Adah_Chapter3

 This chapter was all about the rules of composition and how to break those rules. The “Rule of Thirds,” Symmetry, “Leading Room” and “Looking Room,” “Bird’s Eye View,” and “Dutch Angle” may be new terms to some of us, but we’re already unconsciously aware of them. Or . . . if we’re not aware of them, we certainly are when they are executed improperly. These rules allow us to maintain visual balance and avoid chaos in our films. Rules are meant to be broken of course, and the author of Visual Storytelling urges us to do so. The overarching theme I noticed was that breaking such rules produced a more extreme, often negative, feeling (here I'm using negative to mean things like uneasy, scary, insecure, hostile, etc.).  

Using “Leading Room” as an example: The author mentions that the rule is to put more space in front of the figure. This tends to make the audience more comfortable because they can see what is in front of the figure. On the other hand, putting more space behind the figure makes the audience feel uneasy because it hides what is in front of them. By taking rules that are meant to keep the audience comfortable and breaking them, we can manipulate how the audience feels.  

Here’s a short article that shows how Wes Anderson breaks the Rule of Thirds in his movies. 

https://medium.com/@hulyaungor/breaking-the-rule-of-third-in-wes-anderson-c65f53ca942