Composition and it's use in "The Hustle"

Rule of Three

                          1                                                2                                             3

1) In the first horizontal third, we can see the dress- The object of importance. The character in the red coat is looking at the dress. This shows the object is of some importance in this shot, as the character has her attention focused on it. 

2) In the second third, we see the character who is of importance to the shot. The character is in the centre of the shot, which means she's the audiences focus, and is important to the scene. 

3) The last third, on the right, shows location of the scene. You can see dresses on sale hanging on display, and a woman browsing through them. This clearly shows the location of the scene as a shop.

Depth of Field

Background- You can see a character of obvious importance (due to the close shot and panning movement at the start which followed her) move into the background of the scene. This shows that she's not quite important in this part of the scene. The focus is moved away from her and into the foreground, and she moves into the background. This could also show that she's behind, trying not to be noticed as the characters in the foreground speak. This might show she's up to something- Perhaps planning something.

Mid ground- The salesman is shown in the mid-ground, showing he's of more importance. However, he is not very active in this shot at this time, and so hangs around near the front. 

Foreground- The subject of the shot is in the foreground, in front of everything else i the shot. This brings more focus towards her, and away from the others in the mid-ground and background.

The 180 Rule

If you imagine the scene as being a stage in a theatre, the audiences always stay on one side of it- Going to the other side could cause confusion. In this scene, the camera never goes past 180° and goes to around the other side.

Focus

Shallow focus


~JB