Grammar of the Shot, 3rd Edition

Chapter Two

The Basics of Composition

• Headroom
• Shooting Style: Subjective vs Objective
• Look room/Nose room
• The Rule of Thirds
• Camera Angles
• The Two-Shot
• The Over-the-Shoulder
• The Power Dynamic Two-Shot
• The Three-Shot

Composition, as we are applying the term, is the purposeful arrangement of artistic parts selected for the “art form” being practiced. One can compose notes in music, steps in a dance routine, figures in a painting, elements on a web page, subjects within a film frame, and so forth.

Now that we understand how shots pictorially cover persons, actions, or events within a certain size frame, we have to look at how you can fill that frame with objects and information – meaning where, specifically, do you place the person’s head in a ...