Interview Composition

To keep all my interviews consistent I decided to set about planning how I would compose them. As I have some experience there are a few set rules that I think are good to follow. The first is where to position the person on screen. I generally keep to a rough grid of thirds, with the interviewees eye-line on the upper third line and the centre of the face just inside the vertical third lines. I think this is a fairly tried and tested compositional method that has always worked for me and countless others.

The next thing I always to is make sure that when they are looking at me (or whoever is doing the interview) they are looking across the largest part of negative space in the frame. This ensures the composition is 'closed off' rather than having someone looking awkwardly out of the frame, this is also known as 'looking room' or 'lead space' is the subject is moving. Keeping a small amount of headroom and not chopping off the top of peoples heads is also essential for making sure the subject isn't awkwardly framed. In terms of which side the subject is on, I will try to alternate left and right as I interview to make sure there is and even balance.