Cinematography Tip #1 Rule Of Thirds

The rule of thirds is breaking the shot up into three sections up and down, so it'll look like this:

The rule of thirds states that you should usually place your "main items of attraction" on these spots:

If you have an actor in frame with a medium close-up you want their eyes on that top line like this:

Of course you want to follow the point of gaze rule. Point of gaze is where the gaze of your actor leads. like the man above, his gaze points to the left. We want to fill up the space with his gaze so we place him to the right of the shot. The man below however has bad point of gaze. It is immediately cut off. But it's a good shot. Why?

If the man was all alone and nothing significant was behind him, this would look terrible. But behind him is another man on the couch and framed biking shirts. Those are significant. It shows there is more to the shot. 

Therefore we do NOT want someone or something in the center, UNLESS you are breaking that rule, but remember, you first have to know the rule to be able to break it and you always have to have a reason you are doing it, something that adds to the shot and story, not just because it's different. This is what happens, when the rule of thirds is not implemented. This does not look good.

The next thing I will bring to your attention about this amazing rule of thirds is head room. The man above has way too much head room. If you were doing the same shot but with less head room to the point where you cut-off part of his head, would look awful as well. The closer they are, the more head room you can take away. Here's a good example. In the first picture she has too little head room. The second, too much head room, but the third is a good balance.

The head room and rule of thirds will always change depending on how close or how far the thing you are filming is from you. Take our first picture. He is in line with the rule of thirds.

This woman below is further away from the camera but is still in line with the rule of thirds. It does not ALWAYS have to end up with the eyes on the top line. 

Now there is a function on most cameras that will come up with this grid on you screen. I would avoid using it because then you get sucked into "is her eyes on the line?" "is this perfectly on the line?" which takes away from something that might look better. In your head you already know what the thirds is. You've seen enough movies and pictures to know where something would be pleasing to the eye to have it. I say use your best judgement, but always keep this in mind.

-Sirwhovian, Out!