Winning with Composition

The Martian invasion squadron was headed in full force down Main Street, both their antennae and their disintegration ray guns glinting menacingly in the sun.

Despite this menace of poised, certain destruction, Yuri's nephew, Denver, was nowhere to be seen.

"Look", Yuri had said to me when shooting began, "My no-good nephew just failed out of business school and I have to give him a job." He looked hard at me, "Because I know I can trust you until I fire you, I am giving you a promotion."

Denver was going to be second unit director and my job was to keep him from screwing up Underwater Alien Attack IV: The Mayhem. Great.

The aliens prepared for their attack, evil looking ray-guns raised. "Where's Denver?"

"I'm up here!" came a voice from the trees to my left.

"What are you doing in the tree?" I shouted up at him.

"I'm videotaping the alien invasion!" he bellowed back.

"Denver," I called up, trying not to lose patience, 'you can't shoot this scene from up there."

"Why not?"

"Because you're shooting directly into the sun."

"I can't do that?"

"No," I said," you can't do that".

"Hey," he replied, with a searching bravado, "I make my own rules!"

"I know you do, Denver, but you can't do that either."

I realized what Denver needed was a crash course in shot composition and camera placement. He had a tendency to put the camera in random positions, without regard to the scene, or what we were trying to convey.