many images there is no added value to the depiction of the subject. Sound is frequently a much more creative medium than image, working on the senses without being obvious. Sound can achieve very strong effects and yet remain quite unnoticeable. The production contribution of sound is usually the most unobtrusive and difficult for the audience to evaluate – until it is badly done. Visual awareness appears to take precedence over audible awareness and yet intelligibility, space and atmosphere are often created by sound. The selection and treatment of audio shapes our perception and can be used to focus our attention just as effectively as the selection of images. It therefore needs as much thought and technique as the equivalent camerawork technique of structuring and framing shots for editing.
A soundtrack foghorn, a church bell or a car driving away off-screen can save a great deal of footage that would otherwise be needed to create the required information or atmosphere. The opposite is the case in actuality coverage where an intrusive out-of-frame sound, for example, of children, animals or traffic, is swamping an interview. An additional shot may be required to inform the audience of the source of the problem in order for it to become partially acceptable. Sound, like movement, will nearly always take precedence over visual design.
Controlling composition
There may be a number of reasons why the composition of a shot needs to be organized. These include:
a need to direct the audience's attention to one part of the frame in order to emphasize one important element, e.g., one person within a group or one feature of a complex subject;
a production need to compose a shot that will create atmosphere, mood or a location identity;
to provide essential or new information.
Figure 5.2 Perceptual grouping by size and proximity can emphasize the ‘odd one out’ that does not fit the pattern. This is a straight-forward compositional method of emphasizing the main subject in the frame
Primary decisions
To achieve any one of these objectives, the first consideration is to decide the position of the lens in relation to the subject. The choice of lens position will determine:
Camera angle: camera angle describes the camera's position relative to the subject. A three-dimensional subject will display different facets of its design according to the viewpoint of its observer. Moving the camera's position left or right, up or down, will substantially change the appearance of the image.
Lens angle: varying the angle of view of the lens includes or excludes additional information. It can magnify subject size and emphasize the principle subject.
Camera distance: the distance of the lens from the principle subject controls the linear perspective of the shot and this can have a significant influence on composition through the variation in converging lines. Often the camera distance and the lens angle are adjusted simultaneously to produce changes to size relationships in shot.
Camera height: changing the height of the camera alters the relationship between foreground and background. A low camera height emphasizes foreground and condenses or eliminates receding horizontal planes. A high camera position allows a ‘plan view’ and shows position relationships over a wide area. There is also a subjective aspect of lens height that influences how the image is perceived.
Camera tilt: camera tilt is often used in combination with lens height and shifts the horizon (real or unseen) in the frame and adds emphasis to ground or sky.
Frame or aspect ratio (see Chapter 6), subject in focus and depth-of-field will also have a significant effect on visual design and are discussed later.
Control of composition
Control of composition is achieved by the ability to choose the appropriate camera technique such as viewpoint, focal length of lens, lighting and exposure, in addition to employing a range of visual design elements such as balance, colour contrast, perspective of mass/line, etc.
A well designed composition is one in which the visual elements have either been selectively included or excluded. The visual components of the composition must be organized to engage the viewer's attention. A starting point, as mentioned in Chapter 1, is often to follow the old advice to simplify by elimination, and to reduce to essentials in order to create an image that has strength and clarity.
Emphasizing the most important element
Composition involves drawing attention to the main subject and then making it meaningful, but often a shot can be selected on a visual decision that ignores all but one part of the image. The poor compositional relationship between this area and the total frame may only become apparent after the event has been recorded. One of the more obvious mistakes therefore is not to see the whole picture but only that part which has initially attracted interest.
There is a puzzling piece of advice about camerawork that urges all students to ‘Look before you see'. In essence this simply means to look at the overall image, and at its underlying pattern, before concentrating too much on the main subject. Developing a photographic eye is giving attention to all visual elements within the field of view and not simply selecting those elements that initially attract attention. With experience comes the ability to visualize the appearance of a shot wherever the lens is positioned, without the need to continually move the camera in order to look through the viewfinder to see what the shot will look like. Before deciding camera position, lens angle, framing, etc., it is worth considering the following questions:
What is the purpose of the shot?
Is the shot fact or feeling? Will the image attempt to be factual and objective and allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions or is it the intention to persuade or create an atmosphere by careful selection?
In what context will the shot be seen? What precedes – what follows?
What will be the most important visual element in the shot?
Figure 5.3
The best viewpoint is the lens position in space that emphasizes the main subject. Make certain that the eye is attracted to the part of the frame that is significant and avoid conflict with other elements in the frame.
Check:
that the purpose of the shot is understood;
that the main subject is identified;
that the camera parameters (lens position, angle, height, etc.) emphasize the principal interest;
that any leading lines point to the main subject;
that any supporting visual interest within the frame maximizes its support for the main subject and use framing and lens position to eliminate or subdue competing areas of interest;
that the dominant interest is offset and balance this with less important elements;
that attention is kept within the picture space and avoid placing principal information in the corner of the frame;
if the image can be simplified by reducing to essentials.
Design techniques
In addition to the choice of the lens position, there are a number of visual design techniques that can be applied to a subject or subjects that will allow the cameraman to control the attention of the viewer. Showing the audience where to look is a significant part of framing a shot. This can be achieved by:
grouping and organization
similarity by proximity
similarity of size
similarity by closure
similarity of colour
visual weight.
Figure 5.4 Wherever it is practical, it is better to arrange the subjects in a shot so that they are linked by grouping and organization. The scattered five dots on the side of a dice are instantly seen as ‘5’ if they are arranged in a pattern. The pattern need not be as geometrically rigid as (b) but loosely form part of a shape that the eye can easily perceive
Grouping and organization
A useful characteristic when setting up a shot is the perceptual tendency to group and organize items together to form a cluster of shapes to make up a total image that can be fully comprehended in one attentive act. Some elements are grouped together because they are close to each other. Others are bound together because they are similar in size, direction or shape.
'Seeing’ is not simply a mechanical recording by the eye. Understanding the nature of an image is initially accomplished by the perceptual grouping of significant structural patterns. One of the aims of good composition is to find and emphasize structural patterns that the mind/eye can easily grasp.
One theory that attempts to explain the brain/eye's tendency to group and simplify, is that the images formed by the lenses of the eyes are picked up point by point by millions of small receptor organs that are largely isolated from each other. Rudolph Arnheim in Art and Visual Perception (1967) suggests that the brain, at the receiving end of a mosaic of millions of individual messages, pieces them together by the rules of similarity and simplicity. Similar size, direction of movement or shape are instantly grouped together and a complex image can then be understood by a few clusters of shapes.
Composition must therefore aim to create a unifying relationship between the visual elements of an image in order to feed the perceptual system with patterns that can be easily assimilated by the observer.
Similarity by proximity
Grouping objects together because they are near to each other in the frame is the simplest method of visual organization. One of mankind's oldest examples of perceptual grouping is probably the patterns imposed on isolated and unconnected stars to form the signs of the zodiac (see Figure 5.4). Grouping a foreground and a background object by proximity can achieve a coherent design in a composition.
Figure 5.5 From Language of Vision, Gyorgy Kepes (1961)
Proximity of objects in the frame can also create relationships that are unwanted (e.g., the example of objects behind people's heads that appear on the screen as ‘head wear').
