STAGING

COMPOSITION
 STAGING
• Staging is the placement of cameras, actors, and set
pieces.
• Staging can make the visuals interesting or it can make
them bland.
• Staging a scene properly allows the viewers to be scared
when you need them to be, laugh when you want them to, and
to always understand what is happening.
• Bad staging can confuse the audience.
• Great staging can make each and early frame a work of art.
 COMPOSITION
• Composition is much like staging, but it refers
specifically to the visual layout of each frame, how the
Visual elements in the frame balance each other, like in
a painting.

• The best way to learn staging and composition is to watch

well-directed and well-designed movies.

• The trick is to watch them with the sound turned off.

This is important because it’s very easy to get swept
into the story of a good movie. With the sound off, it’s
easier to pay attention to the staging of the scenes and
not the story. Try this with any Spielberg, Cameron,
Hitchcock, Wu, Lean, Coppola, or Pixar film.
THE RULE OF THIRDS
GOLDEN RATIO
BALANCE
• SYMMETRICAL & ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE

• BALANCED BY SHADE AND TEXTURE

• BALANCED BY VALUE AND COLOR

• BALANCED BY POSITION & EYE DIRECTION

DEPTH IN THE FRAME

1. Overlapping objects

2. Changes in focus or depth of field

3. Color shifts
REFERENCES

Storyboard: Motion in art, Mark Simon – 3rd edition, 2007

From Word to Image - Storyboarding and the film making

process, Marcie Begleiter, 2001

Storyboard Design Course, Giuseppe Cristiano, 2007

Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and

Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation, 2009