From the course: Cinematic Composition for Video Productions

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Lead room

Lead room

- One of the beautiful aspects of film and video is that it can completely draw us in and transport us from our everyday world. To accomplish this successfully, a piece must force us to forget that we are watching a two-dimensional projection on a clearly defined rectangular shape. As a director, you definitely want to keep the viewer's attention away from the edges of the frame. We can accomplish this by providing an ample amount of lead room between our subjects and the edges of the image. Lead room refers to the empty space between the subject and the border of the frame. In other words, it is about framing what is not in the frame; something especially important when filming people. Whether it is on the street or on a big screen, it is in our nature to follow the gaze of a person, to see what they are looking at. So when a character is positioned at the edge of a frame and staring off the edges of the screen, it is rather unsettling for the viewer. This can create a claustrophobic…

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