I was thinking about my dad over the weekend and recalled several lessons he taught me in filmmaking. One was about dynamic composition with a moving camera. Composition is something taught heavily to still photographers, but is rarely taught to cinematographers.

Dynamic film composition is a tool used by the director of photography to support the director’s visual choices for telling his story. Simply put, it is the composing and recomposing of a shot while the camera or actors are moving. The camera must encompass the same visual rhythm the director implements with the actors, and the duration of each shot must take into consideration the affects of perception it has on the audience.

The cinematographer must start with the understanding that his composition will create an immediate, instinctual response in the eye of the audience. He must also understand that each viewer will have a different ability to understand the composition, thereby affecting the way each viewer emotes in accordance with the story.

Strong composition within a still picture can quickly help a cinematographer understand the audience’s eye movement, just like shooting from a locked down camera. However, movement in this decade is king, and every shot requires a variety of camera adjustments to capture a frame that stirs the emotions.

The following elements impact the effectiveness of dynamic composition:

• A subject moving in or out of frame.
• The anticipation of a subject moving in or out of frame.
• A shift in focus from a background to a foreground subject and visa versa.
• A change in texture from hard to soft focus.
• Strong movement of a subject within a static frame.
• The variation of close-up and long shots.
• The camera following a subject.
• The synchronization of the actors to the camera movement.
• The blocking of the actors to isolate a character within the right focal plane.
• The movement of the camera on a dolly, crane, or jib.
• The camera’s angle to sightlines.

I know I’m missing several examples, but I believe the importance of blocking the shots for significance is understood, especially when the camera is in motion. The more movements the camera or actors execute, the more adjustments are required on focus, framing, and set up.

The duration of a shot and the expectation of the audience also play a significant role in dynamic composition. The longer the duration, the easier it is for the audience to discern the elements of a shot and make certain mental or emotional judgments. The faster the shot, the more instinctual or intuitive the scene has to play out in order to keep the audience focused on the story.

The director works with the cinematographer much the same way a conductor works with a musician. He desires to capture the right mood, feel and emotion in a shot, just as a conductor generates the same from the score. Both seek to bring a unique experience to the audience and a variety of rhythm. The director takes the audience on an emotional journey that heightens at the climax and soon resolves into having had a great motion picture experience.

Visual rhythm seems to be an overlooked art today, while still being the most important aspect of a movie. The films most easily studied to understand dynamic composition includes:

• The Battleship Potemkin
• Ivan the Terrible
• Stagecoach
• The French Connection

While other films can be studied, the above films were built around the impact of its visual rhythm. Some directors take this visual technique beyond the camera and work closely with production designers and costume designers to help them heighten the impact of a story’s emotional pulse. The director owns the depth to which the team will work on the visual rhythm of the story, but the cinematographer is responsible for his team capturing it.

Copyright © 2012 By CJ Powers

This blog is being written by voice command. It is a new feature offered by Apple computers and the latest version of Mountain Lion software. It’s designed to allow the operator to speak their thoughts at a quicker pace than they could type. I find it a bit awkward, as I’m used to thinking and typing when I construct my sentences.

New technology always gets my mind reeling about its many possible uses. For instance, if I were giving a lecture or speaking at a conference, I could possibly record my voice and make a book available by the end of the conference. It would include the exact information I shared, similar to a published transcript of the event.

Many speakers are aware that certain ideas pop into their mind during the middle of a talk and each one of those new thoughts could be captured in real time for a future book. Unfortunately the bandwidth and the database size aren’t sufficient enough to keep up with a speaker. But, it would give the speaker an opportunity to work from the written text of their talk without first having to transcribe it from an audio file or videotape.

This new technology takes time to get used to as well as practice. The more I’m using it, the easier it gets. Aside from the convenience factor that might make it appealing, I can still type a lot faster than I can speak, while constructing new literary thoughts in my head. There is something about the process that makes the old way work better for me.

I’m not opposed to speaking my text instead of typing it, but what I say and how I say it seems to be significantly different than how I think and write. Even after speaking this blog into existence, I found myself going back to the keyboard to make alterations for readability. In fact, I found that typing this paragraph took me half the amount of time than each of the above spoken paragraphs. Of course, that could be due to my experience and comfort level in the old process.

The only other issue that I struggle with is speaking text out loud, which requires a room with less noise than I have at times. It might also require more privacy. Since most of my blogs were typed during my morning train commute, I would find it difficult speaking out loud and disturbing those around me. After all, they didn’t ask me to share my ideas with them.

I taught writing workshops last weekend at the Karitos Art Festival. My classes were filled with artists desiring to take their skills to a new higher level. The participation was excellent and the class was filled with laughter, knowledge and real examples that made several feel like they could achieve more than they had thought possible.

One screenwriter was amazed at how easy her story flowed after implementing a simple technique that I want to share in this blog. I call it the “3X5 card brainstorming effect.”

STEP ONE: Review your great Logline and come up with as many scene ideas as possible. Write each idea on a 3X5 card and stick it randomly on the wall. Do not spend too much time writing details on the cards, but write enough to jog the memory of the scene created during the brainstorming session.

STEP TWO: Once Step One has been exhausted, read the Logline again from the viewpoint of an old lady. Again, quickly write each idea on a card and randomly post it on the wall.

STEP THREE: Continue Step Two using different perspectives. Write from the vantage point of a child, prison guard, chimney sweep, etc. Each perspective will give new insights into various key elements that will make up the final story.

STEP FOUR: Review the wall of cards and organize them into logical groupings, patterns or linear thought tracks. Determine which cards support the theme of the story and mark them accordingly. Determine what cards move the story forward and mark them for plot “A”.

STEP FIVE: Organize the cards into 8 sequences that tell the best story. Make sure there is a linear flow to the story by adding in transition cards or salting in “B” or “C” plot cards.

STEP SIX: Turn each card into a paragraph so it reads like a story. Sit back, relax and read the story to see if it is entertaining, poignant or riveting. Change the paragraphs that don’t move the story forward and keep the ones that build a desire to read the next paragraph. Anything that is great, but doesn’t seem to fit, place it in a draw for your next project.

These six simple steps make the building of the first draft’s story structure fun and imaginative. It’s a fast process that allows the writer to quickly explore an idea to determine if it has enough merit to deserve hundreds of hours developing it into a story for the silver screen. And, it saves a lot of wasted time on those great concepts that don’t flesh out well enough to be worthy of more time.