Hidden Secrets of a Cinematic Composition – How It Guides Viewers’ Perception

Filmmakers make hundreds of decisions when they point a camera at something. Movement, lens choice, framing, and use of color are just a few tools that tell the story, along with a team supporting the process and a director as the conductor. You don’t need to know how to play every instrument (or how to apply SFX make-up, to use filmmaking language). However, you should be aware of how visual choices affect the audience, and understand this “secret sauce” called “cinematic composition.” Let’s talk about some less obvious tips, tricks, and examples below!

This article is based on Tal Lazar’s lesson from his MZed course “Cinematography for Directors.” Tal is an experienced filmmaker and educator with a deep knowledge of storytelling tools. Here, we will only be able to feature some of the cinematic composition secrets that he reveals.

However, if you want to embark on this insightful journey with him from beginning to end, head over here.

Cinematic composition creates a connection

What terms and images come to mind when you hear the words “cinematic composition?” The rule of thirds? The golden ratio? Negative space? For me, the first intuitive responses feature specific techniques, like perfect symmetry in shots or headroom imbalance.

In his course, Tal Lazar defines composition simply as:

The intentional arrangement of elements within an image.

Intention is really the keyword here. Nothing should be random. Even if something is random and a result of a mistake, the audience will assume it was placed there with a purpose. That’s how our brain works: It is wired to find meaning, to connect the dots. Take this example from the film “An Education:“

When we look at this framing, we may assume that the woman in the foreground is reacting to the man in the background, although that might not be the case at all. Maybe she just doesn’t feel well.

That’s why cinematic composition is so powerful: it creates connections between things on screen, even if they’re not actually related. Tal urges us to always remember that and use elements in the frame intentionally.

The arrangement of visual elements is important

The second important thing to keep in mind is the arrangement of said elements. What is closer to the camera, what is further away, what is placed in the corner, and what is in the middle of the frame – and, more importantly, how they work together. But before we dive into the cinematic language, let’s learn the words. Here are the main building blocks, or visual elements of the image, as Tal lists them. (We wrote about some of them in detail before, so I’ll link the corresponding articles for further reading.)

• Lines – of different types and qualities – can direct the audience’s attention and raise the intensity of the scene.
• Forms & shapes – we’ll talk about the biggest “troublemakers” below.
• Space – deep space, flat space, depth cues, and everything in between.
• Value – brightness and darkness.
• Color – not only important for the style and aesthetic of the film, but also an essential storytelling tool.
• Texture – often overseen, yet so powerful! (We observe some prominent examples here.)
• Movement – and the various stories it tells.

The real cinematic power lies in making these elements interact. That’s where contrast and affinity come in. Contrast is difference. Affinity is similarity. If everything in your image looks the same, nothing stands out. When something breaks that pattern, it immediately draws attention.

As Tal explains, we’re accustomed to thinking about contrast as brightness vs darkness, or light vs shadow. However, it actually has lots of meanings. It can be in tone (funny vs sad), in direction (moving up vs down), in color, and so on.

Context also matters for cinematic composition

Let’s consider those visual elements as words in a film language. Just like in real life, context can affect the meaning of a particular word. That’s why it is our filmmaker’s task to establish the grammar of the film and teach it to the audience. Tal Lazar calls it “associative use of visual elements.” Basically, we need to establish a clear link between each visual element we use and the meaning it carries within our cinematic world.

For example, in Fincher’s mystery thriller “Zodiac,” the newsroom is brightly lit, because that’s where truth is supposed to come to light. Darkness is used for places where truth is hidden. Over time, the audience unconsciously learns this language.

What shape is the most intense?

There are tons of visual secrets that can help you build your scenes with intention and affect the audience emotionally. Let’s start with the simplest ones.

Horizontal and vertical lines in the image composition feel stable. Calm. Diagonal ones, on the contrary, create intensity. If you tilt the entire camera — hello, Dutch angle! — You instantly add unease and distortion. Sometimes you don’t even need an actual line in frame. Our eyes draw them naturally, following the geometry of a shot, just like in the film still from “The Matrix” below:

Does this composition feel fierce and heightened, even without taking the story into account? Indeed.

In the area of shapes, Tal highlights triangles. They are made from the diagonal lines, but also have a base and a top. The compositions using this form emphasize danger or some higher craft coming from above. Take a look at the following scene from the “Breaking Bad” series, and note how triangles are used:

Tal Lazar explains: It’s all about power, and the most powerful person is the one at the top of the visual triangle (both in the extra wide, and in the closer shots).

Cinematic composition in action and progression

Composition is usually applied to each dedicated image, but it is also not static and can evolve throughout a scene. For instance, the following scene from Alfonso Cuarón’s “Harry Potter” is a long take. Yet each beat and every moment is meticulously planned to enhance the story composition-wise. Look how all the visual elements work in unison (starting from 06:23):

Composition can also work on a deeper, subtextual level, with the meaning of visual elements changing as the story develops. Let’s take color as an example.

Color can physically affect the viewer

Color is so powerful that it can physically affect the viewer and trick our eyes. In Tal’s lesson, he shows a simple experiment. There is an image below this paragraph. Stare at the black dot in the middle of the colored circles for roughly 15 seconds. And then quickly switch right to the next image, without moving your eyes elsewhere.

What happened? Most people would say that they see another color that goes away as soon as they move their eyes. There are different versions of this effect, but the principle is the same: we suddenly see something appear, which isn’t really there.

This phenomenon is called color constancy. Basically, our eyes continuously “white balance” reality, so that objects stay recognizable under different lighting conditions. To do this, our visual system compensates by shifting perception toward the opposite end of the spectrum. Neat, right? Our perception of color constantly shifts, depending on the context. You probably know this from the so-called “checkerboard effect:”

The interesting part is that we can use this visual trick in creative ways, and filmmakers do it all the time. Tal Lazar shares the scene from “Raise the Red Lantern,” in which a 19-year-old Songlian meets her husband for the first time.

At the start, we see a wide shot dominated by blue. Our eyes adapt and balance it out. Then suddenly, we cut to a warm orange scene. The contrast of hue hits us in the face and feels overwhelming, emotional. Later, when the character lies in bed, the reds intensify with the story: The color evolves as her fear and his anticipation grow. If it were that saturated from the very beginning, it wouldn’t hit us nearly as hard.

Conclusion

Naturally, these are only a handful of visual secrets that help create a cinematic composition. We can talk for ages about contrast and affinity, and when you should use one or the other. The most important takeaway is that it’s not about throwing pretty images together. It’s about controlling what the audience feels, where they look, and what connections they make. So, when you block and choreograph your scenes, remember the power of intention. And if you want to discover more insightful tools and techniques, head over to Tal Lazar’s course “Cinematography for Directors” on MZed.

When was the last time you noticed a composition in a film that really hit you – and why do you think it worked? Have you ever tried using a visual trick like the ones mentioned above in your own projects? Please share your thoughts and experience with us in the comments!

Feature image: a film still from “Raise the Red Lantern” by Yimou Zhang, 1991.

Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD.