IAT 101 New Media Images

1. IAT 101New Media Images composition

2. Composition What is composition ?

3. Composition What is composition ? Composition is creating a skeleton on which to ‘hang’ the individual elements of your work.

4. Composition Goal of composition?

5. Composition Goal of composition? • To create unity between elements. • To focus viewer attention (center of interest) and create a visual hierarchy (movement between elements). There are many ways of doing this. How you do it will depend upon how you want the composition to support Character and Meaning.

6. Still vs. Motion Picture Composition Still Image: May suggest motion but deals in “space” relationships (singular frame). Motion Picture Composition: A motion picture, on the other had, is composed in both space and time. For This lecture we are dealing with Single Frame (still Image) composition.

7. Still vs. Motion Picture Composition

8. Still vs. Motion Picture Composition The Principles (the how) • Balance • Contrast • Movement • Emphasis • Pattern • Proportion • Unity The Elements (the what) • Line • Shapes • Forms • Space • Color • Texture

9. Still vs. Motion Picture Composition “Thesis” of reading pp. 198 “A motion picture cameraman, however, can simply center a moving image in his finder and regardless of poor composition, improper placement in the frame, unsatisfactory background or numerous other pictorial faults, HOLD VIEWER ATTENTION through sheer movement alone!.”

10. Still vs. Motion Picture Composition What this means: • Goal of these techniques is to hold/switch viewer attention (center of interest). • How you hold/switch attention should maintain harmony with the other elements. • The techniques you select to create a center of interest should support the overall concept and character.

11. Good Camera Work Begins with Composition Good: Thoughtful composition and purposeful movement. Pitfalls: Hold viewer attention through movement – sometimes necessary but can be over used.

12. Composition: An Approach • Center of Interest • Visual Hierarchy • Balance

13. Composition: An Approach • Center of Interest • Isolation • Placement • Contrast (value, colour, light, focus) • Visual Hierarchy • Suggested Movement: Lines and transitional lines (suggested lines between shapes) • Actual Movement (both camera and object) • Balance: • Pictorial Weight (Informal Balance) • Approximate Symmetry (Formal Balance) • Geometric Shape

14. Center of Interest Techniques to achieve and/or switch Center of Interest • Position • Lighting • Tonal values (contrast) • Colours • Selective focusing • Movement • Action • Sound

15. Center of Interest Dominant Placement Placement: Each picture should have only one principal idea, topic, or center of interest to which the viewer's eyes are attracted. Subordinate elements within the picture must support and focus attention on the principal feature so it alone is emphasized.

16. Center of Interest Positioning the Center of Interest

17. Black Narcissus, Cinematography Jack Cardiff

18. Center of Interest Creating Dominant Placement Isolation: is a kind of placement -- where something is put. An item that stands apart from its surroundings will be more noticeable. This is not likely to make an item be noticed first but can make one item stand out.

19. Center of Interest Contrast: Tonal, Colour, Light Contrast: addresses the notion of dynamic tension, the degree of conflict that exists within a given design between the visual elements in the composition.

20. Center of Interest Selective Focus Focus: Using depth-of-field to draw attention to an element in the frame.

21. Colour contrast Bladerunner Tonal contrast Wings of Desire

22. Visual Hierarchy: Movement A still photographs freezes the Decisive Moment . It can only suggest motion. Still Photograph: Composed in Space Motion Picture: Composed in Space & Time

23. Visual Hierarchy: Movement Eye Scan Within Frame: Directing the user to a specific element within the frame Between Frames: Viewers make connections between adjacent frames.

24. Visual Hierarchy: Movement Movement: Direction & Rhythm Movement: Movement in an image is made up of both Rhythm between the elements and the Direction in which the eye moves. In Motion Pictures movement may be both suggested and depicted.

25. Visual Hierarchy: Movement Significant Movement Good motion picture scenes are the result of thoughtful compositionsand significant movement. Undesirable Movement distracts from the primary action.

26. Still from Seven Samurai 1954 – Suggested Movement

27. Camera movement Reservoir Dogs Object movement Sky Captain

28. Balance Balance: The arrangement of the objects in a given design as it relates to their visual weight within a composition. Factors Affecting Balance: -Size, -Location -Isolation -Brightness -Color -Movement

29. Balance A balanced composition is sub-consciously agreeable. An unbalanced composition is unsettling or disturbing. Balanced Unbalanced

30. Balance Formal Balance: Approximate Symmetry Formal Balance: Formal or Symmetrical balance occurs when the weight of a composition is evenly distributed around a central vertical or horizontal axis. When symmetry occurs with similar, but not identical, forms it is called approximate symmetry.

31. Balance Informal Balance: Visual Weighting InformalBalance: Informal Balance is achieved when the elements within a composition are of differing weights, tones, colors, and placement. Balance is achieved by equalizing the force of the elements within the frame.

32. Balance Images from Vertigo (1958)

33. Balance Black Narcissus, Cinematography Jack Cardiff

34. The Elements Lines Forms Mass

35. Lines The most basic element of design Compositional Lines: Contour lines are created by the people, props, trees, architecture and other objects in a scene. Imaginary Lines: Transitional lines are created by the eye while watching objects and people moving around in space.

36. Lines

37. Form Physical Forms:The shape of a physical object created by it contour lines. Abstract Forms:The shape created by the spatial arrangement of players and objects in relation to one another. Common Forms: -Triangle -Circle -Cross -Radiating Lines -L-Shaped

38. Balance Jules et Jim, Cinematography Raoul Coutard

39. Balance Dial M for Murder, DirectorAlfred Hitchcock

40. Mass The Pictorial weight of an Object Single Mass: An isolated object Unified Mass: A group of objects or figures in close proximity that combine into a dominant element. Characteristics of Mass: -Contrast -Color -Size -Lighting -Compactness

41. Balance Black Narcissus, Cinematography Jack Cardiff

42. Black Narcissus, Cinematography Jack Cardiff

43. Examples

44. Balance A BOUT DE Souffle Cinematography Jack Cardiff

45. Composition: An Approach • Center of Interest • Isolation • Placement • Contrast (value, colour, light, focus) • Visual Hierarchy • Suggested Movement: Lines and transitional lines (suggested lines between shapes) • Actual Movement (both camera and object) • Balance: • Pictorial Weight (Informal Balance) • Approximate Symmetry (Formal Balance) • Geometric Shape

48. Diane Arbus