Similarity of size
Same size objects in a frame will be grouped together to form one shape or pattern. The most common example of this principle is the grouping and staging of crowd scenes.
This grouping by size and proximity can be used in a reverse way to emphasize one person in a crowd scene by isolating the individual so that they cannot be visually grouped with the crowd (Figure 5.2).
Because of the assumed similarity of size between individual people, staging people in the foreground and in the background of a shot allows visual unity in the perception of similar shapes and also an effective impression of depth indicated by the diminished image size of the background figure.
Similarity by closure
Searching for coherent shapes in a complex image, human perception will look for and, if necessary, create simple shapes. The more consistent the shape of a group of visual elements the more easily it can be detached from a confusing background. Straight lines will be continued by visual projection (see Figure 3.4), curved lines that almost form a circle will be mentally completed.
A popular use of this principle is the high angle shot looking down on a seething crowd moving in one direction whilst the principal figure makes a desperate journey through the crowd in the opposite direction. We are able to keep our attention on the figure because of the opposing movements and also because we mentally project their straight-line movement through the crowd. The principal figure would soon be absorbed within the crowd if they frequently changed direction.
Similarity of colour
Objects grouped by colour is another effective method of compositional organization. Uniforms and a team's sportswear are linked together even if they are scattered across the frame. Identically coloured dance costumes for the chorus in musicals are used to structure movement and to emphasize the principals dressed in a contrasting colour scheme. But the opposite can also be effective. In a dance sequence in ‘Top Hat’ (1935), Fred Astaire in white tie and tails is backed by a chorus of identically costumed male dancers. Their unity as a group is held together by proximity, size and lighting. His separation and emphasis is achieved by being in the foreground and therefore a more dominant figure and by choreography which emphasizes the principal dancer.
Figure 5.6 (I) Symmetrical balance; (2) balance by mass; (3) stable figure; (4) unstable figure
Figure 5.7 A square-on two shot with equal emphasis, but one person can dominate by dialogue, positioning, lighting, etc. ('Breathless', 1959, dir. Jean-Luc Goddard)
Balance
Because of the effect of perceptual ‘reorganization', no visual element can exist in isolation within the frame. Within the act of perception, the eye/mind groups and forms relationships of the shapes it has organized (see Figure 3.4).
One relationship is balance: the relative visual weight of one clump of visual elements compared with another and their individual relationships to the whole.
A technological definition of balance is the state of a body in which the forces that act upon it compensate each other. Camera operators will know that when they mount a large lens on the camera there is the need to pull the body of the camera back on the pan/tilt head until the point of balance has been achieved – the seesaw principle where a small child at the extreme end can be balanced by an adult sitting opposite but much closer to the pivot point. There is also another aspect of balance connected with a combined group of objects such as lens, matte box, camera, pan bar, viewfinder, etc., which is connected to their overall centre of gravity and the physical position of that point of balance. This is the centre of balance of the combined mass.
Balance in a composition is distributing the visual elements across the frame so that a state of equilibrium is achieved for the whole. Equilibrium need not mean at rest for, as in the seesaw analogy, balance can still allow movement and therefore visual interest.
As with a camera mass, a visual pattern has a centre around which the visual elements are grouped. The pivot point need not be and frequently is not the centre of the frame. Balance can be achieved by visual weight determined by size, shape (a regular shape is heavier than an irregular shape), colour, light/dark relationships, isolation of a pictorial element, direction and the intrinsic interest of content. For example, the observer's wishes and fears induced by the image may outweigh any perceptual considerations of balance. For many people, a snake moving in any part of the frame will capture their attention irrespective of any other compositional design. Pictorial balance is often achieved with this type of psychological weight.
The content or objective of the image will determine which type of visual weight will be chosen to be pictorially reorganized when composing and staging the shot. Balance helps to emphasize the most important visual element.
Only the content can determine which pattern can be created by balancing out colour, mass, direction, etc., and which aspect of visual design is to be chosen and subjected to the business of pictorial organization. The function of visual design can be shown only by pointing out the meaning it helps to make visible.
The resolution of balance
The two factors that determine balance are visual weight and the direction of movement of the visual pattern. Visual weight is conditioned by its position in the frame. A visual element at the centre or close to the central vertical axis has less weight than one at the edge of the composition. An object higher in the frame is heavier than the same size object in the lower part of the frame. An object in the right of the frame (for most Western observers) will have less compositional weight than if it was positioned in the left of the frame.
Figure 5.8 Five ways of concentrating attention on the main subject: (a) convergence of background lines; (b) contrast of tone; (c) contrast of position; (d) contrast of size; (e) contrast of form
Similar to the seesaw principle (see Figure 5.6 (1)), visual weight increases proportionally the further it is from its point of balance. A small significant object in the background will balance out a larger object in foreground.
The resolution of balance in a composition therefore requires small to be weighted against large with reference to the centre and outside edges of the frame in order to achieve unity of the total image. A small ‘weight’ in the composition can be placed a long way from the centre if a balancing large weight is placed close to the centre (Figure 5.6 (2)).
'Weight’ need not only be differences in the physical size of balancing visual elements. Balance can be resolved with line, mass, light/dark, colour, etc.
Balance and ambiguity
Balance is a means of eliminating ambiguity and visual confusion. Without visual organization the message becomes confused, as the observer is stuck with a visual hypothesis with insufficient information to form a conclusion.
But a visual intention to confuse, discomfort or even disorientate the viewer also has a pedigree in mass entertainment. It is a popular style in television pop programmes where flashing and moving lights, star filters and extreme flare degrade the image to produce an impression of the atmosphere of a club.
Music videos, with a great deal of post-production work, elaborate this style and often aim to tease and invoke visual excitement by a string of unstructured shots, subliminal cuts and multi-images. Exploiting changes in technology, many youth programmes use continuously moving hand-held cameras overlaid with moving graphics in an attempt to emulate the rave experience of a ‘drug'-induced buzz of disorientating images. As very little information can be assimilated with such a confusion of images, the style becomes the content that is being communicated.
Dynamic balance
Finding a dynamic balance requires not only positioning small with large or light with dark, etc., but also finding linking patterns to the main balancing duality.
Our experience of the physical properties of objects provides us with the knowledge that an object that is very large at the top and tapers to a very small base is likely to be unstable and easily toppled. The equivalent visual weight is attached to a large object at the top of the frame and a smaller object at the base. The composition appears to be unstable and transient (see Figure 5.6 (4)).
A dynamic balance that provides plenty of audience interest or visual excitement can be created either by the use of converging lines (see Chapter 4) or the competing contrasts between different masses, light/dark relationships, colour or the use of a wide-angle lens working close to the main subject in movement. A wide angle on a camera moving between equal-sized objects (e.g., trees, buildings, etc.) produces images with rapid changes in size.
Balance can be disrupted by a visual element that makes a sudden appearance in the frame. If the audience anticipates that something, for example, maybe behind the door, the delay in satisfying this suspicion will heighten the suspense. The audience is invited to speculate on where the ‘ambush’ will come from. The usual convention is to let the audience down quietly, assuaging their fears before hitting them with a surprise element from a totally new direction.
