Rule of thirds

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds was first written down by John Thomas Smith in 1797. In his book Remarks on Rural Scenery, Smith quotes a 1783 work by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in which Reynolds discusses, in unquantified terms, the balance of dark and light in a painting. Smith then continued with an expansion on the idea, naming it the "Rule of thirds".
It’s a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as paintings, photographs and designs. The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.
The rule of thirds is also very important in the media industry, because they help the directors and filmmakers to focus on the main objects on a particular scene. In our group, we’ll make sure that we focus on the rule of thirds whilst creating our production, so we can show different types of media techniques.

For example in the film 'La Haine' the rule of thirds was used very clearly and effectively. La haine was created in 1995, and it's a French film that was directed and written by Mathieu Kassovitz. It's a black and white film which shows how some French people live; especially those who are younger age and belong to 'gangs/groups'. There are three main best friends who struggle to live in their surroundings in France. The one shot/scene that I’m practically interested in is the scene when the three best friends are walking towards the shop by the petrol station.

By Anastazja Stanowska