Secret 14 -- Diagonal lines
Another way to add visual interest to your shots is to look for compositional elements that add diagonal lines to your shots. The diagonal line will draw the viewer’s eye, so you look for lines that lead the viewer’s eye to the most important element in the picture.
Diagonals
Secret 15 -- Triangles
Painters have used triangles to give visual interest to paintings for hundreds of years. You can create a visual triangle by framing your shot so that three dominant elements in a scene are at the points of an imaginary triangle. The audience will subconsciously “create” a story from the three elements.
Inspired by such available-light and low budget films like Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi and Jon Jost's Frameup, filmmaker Tony Levelle set out on a mission to learn how to do the same. He had the good fortune to attend a seminar by Dorothy Fadiman who not only finished all the films she started and got every film into distribution, but kept them there! He eventually worked with Fadiman and his co-authored book - PRODUCING WITH PASSION: Making Films That Change the World - is the result of their collaboration to share these techniques with others. The quality of this book so impressed the publisher (MWP) that even before it was finished they signed Tony to solo author DIGITAL VIDEO SECRETS: What the Pros Know and The Manuals Don't Tell You. Tony exemplifies the qualities all filmmakers need to survive: passion, persistence and vision.
