Rule of Thirds

As an up and coming Journalist being 'multi-skilled' is becoming very important and a key aspect of this is transforming froma a standard journalist into a videojournalist (VJ). A key lesson we have been going over recently was the rule of thirds when interviewing or filming shots for our news packages.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unleashingmephotography/ / CC BY 2.0

The rule of thirds: Splitting your screen into thirds like the image on the left is important as it gives you four main

focus points. You should place your subject into one third, with their eye or nose crossing over one

of the lines (see image below). This should leave your interviewee with two thirds looking room. The subject's looking room should be in the direction of the reporter who should be stood to the side of the camera (this also helps to encourage the interviewee to look at the reporter and not into the camera.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamorphic/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This video here helps explain the rule of thirds but more from a cinema/film making point of view, although the same principles still apply: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFUGAV2dqM

The user 'video maker' on youtube has numerous videos with hints and tips for making films etc which may be of use to journalism students so you can check some of them out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/videomaker

Hopefully they can be of use to some fellow students!