What are your favorite framing/blocking/lighting techniques?

Wilbur Eddings

Wilbur Eddings

Well-known member
I aint no DP, I direct so please forgive the lingo fail here n there.

My DP throws me a verbal beating every now and then because I love shooting really tight one or two shots on any kind of dialog.

So I'll chat about my favorite medium.

My favorite technique when shooting a medium (Just above the belly button to just below the crown of the head) is to make sure there is all sorts of contrasting crap in the background.
If my character wears black, I'll try and fill the bokeh with reds.

I hate plain, untextured stuff in the background. It makes the frame feel dead for me.

Basically I'll keep the character as far from the wall as the space allows and place furniture, plants etc. at different intervals with as natural light as possible as a key light and back light the different bits and pieces very subtly.


Exterior shots are great when there are a lot of trees or deep variations of buildings behind the principle. (Also with contrasting textures and colors to the principle).



Go on, share your techniques and tips, especially you DP's with brains and stuff!

Don't worry about lingo, words like 'thingie' and 'wachamacallit' are perfectly legal technical terms on my sets! (As long as you have a pointing finger we are fine).
 
by placing something contrasty you are risking to take away from the real interest of the scene - your actors delivering lines/performance. Especially if your actors are wearing relatively bland black clothes and you place red objects in the background.
 
Contrast is not just light/dark and/or colors. it can be shapes and sizes and patterns too.

I like to use patterns in the background and use solids on the talent. To me, that makes them stand out a lot, even more than colors/light can sometimes.

No wrong way of doing it, just what works and what doesn't.
 
While longer focal lengths serve obvious purposes outside

cow_road_warrior.jpg


You can gain new landscapes inside as well:

couch_smile.jpg


mother_daughter.jpg
 
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