Use Your Frame to Express the Emotion

You can have your character say, "All my friends are gone," until she's blue in the face. But your audience won't get that feeling until you show them the reality.

It can feel cheap and fake, but there's a reason filmmakers use their framing to express an emotion. By isolating our character in the frame between some trees, we know she's alone.


Isolation

The editor/director could have used a very pretty shot of her--even at night--but none of them communicate the same feeling of loneliness and despair like the above shot from far away.


Sarah Bolger


in The Moth Diaries

I'll say this again and again: Movies are a visual media. Use your framing to emphasize and illustrate the feelings and experiences of your characters.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor