Frames ‘R Us

You have your camera setup on a tripod, you may have lights pointing at a chair or couch and your tape is queued up and ready to go. What’s next? You bring in the person you are going to interview for your amazing fist time documentary. Or you’ve done several and you’re still feeling your way around your shooting style.

How close do you zoom into your interviewee? I hope you have done your homework and have watched a bunch of TV show documentaries, and have been looking at the styles they have used, and writing down what you think you like about them.

If you are producing and or directing your own documentary film or video, then you need to know what you are going to want. Also, if you hire or get somebody to work for free, then you need to know what his idea of a close-up is in comparison to what you think a close-up should be.

Many producers/directors have come home to look at their videos, and were not a happy camper with the way it was shot.

It is a good idea to get a reel (Samples of work.) of your shooter. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially if you are paying for his work. Sit down together and map out what you have in mind. You should also talk about B-roll (Non-interview shots of things associated with the interview like pictures, or people doing things, etc.) So plan your shoot.

What makes the best framing with your video camera? This framing eventually becomes esthetic and your style. But to start off there are some rules, but they are not written in stone today. Starting with them gives you a nice place to go from and the sky is the limit or maybe the roof for now.

The Rule of Thirds

The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

Wow, what the heck does that mean? It means you draw a tick-tack-toe (imaginary) drawing on your viewfinder or monitor. The idea is that the person’s head splits one of the lines drawn from top to bottom. The person is now in one third of your picture, left side or right. Ok, that is a start, and wait there’s more.

The TV screen has always been a 3:4 aspect ratio. Now with the advent of HDTV, we are seeing 16:9 TV framing with a lot more room from left to right. And the thought is; do we still work with the Rule of Thirds. Sure why not.

The thing to come up with is how close to the top of the screen do I put a person’s head? Movies will do an extreme close-up where the top frame of the screen cuts the head just above the eyebrows. On TV some documentaries will zoom in to that when they feel that a question will elicit an emotion or possible crying on camera. Just for effect or as some may say, real emotional shooting.

Ok, so how should I frame my shot? I used to use the REC word on my view finder. I would put the top of the head line up with the top of the REC word. That would give me some headroom. I would also place their arm/shoulder against the side of my viewfinder. I keep the same framing for the whole shoot. That is just my style, but I’m ready to zoom in/out if I have to. Or I hope my camera person is. Remember, you want a camera person who is listening to the interview, and you may want him to change framing when needed if that is the style you want. Of course you did have that talk with him.

When I first started shooting, we use to change framing every third questions to help in post with jump cuts. Today that is a thing of the past. Jump cutting is done on purpose. What use to be a no-no for videographer years ago is now common ground today for making documentaries?

All in all, these ideas are just a point to start from, and then you make all the adjustments that eventually become comfortable for you, and eventually your style. You will find videographers that may not agree with what I have to say. But this is just my opinion and a jumping off point for starting out. You got to start somewhere, right?

What say you?

Andre Campbell
139WestProductions.com