Framing means deciding what the viewer sees, and above all what they do not see. Every shot answers three questions: how far away, from what height, and where the subject sits inside the rectangle of the image. These choices tell the story as much as the script does. Below, we go through shot sizes, camera angles, composition rules (with our own original diagrams), aspect ratio, and then the visual signature of twelve directors. We finish with how we apply all of this to corporate video.<\/p>\n
The frame is a window: whatever enters it becomes meaningful, whatever stays off-screen becomes suggestion. A face cut by the edge of the image does not feel like a face surrounded by air. So a framing is never \u201cbeautiful\u201d or \u201cugly\u201d in the abstract: it is right or wrong for the intention. The question to ask before every shot is simple: what should the viewer feel at this exact moment?<\/p>\n
The guidelines below are working habits, not laws. Great directors know them well enough to break them at the right moment, and so should anyone who films for a living.<\/p>\n
Shot size describes how much of the subject is visible in the frame. The closer we get, the more attention goes to emotion and the less to context. Here are the eight sizes we use every day.<\/p>\n