- 1). Know your subject and where it belongs in frame. Place your subject slightly off-center for an informational, documentary or "talking head" piece. Putting a subject slightly off-center allows the subject to have "look room," where the subject appears to be interacting with the environment. Place a subject dead center and you risk making the shot look static or uninteresting.
- 2). Try positioning the camera at a higher or lower angle than your subject. High or low angles define the relation between the subject and the camera's point of view. A person filmed upward from a low angle, for instance, will look large and powerful, while a person filmed downward from a high angle will look smaller and more vulnerable. High or low angles can also indicate a character's perception of the subject, if done from that character's point of view.
- 3). Frame a close-up to show a character's emotions. A close-up on the subject's face allows the character's emotions to be much more readable than at any other angle, and thus allows the viewer to connect emotionally to the subject. Only perform close-ups on characters that matter.
- 4). Frame your shots at different heights. Adjust camera levels to capture the sympathetic subject in the frame. Altering camera height between shots is especially useful in a dialogue between two characters of different heights.
- 5). Try canted framing. Canted framing occurs when the camera is slightly off-kilter, with either the left or right side lower or higher than the other. Use canted framing to capture chaos.
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