The invisible narrative element that is outside the frame can carry strong visual weight when composing for the unseen. The audience connects the dots between what they are shown and what they imagine. Leaving a blank part of the frame invites the audience to anticipate something will fill that pregnant space just as a conspicuous door in the background of a shot will condition the audience to believe that it will soon be opened. Other ‘unseen’ elements can be used to motivate a pan. In David Lean's ‘Ryan's Daughter’ (1969), the camera pans across a schoolroom wall following the unseen footsteps on the other side of the wall until the shot reaches a door which opens to reveal the invisible ‘walker'.
Strong visual film/TV images are often used sparingly. A rich diet of dynamic images that zap the eyeball every second will soon need to accelerate to greater and greater extremes to hold the attention of a visually exhausted audience. Greater impact is often achieved by a single high-impact shot placed amongst a conventional set of shots (e.g., the high shot from the top of the New York UN building looking down on the film's central character as he leaves the building in ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1956).
Avoid the visual monotony of positioning the principal subject of the composition in the same part of the frame for every shot. Try to achieve variation and variety in composing each shot except when intercutting on dialogue between two people (see Standard shot sizes, Chapter 12).
Formal balance
Formal balance in a composition is achieved by having equal visual weight on either side of the frame placed symmetrically around a central main subject. Although formal balance emphasizes the main central subject's importance, its symmetrical solemnity precludes visual excitement. Many examples are seen in religious art of figures grouped either side of the main subject (see Figure 13.1 The Martyrdom of San Sebastian). The overall atmosphere of such a balance is to suggest peace, harmony or a lack of conflict. Another form of classical balance is by the use of the Golden Mean (see Past influences, Chapter 10).
The type of artiste staging required for a formal composition requires static grouping. Any movement will probably unbalance the formality and disturb the emphasis on serenity. It is the type of balance used in religious themes or a critical moment of someone on their death bed with relations or friends placed either side of a square-on shot from the foot of the bed.
To hold visual attention, it is necessary to provide greater visual complexity. A formal central grouping of figures balanced around the centre of the frame, although assimilated, instantly fails to provoke further curiosity. Once the eye has swept around the central shape it has visually ‘consumed’ all that has been provided. To entice the eye to take a second tour, less obvious visual relationships need to be discovered. The eye and mind must be fed with visual variations embedded within the basic dominant pattern, although it must always be remembered that the eye takes the visual path of least resistance. Unravelling a very complex set of visual variations may mean a ‘switch off’ for the majority until easier shots come along. But visual variety provides the stimulation necessary for holding the attention.
The formality of such compositions are almost like a freeze frame and their necessary static quality has a limited screen time before the need for movement to reinvigorate the audience attention becomes essential.
The square-on two shot of Figure 5.7, staged to give equal weighting to the two artistes, would provide audience interest if the dialogue switched between the two presenters. Sound, as we have mentioned, attracts attention and this breaks up the static quality of the formal staging.
Dissonance
Whereas a balanced composition aims to promote a sense of equilibrium or stability, dissonance in a compositional grouping induces a feeling of discord or of resolution still to be realized.
Effective dissonance in music is not created (except by accident) by a non-musician aimlessly pressing groups of notes on a piano. It is based on the application of the theory of harmony. Dissonance in visual composition requires the same understanding of technique in order to achieve controlled disharmony.
For many centuries, the aim of composition in Western painting was to weld all the elements of the painting into a pictorial unity to achieve balance. The concept of dissonance – compositional elements deliberately offset in order to create visual tension – only entered compositional technique to any extent in the nineteenth century.
With the advent of ‘snapshot’ photography in the 1860s when exposures of 1/50 second were possible, many artists were influenced by the random photographic compositions of people in motion. Degas was one of the first artists to use decentralized compositions with the main subject offset to the edge of the frame (see Figure 10.3, the Degas reproduction in Chapter 10, ‘Past influences').
A new pictorial convention emerged of cutting off part of an object by the frame to imply that the action continued outside the frame. If the observer is led out of the picture frame, there is set up an expectation or curiosity in the viewer that is not satisfied by the framed image. The composition is unresolved (see ‘A hard cut-off', Chapter 6).
Dissonant compositions are therefore deliberately structured to evoke a sense of incompleteness. Just as there is a strong wish to straighten a picture hung crookedly on a wall, a well-structured dissonant shot will evoke the same feeling of a composition seeking to achieve balance. The friction and conflict that is set up can convey a strong sense of unresolved tension as well as creating interest and involvement.
Figure 5.9 Dissonance in a compositional grouping induces a feeling of discord. The offset framing and the eye line out of frame unbalances the shot and sets up a sense of visual disquiet
Figure 5.10 Because of the Western tradition of scanning text from left to right, the movement of the line in (a) appears to be travelling uphill whereas the movement of the line in (b) appears to be going downhill
Dissonant arrangement of subject matter creates a dynamic tension. But increasing the degree of unbalance to an extreme might collapse into visual anarchy and produce a composition of random items that have no relationship.
Dissonance is as necessary to good composition as balance. Offsetting balance creates interest. Achieving balance can satisfy the urge for symmetry but quickly becomes uninteresting. If balance is a full stomach, then dissonance is an appetite that needs to be satisfied.
A modern reason for using visual dissonance is the wish to suggest that an unbalanced composition reflects the disorganized unsettled contemporary world – the fragmented uncertainty of existence. This embraces the view that there is no certainty – no consensus on a single viewpoint. All values are relative.
Divided interest
A composition with divided interest, where the eye flicks back and forth between two equal subjects, is a composition that will cause the audience a problem of deciding what they should be looking at. One subject must be made subservient to the other by placement, size, focus, colour or contrast (see Figure 5.1).
Mirror reverse/stage left
It has often been demonstrated with Western art that images are habitually scanned from left to right – the normal reading process. Theatre staging often takes account of this fact in the knowledge that the audience will automatically look to the left, the ‘strong’ side of the stage, as the curtain rises. Another consequence of a left/right’ bias is that many formal balanced compositions can be destroyed if mirror reversed.
The normal scanning of an image from left to right appears to give less weight to an object on the left than if it is placed on the right of the frame. A theatrical convention of the ‘strong’ left side and ‘weak’ right side is that traditionally the Fairy Queen enters stage left whilst the Demon King enters prompt (right) side.
Figure and ground
The relationship between ‘figure’ and ‘ground’ is fundamental to an understanding of perception and composition. Figure describes the shape that is immediately observable whilst ground defines that shape by giving it a context in which to exist. Figure is the prime visual element that is being communicated but can only be transmitted in a relationship with a ground (Figure 5.11(a) and (b)).
This may sound a rather academic analysis when setting up a shot but many heated arguments about production budgets often revolve around the cost of shooting at special locations in order to stage action against an appropriate background. Film financiers consider the foreground artistes to be where the money is – the background is dressing or atmosphere. The small piece of ‘scenery’ seen over the shoulder of a medium close-up (MCU) requires the expense of a large unit on location, but apart from all the other visual value of an appropriate location, backgrounds are essential to tell the story. It is surprising how many documentaries/factual programmes stage a piece to camera against a bland featureless background and throw away the atmosphere of the location.
Figure 5.11 Figure describes the shape that is immediately observable whilst ground defines that shape by giving it a context in which to exist. A ground can be visually simple or complex but still remain subservient to the figure
Figure 5.12 With some subjects, there is indecision as to what is figure and what is ground. Figure/ground flip is when different visual elements reverse their role. The vase shape disappears when two profiles are recognized
In composing a shot there needs to be an integration of subject (figure) and background (ground). There needs to be control between foreground and background so that the background does not dominate the main subject in frame.
