As some of you might know, I'm now at film school. I just thought I'd give you guys one little lesson on the thirds rule. It's something that we are taught early on.
You will see this technique used in art and photography as well.
The idea of the thirds rule, is that it makes a subject look more dynamic and interesting if you place them in one of the thirds of the screen.
Think like a Tic-Tic-Toe board lines, and then if your subject is verticle, it goes in the left or rightmost third of the grid. Usually on the line itself, somewhat.
If the subject is horizontal, they then go on the topmost or lowest line third.
I have drawn something really quickly on art.com to help portray this further.
Use the top left slider to speed it up.
I know the art is rubbish, but i'm no artist, this is just to put the lesson across to you.
Oh, and you will also notice that I've given my little man what is known as - Lead room. This means that he is always walking into a bigger space than he is leaving. This feels better for the viewer to watch. If the shot is an uplclose shot, then it's what we call nose room instead, meaning that you give the nose plenty of space in the direction it is facing.
Finally, I will end here with the edge attraction theory. Scientists have worked out, that the human eye is naturally drawn towards subjects that are in the lower portion edge of the screen. This can be distracting to the eye, when you are trying to get your main subject matter across. If you have your character crossing the road, and another character in the extreme bottom right,(bottom right is generallyt most likely to, more than left) right up against the edge, the human brain keeps thinking they are trying to leave frame, and it's unsettling. So only use it when you want to draw attention on purpose.
Link to Thirds drawing -
http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?iut5fl1krxbsOh, and I know i left loads of head room which could be tightened up, but for the sake of it, we'll imagine that this character is in a semi establishing shot, and that there would be scenery to view behind.