When composing group shots, add variation to the characters placement and body angles to make it more interesting. In this first shot, the group is composed around one central figure. The foreground figure a bit separate. As a side theory, the eye lines are focused on several different places.
In this shot the group is again composed nicely, the lines of action are varied, and there is also a single focus for the characters eye lines: they are all focused on the same thing.
In this shot, there is the variation in placement and line of action, plus the same single focal point.
Many of the movies produced by George Pal have this quality, here in "When Worlds Collide" (1951) and also in "War of the Worlds" from 1953. Although Pal did not direct these pictures, his influence as an artist is clearly displayed.
3 comments:
Hi Jim! I wonder if George had the layout planned on storyboards or played around with "stand ins".
Hey Thiago,
Thanks for the comment.
I'm not sure, as a cartoonist he must have planned the shots somehow, though the director may have worked with him on that. He had done a lot of great animation over the years and had keen eye for artistic composition. I would be interested in knowing the way he worked.
cool stuff Jim! A good dose of learnin! If you ever had a drawing course I would gladly pay to be part of it!
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