Figure need not be physically closer to the lens than ground, although that part of the image that is seen as figure is often perceived as being closer to the viewer regardless of its position in the frame. Figure is usually smaller in area than ground and figure/ground cannot be seen simultaneously. They are viewed sequentially. Figure is seen as having form, contour or shape whilst ground is seen as having none of these characteristics.
Any visual element in the frame that stands out and achieves prominence will be considered by the observer as figure even if this object has been assessed of no visual importance by the cameraman. Hence the infamous background object that sits neatly on a subject's head, totally ignored by the snapshotter whose concentration is wholly centred on what he considers is the only ‘figure’ in frame. When two or more objects are grouped together they are perceived as one ‘figure’ even though the cameraman may have mentally marked out one of them as ‘background'.
Figure/ground flip
A characteristic of ground is that it visually recedes and its detail is not noticed. There may be a number of figures in a frame and the visual elements that make up figure and ground can change their role as attention moves from one subject to another (Figure 5.12). This is termed figure/ground flip.
Figure/ground flip occurs when shape, tone or contour of ground becomes more dominant or is perceived as more dominant in the image. This can happen with a frame-within-a-frame shot, such as an entrance in a wall. The entrance and the visual detail it frames function as the figure with the wall as a featureless ground. If the observer's attention is allowed to switch to the wall, which is now perceived to have texture and contrast, this becomes the figure with the entrance becoming ground. The shot will quickly lose impact as the two ‘figures’ fight for attention (Figure 5.1(a)).
Control
Controlling the figure/ground relationship requires emphasizing the importance of the selected figure by light, brightness, colour, differential focus, texture, position, etc., whilst removing sufficient visual detail from the ground to avoid it competing with the figure (Figure 5.13).
The cameraman's craft is directed towards controlling the viewer's attention on figure whilst remembering that ground is equally important as it defines foreground. They are separate yet they work together.
The use of a very narrow-angle lens can blur the distinction between figure and ground. As the focal length of the lens increases, with the camera further from the subject, size relationships between objects at different distances from the lens are not so marked as in ‘normal’ eye perspective and all visual elements in the frame may achieve equal importance. The accompanying narrower zone of focus of objects at a great distance from the lens helps to discriminate between the intended figure and its out-of-focus ground.
Figure 5.13 The window and the visual detail it frames functions as the figure with the interior wall as a featureless ground. If the observer's attention is allowed to switch to the interior, this is now perceived to be the figure with the window becoming the ground
Camouflage deliberately intends to deceive the observer in deciding what is figure and what is ground. Living creatures confuse their adversaries by attempting to ‘break up’ their overall shape and form by a fragmented, unsymmetrical pattern similar to their background habitat. Poor visualization by a cameraman of what is figure and what is ground in an image can achieve the same confusion.
It is easy to overestimate the psychological or narrative importance of one element when setting up a shot and underestimate its actual visual dominance within the frame. It may well have strong narrative importance but does it look visually significant? Many snapshots fail because the attention, when the photograph was taken, was wholly concentrated on one element of the field of view usually because it had strong personal significance. Even though it fails to hold the attention of a wider audience, the print may still have a strong subjective interest to one or two individuals because they will continue to ignore all but the main subject in the frame when looking at the image.
Figure 5.14 Although there are two Maltese crosses displayed, the cross whose main axes corresponds to the vertical and horizontal edges of the frame is usually selected as the figure with the other cross becoming the ground. The frame edge reference is very influential in determining the subject priority
Shape
One of the basic Gestalt theories of perception is that we tend to simplify visual patterns as much as the image will allow in order to grasp the significance of the image. The shape or outside boundary of an object is perceived as one dimensional, even though our knowledge and experience of the world demonstrates that the majority of objects exist in three dimensions.
This outside boundary, the shape of an object, plays a significant part in visual composition because of the ease and speed of grasping its simple pattern and relationships. If shapes become too abstract and ambiguous, however, then, as the wide variety of responses to the same Rorschach ink blob test demonstrates, individual states of mind and memory will control interpretation.
Simplicity and economy have always been valued in visual communication in the search to reduce to essentials in order to clearly communicate. Shape is a simple, visually easily ‘digestible’ element in a composition and, when setting up a shot, a few similar shapes should be looked for that can be grouped to reinforce the overall impact of the image. The space between forms also create shapes and can play a part in the design of a shot. It is said that Mozart was not so interested in the notes as the spaces in between. But whereas a painter has complete flexibility on where to position shapes and forms on a two-dimensional surface for maximum design potential, the director and cameraman have to deal with a three-dimensional world of solid objects that are usually not amenable to rapid resizing or relocation.
Grouping visual elements by overall shape
Similar shape is an effective way of unifying an image in order to make it easily comprehensible. The three basic regular shapes of oval, triangle and circle can be used in a variety of ways, such as in the grouping of people or objects. A shot can be strengthened if the visual elements are structured so that the eye follows one of the basic shapes around the frame.
Triangle and oval forms are the most flexible and accommodating in enclosing shapes and many cameramen, when they run their eye around a potential shot, are seeking this kind of relational shape to bind the composition together. A triangle composition is a closed form from which the eye cannot escape.
The overall shape of a composition also indicates mood or character. The triangle with a broad base is considered to have strength and stability. A popular, if unconscious, reflection of this is the shot of the newsreader who sits with elbows on the news desk making a ‘trustworthy’ triangle.
The triangle is a very flexible shape as a design element in a composition. The cameraman can control the shape and impact of a triangle by choice of lens-angle, camera distance and height. The line convergence forming the boundary of a triangle within a composition can be altered and arranged to provide the precise control of the compositional elements. The inverted triangle is weaker but can be useful.
The ability to analyse shapes in an image rather than simply seeing the content is an essential step in developing an eye for composition. If there appears to be a lack of unity in the image, and if the main subject appears to be fighting the background, then it is more than likely that an overall leading shape line around the frame is missing. Search for background shapes or re-light for background shapes that will connect and relate to foreground.
Light/dark relationships and the compositional relationship between a bright spot and its location are dealt with in Chapter 13, ‘Lighting and composition'.
Line
As well as the physical lines within a shot that channel eye movement, there can also be invisible lines (e.g., eye line), that directs visual attention. The movement of the observer's eyes may create curved lines in its journey around the shot. Avoid lines that divide the frame into equal parts (split screen) and dominant lines at the edge of frame that may alter the aspect ratio and appear as if the image is cropped. Some lines lie flat on the surface of the image whilst other lines recede into the distance and add depth to the shot.
Line is a powerful picture-making design component and can be used to structure the attention of the observer. Within the frame, any visual elements that can be perceptually grouped into lines can be used to direct the eye around the image from one part of the picture to another to end, preferably, on the main subject of interest. Attention is attracted to where two lines cross or one line abruptly changes direction. The eye is attracted to the point of convergence of the lines or the implied point of crossing. In practice, a line need not be visible to act as a strong compositional element but it can be implied, such as the line of a person's gaze.
