Getting Started: Composition: A Work of Video Art

As a videographer, you get to wear many hats. When you wear the hat of the historian, for example, you record significant events for future reference. The storyteller's cap, on the other hand, compels you to relate a visual tale, with a beginning, a middle and an end.

The artist's hat, on the other hand, brings out the Bohemian in you, putting you in a league with Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh. When you have your artist's hat on, the light becomes your palette and the camcorder your canvas. You no longer simply "shoot" footage--that is too pedestrian. You create--dare I say "compose"--works of visual art.

Good composition is perhaps the most difficult skill for the videographer to master, largely because it is often a matter of personal taste. You must compose visual imagery with your own eyes knowing that the eyes of others will judge your work.

So how can you hedge your bets? What can you do to ensure that your video appeals to the broadest audience possible? There are some guidelines for good video composition we'll review here. Let's begin with the basic rule every videographer should live by.

The Golden Rule of Thirds
Centuries ago, artists in the ancient world discovered that if you paint or otherwise position objects on a rectangular canvas at certain predictable points, the eye will more easily flow across the canvas and the overall effect would be more harmonious than simply placing them haphazardly in the picture.

These artists devised mathematical ways of splitting the canvas so that they would know where to place their images for greatest effect. The result was known as the Golden Mean, and artists throughout the ages have used it to compose pleasant-looking pictures that are easy to look at.