When it comes to filmmaking, I’m “concepts over rules” every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

If you missed the Single Shot article on “Compression and Release”, you can check out the cheat sheet here - it’s a really nice concept to help you frame shots.

This week’s composition concept is similar - Lines of Tension. The base idea is really simple; imagine that your characters have elastic running between them. The more that stretches out (either within the 2D frame, or through the depth of the shot), the more tension you’re placing in the frame.

This works for two characters, but also groups (imagine a school child isolated outside of a friendship group - the further they’re placed from the group, the more you’re selling the tension)

Check out how far apart Sergio Leone placed his actors in the stand-off in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. That creates a tension in the wides, which then gets put on steroids when he intercuts with ECU/XCU shots of the eyes and hands (I’m using the correct terminology to reinforce the “Shot Sizes” article from last week!)

Get to grips with digital colour using our juicy interactive explainer here →