Figure 5.15 An upright line appears balanced, a diagonal line implies movement and a horizontal line is at rest
The vertical line
An isolated vertical subject such as a tree or a tower has directness and rigidity. It is immediately seen and takes visual precedence over any horizontal or other lines in the frame. The human figure in a landscape immediately attracts attention, not only because of its psychological importance but also because of this vertical aspect. It has been suggested that an image consisting of strong vertical elements can convey dignity, solemnity and serenity.
The strength of a vertical visual element in a composition means that some kind of design elements have to be introduced to establish image unity. Usually a vertical line requires a horizontal element to cross it at some point in order to achieve a satisfactory composition. If a vertical line simply divides the frame, two disconnected images will be created – a split screen. The most common use of the vertical line is to link two competing areas of the picture to achieve unity. This could be a carefully positioned tree to connect landscape with sky or a strong vertical line in a piece of furniture or architecture to link the lower half of the frame with the top. This vertical element should have its greater proportion in what is being established as the dominant area or subject of the picture.
The leaning line
Diagonal arrangements of lines in a composition produce a greater impression of vitality than either vertical or horizontal lines. A line is most active when it runs from corner to corner. A tree before it is felled is a line that is vertical and stable. From the moment it is cut down it begins its journey to becoming a horizontal line and static. Its most potent and active angle as a line is at 45° where its rush to ‘rest’ is most keenly anticipated. A line at an angle is perceptually seen as a line that is in motion unless it is so marginally off vertical it could be simply the result of camera set-up. Compositions with a strong diagonal element imply movement or vitality.
Convergence of lines
As we have seen, the distance from lens to subject, lens angle and camera height are a decisive influence on the convergence of lines within a frame. Lines of convergence can be placed to have as their focus the dominant subject in the frame. Strong pictorial lines can be controlled by lens position to lead to and emphasize the main subject (see Figure 5.22).
Line of beauty
The eighteenth-century artist, William Hogarth, identified seven different curved lines and picked out one of these as the most perfect ‘line of beauty'. It is similar in shape to the line of a woman's back and has been dubbed the ‘S’ curve. It occurs frequently in Michelangelo's paintings and is seen in natural form in such things as wind-swept arable crops and the upward swirl of flames (Figure 5.16).
Figure 5.16 Line number 4 was considered by Hogarth to have the most attractive shape
Curves
One of the useful compositional uses of curved lines in an image is to guide the eye to the main point of interest. A straight line takes the eye immediately from point A to point B. A curve can move the eye around the frame in a less direct movement and knit disparate elements together on the way. A curve has the advantage of being a progressive change of direction that allows a softer visual movement around an image, compared with the zigzag pinball movement of straight lines (see Figure 5.18). Also, unlike straight lines, curves do not interact with the edge of frame either in direction or by comparison.
Rivers, roads, the line of a hill or hedge, banister rails, etc., can all be used to rhythmically knit a composition together. Where curves can be duplicated and repeated in different sizes, then not only will a great deal of visual interest be set up, but the spaces between objects enclosed by the boundary lines of the curved shapes have a greater visual interest. The ‘ground’ to the image will have greater vitality even though it will still act as an anchor to the overall design.
The strength of a composition created by curves can be increased by an all-over pattern across the frame and by the strong contrast of light and shade. Shadows of foliage, decorative wrought iron railings, grilles and blinds, etc., will provide pattern. Even straight-line shadows, such as sunlight through Venetian blinds falling on a curved surface, can provide another source of controlled pattern and curve in the frame. Curves can also be implied by repetition of the same type of object and this effect can be emphasized by the use of a long focal length lens.
A curved lead-in line to the main subject of interest has always been one of the most common techniques to get the observer into the frame and then out again. There is often an inclination to try to avoid such a clichéd technique but the perceptual experience is that it is effective, that it holds and guides the attention of the viewer and that alternative lead-in’ devices can just as quickly become visually devalued and stale.
Using foreground curved shapes to mask off part of the picture to produce a frame within a frame is often employed to break up a series of rectangle compositions. As previously mentioned, the classic tight over-the-shoulder blanking off the side of the frame by a silhouette head and part of the shoulder is a simple way of achieving a new frame outline.
Figure 5.17 Lines of convergence can be placed to have as their focus the dominant subject in the frame. Strong pictorial lines can be controlled by lens position to lead to and emphasize the main subject
Figure 5.18 The curved lines of car headlamps on a city street at night lead the eye into the picture
Figure 5.19 A curved lead-in line to the main subject of interest has always been one of the most common techniques to get the observer into the frame
Rhythm and visual beat
Rhythm and pattern describe two aspects of a linked series of visual elements. Pattern can be defined as a design or figure repeated across the frame, such as bricks in a wall viewed from a square-on position. A wallpaper design may have an indefinite repetition of a few shapes.
Rhythm, whilst occurring in pattern, can also be present without repetition. Visual rhythm can occur in the relationship between a series of shapes or lines such as a crabbing shot that has foreground objects wiping across the frame. These may be equally spaced such as columns (pattern) or irregularly spaced but still forming a relationship.
Musical rhythm developing over time would appear to be quite different from the experience of perception where it is often assumed that an understanding of an image is grasped instantaneously. But the mind/eye moving over a series of visual accents in an image can respond in a similar way as the mind/ear experiences listening to a series of rhythmic accents. If a connected series of visual accents are present in the image, then it can be said that a visual beat has been established. Sunlight modulated by a row of trees falling on a car travelling along a road will produce a rhythm of pattern and light. The repetitive pitch of a boat will create a regular sweep of light through a porthole onto a cabin wall. Both of these examples are created by movement but static pattern and rhythm exist in nature (the structure of petals in a flower, desert sand formations) and in man-made objects (bridge girders, field patterns, motorway junctions).
The eye readily follows a line or curve in an image and is correspondingly affected by any repetition of direction or movement of lines or shapes it is led on to. It is the transition between repetition of line and shape that sets up the rhythm of the image and by implication can be extended by the eye/mind to continue outside of the frame. Rhythm needs direction and flow and is strongest when it coincides with the natural eye-scan movement from left to right.
Repetition of camera movement can set up a visual rhythm such as crabbing across a series of foreground objects as mentioned above, or a series of zooms or tracking shots towards a subject that are identically paced. This is often used in dream or fantasy sequences to create an atmosphere of movement without end. Rhythm can express conflict, serenity or confusion and has a strong impact on the front plane composition.
Figure 5.20 A high-angle shot of office desks and workers provides a ‘regimented’ pattern across the frame
Pattern
Pattern was defined as a design or figure repeated indefinitely. Visually it is strongest if the repetition can occur across the whole of the frame and if the repetition includes a large number of the repeated shapes.
Static pattern in a composition can be uninteresting in the same way that overemphasis on symmetry becomes flat and stale. A shot of a building that has regular windows patterned across the frame will have little impact because the pattern is the centre of interest and, unless a second element is introduced to act as a dissonance or counterpoint to the pattern (e.g., shadows or camera angle, etc.), the composition may not sustain attention.
Moving patterns, however, can create interest and involvement if compositional control of the image is understood. Repetition or pattern may be present in the normal field of view but the observer may be unaware of it. Placing a frame around a portion of the field of view will isolate and emphasize the repetition.
