Hi, my name is Tony and this is a quick Every Frame a Painting.
One of the best compliments you can give a movie is that it just feels alive.
There’s something in there that has a pulse, that's unpredictable.
It’s not just the story or the actors, it’s in the frames themselves.
Consider this short scene from Nicolas Winding Refn’s "Drive".
At first glance, it doesn’t seem all that special.
But check this out. Cover up half the frame. Notice that the right side of frame
tells an entire story about these characters on its own
and the left side tells another complimentary story.
So a shot that could have told one thing actually tells two.
And instead of being bored, our eyes are constantly switching between the two halves of the screen.
This time, the dynamic isn’t left and right, but top and bottom.
--Hi --Hi
--Oh you two know each other. --Don't.
Up here, we have a beautiful triangle of faces,
and a composition full of vertical and diagonal lines.
But check out what’s happening below.
Even though we’re not consciously thinking about it,
the bottom half of this frame tells an entire story through the hands of the actors.
--Oh you two know each other. --Don't.
--Oh look at that. --We're neighbors.
--Neighbors? Very good. Well, we'll try to be neighborly, too.
And when we say a film is alive, this is part of what we mean.
There are subtleties of storytelling and behavior not just where we look,
but where we don’t look. And as you watch Drive you start to see the pattern.
Almost every shot has a compositional balance
between left and right, and also top and bottom.
A quadrant.
At first, this might seem restrictive. But using this basic tool,
watch how the director takes a conventional scene and does unconventional things.
As the Driver enters, he’s up in the top-left,
so naturally we assume the next shot will have the other person in top-right.
But instead...
Once the shots move closer, we get two characters short-sided like this
with tons of space behind them. Even though they want to talk...
there are other obligations.
Once the two men confront each other, notice they occupy the same quadrant,
with their eyes in the same spot because they’re fighting for the same position.
Meanwhile, Irene is framed top-right or dead-center, the object of their affections.
Even though she’s out of focus, watch her performance.
-- That's very nice. That's nice of you. Thank you.
The scene finally pays off in this image, balanced between top-left and bottom-right,
letting us visually compare the two men and see the long shadow one casts towards the other.
Even though we’ve seen this exit door since the first shot of the scene, the visual payoff is actually unexpected.
And the director, by emphasizing different quadrants,
can create shots that are both tightly composed and weirdly unpredictable.
--All these priceless cars. One would think you'd have better locks.
If you enjoyed this, feel free to play around with quadrants. They’re a very old simple tool.
And you shouldn’t copy Refn, just start with the same toolbox and see what you come up with.
Remember, you don't need steadicams or cranes or drones or the latest 4K whatever.
You need top, bottom, left, right,
and the good sense for how to put them all together.
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