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lines. One of the most important movements with which you will deal in video is the movement created by the human face. The direction in which a person looks or walks creates a very strong movement in that direction; it is a force that needs to be neutralized in some form within the frame, usually with lead room—empty space in the two-thirds of the screen in front of the person.

Composing Specific Shots

Just as shots can be described by their focal lengths to communicate the size of the subject within the frame (WS, MS, CU), there are specific shots that can be called by their common names. Their execution is done by convention. The most common specialty shot is the interview. When a producer or reporter says, “Let’s set up for an interview,” they have a spe- cific style of framing in mind. The conditions of the location or situation or artistic inspiration can change this, but for the most part an interview shot looks the same from Maine to California, from small town local news to the networks.

The Interview Shot

The basic framing of the interview shot is the head and shoulders of the subject, hence the name talking

head. The standard reference point for where the bot- tom frame line would cut the subject is the “necktie knot.” If the subject, man or woman, were wearing a tie, the bottom of the frame would be just below the knot. A looser version of this shot cuts them off at the top of the breast pocket. A shot tighter than the neck- tie is sometimes called a “choker.” To simplify all the compositional information we learned above, there are two basic rules for framing the talking head and hav- ing it look good every time.

1. Never let the subject’s eyes go below the horizontal centerline of the screen. If the focal length changes from the waist up to a close-up of the face, the eyes of the subject should always be in the upper half of the screen, somewhere on or near the upper-third (using the rule of thirds). (See Figure 4-21.)

2. Keep the tip of the subject’s nose on the vertical centerline of the screen. If the subject is talking to a reporter off camera, you will notice that this rule puts the subject’s head slightly off cen- ter, somewhere on or near either the left or right third (again applying the rule of thirds). Because the subject is not talking to the viewer directly, this type of framing leaves look space in front of the subject. This space helps balance the shot asymmetrically; it counters the move- ment created by the direction of the subject’s eye line; and it also implies that someone is there just out of the frame. That implication becomes yet another force in the dynamics of the picture. You can start to see how these sim- ple rules support the concepts of composition. You may at times want to include the interviewer in the shot. If this is the case, you must pay close at- tention to the balance of the picture; you don’t want the reporter to be the figure and the subject to be- come the ground. If only a portion of the reporter’s head is in the frame, make sure the subject is not cen- tered, but off to the other side. As more of the re- porter is seen, make sure you are using the tools of composition (e.g., rule of thirds) to keep the subject the main point of interest.

As mentioned above, the standard framing for the talking head should be tight enough to show the sub-

Figure 4-20 The subject is composed well in relation to the leading lines (sides of bridge), but the lamp is positioned so it becomes part of the figure instead of ground, appearing to stand atop his head.

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ject’s face clearly on the average TV screen. In the case of chokers, as on a probing interview on 60 Minutes, the framing may be extremely tight. You will notice that as the top frame line closes in on the face using the rules stated above, it begins to cut off the top of the head. One of the biggest fights you will ever have over composition with coworkers will be over this ef- fect. Untrained producers will call for head room or scream that the top of the head is cut off; they can’t see all of the subject’s hair. Take refuge in the concepts of good composition. By allowing the face to slip to the bottom half of the frame (eyes below the mid- point) you add weight to the hair of the subject (top

of the screen is heavier) and thereby throw the picture out of balance.

The edges of the frame have a force all their own. As an object begins to near or partially exit any side of the frame, the frame acts as a pull on that object. For a talking head, the face is the center of interest and therefore the main element. When it sinks toward the bottom of the frame, it appears to fall out of that frame. The hair being cut off by the top of the frame produces a feeling of the subject rising, but because the hair is not a major element or focus of the picture, its force carries little weight and is easily countered by

Figure 4-21 (A) The subject is framed with her entire head, placing her face too low—her eyes are not at the upper third. (B) The subject’s face is framed too high, as if she is pushing out of the top of the frame. (C) The subject’s head is framed dead center, leaving too little room in the direction she is looking. (D) A properly framed head for this focal length—her eyes are at the upper third and the look space in the left two-thirds balances her head in the right third.

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