Creating patterns
For example, a shot of a pavement crowded with shoppers with a camera position looking along the pavement using a 25° horizontal angle of view lens will result in a continuous change of subject moving towards and away from the camera. Patterns of people will be created but it will be difficult for the viewer to focus on any one element. Random movement is difficult to observe and to enjoy. There is no centre of interest and no one object to contrast and compare with another. The pattern of the people is changing too rapidly.
To control pattern, frame a similar shot of the shoppers but this time use a long focal length lens of 5° or under to create a pattern of people who stay longer in frame and therefore allow a pattern relationship to be set up. Creating repetition of equally sized shapes by the use of a long focal length lens creates multiple appearances of similar objects which, because of camera distance, stay longer in frame.
This is because – as we discovered in the discussion on the perspective of mass – the image size relationship of subjects in shot will depend upon the camera distance from the objects. If similar sized subjects such as people are walking towards camera or away from camera at a distance (e.g., 50 m) and are framed using the narrow end of the zoom (e.g., 5° or under) the effect will be of little or no change in subject size coupled with a lack of anticipated movement. Because of the distance of the camera from the subject, there is not the anticipated change in subject size usually experienced when people walk to or away from an observer. Movement without changing size is the equivalent of running on the spot and creates the surreal dreamlike quality of flight without escape.
Figure 5.21 Repetition of the same shape plus the curved rows provide a strong visual pattern
Making patterns out of people dehumanizes them because it robs them of personality. It makes crowds into abstract statements. This type of composition is frequently used when a voice-over narration is discussing changes in inflation or shopping habits, etc. It is very difficult to find shots to illustrate abstract concepts such as ‘inflation’ or ‘devaluation', topics that often require news footage.
Shots of cars, rooftops, a portion of a mass production process (e.g., bottles moving on a conveyor belt) can be used to create similar abstract patterns. A repetition of the same shape that either moves across the frame in a regular rhythm (e.g., the bottle) or is held within the frame for a longer period than is normally experienced by the use of a long focal length lens compressing space, can provide attractive decorative images. They are created by camera distance, lens angle and the movement of the subject towards or away from the lens.
Interest
Possibly the strongest design element that can be used in a composition to capture attention is for the content to have a strong emotional or psychological connection with the viewer. Either the subject of the shot has a personal association or it features a familiar human experience.
The personal connection can simply be a photo of a location, someone known to the viewer or a loved person. Millions of snapshots are treasured not for any intrinsic photographic values but because of the innate interest of their subject. This does not prevent a photo having a strong subjective interest and also having qualities that would appeal to a ‘disinterested’ observer with no involvement with the subject. Home videos of domestic or holiday topics can be shot so that they have a much wider appeal beyond their participants or their friends. The usual weakness of home movies is their inability to separate subjective interest from the considerations of structure and design. The content of the video dominates its form.
The most extreme examples of identification are life-threatening situations created by fictional or factual events. It is often puzzling to lay people that professional photographers in war zones or those covering civil catastrophes can still instinctively frame up and find the right angle of view to make ‘decorative’ images. They can still pay attention to technique, to the mechanics of recording the image, whilst the content would appear to be so overpowering that any normal-feeling person would wish to intervene or help.
The separation of content, whatever its personal implications, and the technique needed to record it is part of the professional character of anyone who aspires to cover highly emotional factual situations. Many people do not have, or wish to have, the detachment necessary to keep filming when people are in extreme distress or danger. But even in less life-threatening situations, the ability not to be involved in order to stand back and, with professional detachment, consider the visual potential of an event, is essential.
The personal significance of the content of a shot will always be the most powerful design element in attracting attention but by its presentation (compositional design) its appeal can be broadened to involve and engage a much wider audience.
Figure 5.22 Although the figure in the distance is small, the eye is irresistibly drawn to it by the converging lines
Direction
Within the frame there may be a visual element that produces a strong sense of visual movement. A row of poplar trees or a wall, for example, may produce a line that creates a dominant line of movement – a visual direction that is difficult to ignore.
This strong sense of movement can either be built into the composition and provide a leading line to the main subject or it can be balanced against other movement or mass to tone it down or reduce its impact. As we have seen, diagonal lines are the most active within the frame and, in particular, diagonal converging lines pull the eye like a signpost arrow.
These direction indicators pick up the eye and carry it across or around the frame. There must be a resolution to a vigorous movement of directional lines or the composition will be perceived as lacking an essential element. It is similar to a pan that sets up expectation as it moves to a conclusion, only to disappoint if the end image is uninteresting. A strong directional line that leads nowhere in the frame is a frustrated journey.
Colour
Colour as a design element is such a powerful force that it requires a separate discussion (see Chapter 14).
Scale
A great deal of our understanding of the physical nature of the world around us is achieved by comparison of size. We often achieve recognition of an object by its proportions and its normal size relationship with other objects. A 3-m-high shirt button would require a moment to categorize before we had established a new frame of reference. Whereas it would be instantly recognized as a button if it was at the size we normally see it.
A frame around an image seals off most of its frame of reference and can cause problems in recognition unless it is a very familiar object such as the human face or figure. Most people have been visually tricked by a close shot of a model replica when the camera pulls back to reveal it is as a fraction of the size of the original. Some objects need to be set in context in order to visually communicate clearly without any confusion of their identity.
A composition can achieve an impact by introducing an indication of scale or size comparison. It may be simply contrasting one subject with another – a small child in a large space or an ocean liner being pulled by a small tug. Viewers unfamiliar with the subject depicted may need some indication of size by comparison with a known object.
Figure 5.23
The human figure is the most easily recognized and most often used in size comparisons. An over-used technique is the familiar zoom out from a presenter (see Figure 5.23(a)) to reveal that he or she is located at the top of an enormous bridge, building or natural feature (see Figure 5.23(b)). This shows scale but requires a great deal of ‘dead’ visual between the start and the end of the shot, which are the only two images that are being compared.
More attractive compositions can be achieved by using a high angle position looking down, for example, into a valley to see a winding road with a vehicle moving along it or a train puffing through the hills. This type of image appeals to most people's general fascination with model layouts where the spectator can take up a detached position and observe a scene without being part of it.
The proximity of one subject to another allows a frame of reference to be established and associations and comparisons to be made. The same factors are at work over time with adjacent shots allowing a development of new information or continuity in storytelling. Proximity of subject allows judgements of scale and connections. Proximity in time allows continuity and the relationship between visual references which constructs an argument.
Whereas in Figure 5.24(a) the cinema image is viewed in near darkness with no visible object surrounding the screen, the television image is always in proximity with the objects surrounding the TV set (Figure 5.24(b)). The moving image on the screen holds the attention against the surrounding competition of wallpaper, furniture, ornaments and people. The combined two-dimensional designed composition including scale indicators has now to contend, when viewed, with a three-dimensional environment.
Figure 5.24
Abstraction
The main theories of the psychology of perception are based on the concept of the perceptual process being an active exploration of form and structure to achieve recognition. Recognition usually involves categorizing and naming the object or process. Perceptual exploration involves assessing the abstract elements of the image such as shape, colour, brightness points, contrast, texture, movement and spatial position.
Recognition by establishing patterns, and grouping by similar shapes, etc., appears to play an important part in the interrogation and exploration of the visual world. Pattern and form can be abstracted from any complex subject and depicted as an image, independent of normal object recognition. An abstract image can therefore be defined as form and colour, independent of subject. It is form without a figurative content and is often created by eliminating or limiting the contrast between figure and ground.
An abstract image can also be achieved by simplification. A shot of undulating sand on the sea shore will have form, texture and contrast but will have an all-over pattern across the frame that binds the composition together.
Reducing or eliminating depth indicators often results in a greater abstract element in a design. Without space or depth in a shot, form and design are concentrated in a two-dimensional pattern. This is often seen in shots of reflections and subjects with strong texture.
Figure 5.25 The visual appeal of an abstract image often relies on form, texture or colour independent of subject
Although film and television camerawork often aspires to be unequivocally factual and realistic, the images are displayed on a flat screen. This two-dimensional representation often reveals abstract designs in the most mundane subjects. Long focal length lenses or a narrow zone of focus emphasize form and shape; elimination or reduction of depth indicators, interaction between figure and ground, simplification and the over-all repetition of similar shapes all tend towards creating abstract pattern and the basic building blocks of the perceptual process.
Understanding an image
The viewer can only see the image that is selected and presented to them. Of all the thousands of images that could be filmed and recorded on any one subject, the choice of what is presented is whittled down to a few hundred. Those few images are considered to be the most economical way of visually presenting the message to be communicated. It is obviously assumed and hoped that the selected shots will be understood only in terms of the intention of their originators. A verbal instruction of ‘Please close the door’ would obviously be seen to have been a failed communication if a window was closed instead. How can anyone framing up a shot be certain that the viewer's understanding of the image will be identical to their own?
People's hopes, wishes, fears and personal viewpoint play a major part in their perception. If one person is terrified of spiders, any small scrap of material that is blown across the floor may invoke unreasoned anxiety. The same ‘misreading’ of visual images occurs especially if they set up associations with opinions strongly held. Our perception or appreciation of an image depends upon our own way of seeing.
One solution to avoid visual misunderstanding or ‘misreading’ of an image is the use of stereotypes. There is a huge repertoire of stereotype images usually related to the seasons of the year or rites of passage. They are sometimes impossible to resist if a story requires, for example, an indication of Christmas. There are a dozen or more well-used visual clichés that can instantly be used to communicate ‘Christmas'. Offsetting the colour balance to get blue exteriors and warm welcoming yellow, interior-lit windows, star filters for Christmas lights, parcels under the tree, instantly establish atmosphere and setting. The problem with such visual clichés is that they are all but drained of their impact. They are simply references to previous well-used images and are therefore instantly recognized and instantly consumed. They lack any visual development or attention-sustaining design.
There are other visual stereotypes such as images of gender, race or religion that may be pressed into service unexamined by the cameraman. Roland Barthes (1973) labels these visual symbols as ‘mythic'. Not in the sense of being mythologies, fairy stories or false but having the well-used appearance of being ‘natural’ or ‘common sense'. They are the unexamined prejudgements and assumptions about life nurtured by a specific cultural background that find expression when an image is sought to express an attitude or idea. A newsreel sequence may feature angry or violent people in a street demonstration because the cameraman was briefed to search for shots containing ‘action’ to illustrate the event. He or she may have ignored thousands of inactive protesters as lacking ‘visual’ interest.
Shots may express indicators of attitude or feeling that are unconsciously understood by the viewer. A shot behind a row of prison bars looking out will evoke a different response to a shot looking through the bars into a cell. The shot has conditioned or positioned the viewpoint of the viewer to be either as a prisoner or as a visitor to the prison.
Reference by association is common in commercials where images are carefully manufactured to make a connection between a product and a result. For example, a shampoo bottle and glamorous hair are so conjoined in the same shot as to render it impossible not to draw the conclusion that one leads to the other. There is a density of visual themes that imply rather than state overtly their commercial message. The most common visual theme implies that if you are able to buy this product you will be lovable. If you cannot buy it, you will be less lovable.
The viewer, when searching for the best explanation of the available visual information, may add their own interpretation whilst being unaware of the hidden visual message they are absorbing.
Often, a film or television image is not simply a record of an event but becomes an event in itself. The image is then used to symbolize a process or condition. The student standing in front of an approaching tank in Tiananmen Square (Figure 5.26), the street execution of a kneeling enemy prisoner, a young person engulfed in flames running towards the camera, are images that have implications beyond the horrific action portrayed. They continue to be recycled as symbolic images or icons rather than existing as the specific event recorded.
Figure 5.26 The student standing in front of an approaching tank in Tiananmen Square is recycled as a symbolic image independent of the specific event recorded (© 1989 Cable News Network Inc. All rights reserved)
Taking the eye for a walk
Although perceptually we have an awareness of a large field of view, only a small segment can receive our full attention. It is necessary for the eye to continuously make small eye movements called ‘saccades’ in order to scan an object. It is similar to the eye movement necessary to examine each word of text on a page. The eye scanning around the frame is an important aspect of composition.
In the West, a page of text has a structure to allow the information to be read out in the correct sequence. Starting from the top left of the page to bottom right there is no misunderstanding the path the eye must traverse. There is no similar learnt procedure for scanning an object or image unless a deliberate perceptual route is built-in that channels the eye movement along a preplanned path.
In order to take the eye for a ‘walk’ around an image there needs to be a start-point and an end-point positioned within the composition. In a shot with deep perspective indicators, a common solution is by way of a series of zigzags using a path, stream, wall, etc., which is connected to the base of the frame. This should steer the eye's attention to the principal subject and then connect up with another visual element to return the eye to the start-point. Getting into the picture requires creating one spot that immediately attracts the eye and then lead it on towards the principal subject. The ‘way in’ to the composition must not be too visually dominant or it will act as a competing interest to the main subject.
Emphasizing the main subject involves control of the eye movement across the frame. The eye travels the line of least resistance and in its movement around the frame it is similar to a pin-ball bouncing off different obstacles before being forced by the designer of the composition to end up at the main subject of interest. An interesting composition allows the eye movement moments of repose and this stop/start journey creates visual rhythm. The strongest rhythms occur in patterns. Organization of the image requires the eye to be shown new unsuspected spatial relationships between similar shapes, similar tone, texture or colour.
The positioning of small and large objects, light and shadow edges, colour connections, etc., can all act as visual guides around the image. The essential requirements are that they should lead up to and emphasize the position of the main subject before being led away for the start of a new journey. A well designed composition will provide new visual interests for the second and possibly third circuits. If the main visual route into and out of the composition is the ‘melody’ of the piece, the secondary design elements can provide variation on top of the main theme.
Strong horizontal lines form a barrier across the frame and require a visual method to ‘jump’ across to avoid bisecting the frame into sections. A tree or similar upright will allow the eye to move over this division of the image.
The visual exit from the composition need not be positioned at the same point as the start but can be a bright spot, for example, leading to infinity in the distance. What should be guarded against is an exit that leaves the majority of the frame unexplored. The designer of a maze intends the traveller to make a few circuits before discovering the centre and then they are allowed to search for the exit. A well designed image has one entrance for the eye, one principal subject and then several routes to the exit. This can be accomplished with the main elements forming a pyramid, for a strong unified composition, or a circle, which has the virtue, as the classical symbol of unity, of unifying and simplifying the composition. It keeps the eye within the frame. For a more dynamic composition, an irregular shape allows for eye movement that is diverse and asymmetric. Avoid placing the brightest part of the image at the edge of frame.
The other distraction to a well-organized visual tour is allowing the eye to get too close to the edge of the frame and then be led out by speculating on what is beyond the frame (see closed frame above).
Reading left to right
Control of eye movement on a page of text is by way of left-to-right scanning and by structuring the text in lines and paragraphs. The habit of reading left to right is culturally so strong that it is claimed Western readers use the same left-to-right scan when looking at paintings, cinema and theatre. This may be a consideration when staging positions in a set up.
Also important is the eye scan between shots. For example, the circuit rail of a racecourse should be roughly the same position in frame when intercutting on a race. In a western shootout, intercutting on two opposing gunfighters requires the gun barrels to be positioned at the same height in each shot. Like an eye line out of frame, they are pointing at each other.
An audience may anticipate the expected position of interest in an incoming shot but this anticipation can be betrayed for dramatic effect or as a change of direction in the narrative.
Frame and subject size
Filling the frame with the principal subject appears, at first sight, to be an efficient way of eliminating irrelevant detail. A close shot concentrates the attention and avoids the complications of integrating other visual elements into a cohesive composition. The closer you get to the main subject, the easier it is for the viewer to understand the priorities of the shot and the quicker it is for the cameraman to find the optimum framing. The close shot is efficient in communication and often, because it only requires a small area to be designed and lit, economic in production.
There have been many successful productions that stay close almost all the time. A series of close shots builds up tension and intensity, not only because of the claustrophobic impact of the tight images but also because of the absence of any visual information to assist the viewer in locating the action. Mystery and tension are enhanced if the audience is ‘lost’ and has no frame of reference for the events they are watching. The production style of one television series often involved starting tight on a new scene so that there was suspense and complexity for the audience in deciding where they were and what was happening. Sometimes the audience were released from their confusion by an ‘explanation’ shot well into the scene, but often there was no visual description of the setting, how many people were involved and their physical relationship to each other.
The composition of a close shot need not be devoid of location information. Because of the magnification of detail, a close shot may be quicker at establishing atmosphere and locality than a more general or vague wide shot. A generalization would be that a close shot intensifies the attention to detail – the viewer cannot easily overlook the visual information that is being presented. A wider shot may be used to show relationships, create atmosphere or express feeling but requires tighter design control of the composition to achieve these objectives. A wider area of view may have more visual elements, lighting, contrast, colour, etc., to integrate for visual unity, whereas a closer shot can be effective with very simple framing.
Fill the frame if possible with interest and avoid large plain areas that are there simply because of the aspect ratio of the screen. If necessary, mask off part of the frame with a feature in the shot to give a more interesting composition and to emphasize the most important element in the frame.
Attracting or switching the centre of interest
Because film/TV is often concerned with movement, compositions have to accommodate changes in the position of the principal subject in the frame. Action can be staged to change who is the principal subject. Switching the viewer's attention to a new principal subject can be achieved by a number of methods. These include the position of subject in the frame, where the significant player is staged in the dominant position. Within a group he/she must be separated from the ‘crowd'. One method of separation from a background crowd can be achieved by a low camera height increasing the height of the foreground actor.
Actor movement can control which is the principal subject of the composition. For example, there is a scene in John Ford's ‘Stagecoach’ (1939), of a number of people in a room. The stagecoach driver is standing and is the dominant subject by height and lighting. He moves into the shadows on the left of frame to leave the dominant position now to the actor seated at the head of the table. This type of actor ‘choreography’ is a frequent controller of composition without change of shot or camera movement.
Creating a front surface design
For an image to hold our attention, relationships within the frame must be constantly changing. This can be achieved by movement or sound (e.g., dialogue flip-flopping between actors). It can be achieved by skilful compositional elements that lead the eye around the frame finding new patterns or visual contrasts or it can be achieved by having an involving and agreeable front surface pattern.
There is often an attempt to compensate for the loss of the third dimension in a film or television image by introducing a string of depth indicators that draws the eye into the picture. Space and the depiction of depth can provide visual interest but so can pattern. The screen on which the image is reproduced is a flat two-dimensional plane and, as we have seen with the structural skeleton of the shot and in abstract shots, the patterns that lay on the surface of the screen independent of the replication of depth can hold the attention because organization of shape, form and contrast are basic to the act of perception.
A composition can create interest if it achieves the twin objectives of creating depth and also a front surface two-dimensional pattern. This pattern can be created by strong contrast of tone, shape, colour or texture that simplifies the image. An easy way of judging this quality of the composition is through half-closed eyes, which can reveal the main compositional groupings and reduce the awareness of specific visual elements.
Only the content can determine which pattern can be created by balancing out colour, mass, direction, etc., and which aspect of visual design is to be chosen and subjected to the business of pictorial organization. The function of visual design can be shown only by pointing out the meaning it helps to make visible.
Creating mood or atmosphere
As well as action and dialogue, framing and camera movement can contribute to establishing the mood or atmosphere of a scene. Static or a slow panning camera, combined with long horizontal lines, soft lighting, slow moving or static actor staging can result in a quiet, calm, restful mood. This can be disrupted for narrative requirements by faster camera movement, faster cutting pace or more active actor movement. Speed or the excitement of action can be increased by jagged diagonal movement across the frame, whereas a skater or skier often has a smoother change of direction and camera movement needs to echo this fluid action. Instability, mystery or menace can be created by dramatic lighting but also by wide-angle distortion of verticals, rapid movement, canted camera angles and unexpected action from an unanticipated screen direction.
Summary
The aim of a balanced composition is to integrate all the visual factors such as shape, colour and location so that no change seems possible. The image achieves unity as a result of all its essential elements. Visual design means actively using the available design elements in the shot such as grouping and organization, balance, figure and ground, shape, line, curves, pattern, etc., to emphasize and draw the observer's attention to the main subject in the shot.
A shot should feature one centre of interest and the viewer's attention should always be attracted to the most significant portion of the scene. Even in a two or three shot, movement, dialogue, lighting or staging will direct attention to the dominant subject at that moment. Background action or setting should not overwhelm the foreground. Groups of subjects (e.g., a crowd, trees or houses) need a camera position and appropriate focal length lens in order to be organized into a cohesive shape unless the aim of the shot is to depict riots, battles or a catastrophe. Odd number of actors (e.g., three or five, etc.) are easier to group.
In capturing attention, movement and sound take precedence over visual design. A moving object possesses more compositional impact than a stationary object. Regardless of size, a small moving, light, bright object will grab greater attention than a large static object.
In seeking to balance a composition, an object positioned on the edge of the frame will be stronger than in the centre. Movement towards or away from the camera is more active than across the frame. An isolated subject carries more weight than a group, particularly in the top part of the frame compared with the lower part.
A generalization would be that a close shot intensifies the attention to detail – the viewer cannot easily overlook the visual information that is being presented. A wider shot may be used to show relationships, create atmosphere or express feeling but requires tighter design control of the composition to achieve these objectives. A wider area of view may have more visual elements, lighting, contrast, colour, etc., to integrate for visual unity, whereas a closer shot can be effective with very simple framing.
If in doubt, choose a simple composition that is economical in the use of line, form, mass and movement. The test of simplicity is that no item can be removed without destroying the balance of the composition.