If you’re going to have characters or camera freeze for a moment during an action scene and/or tense moment, what does that frame say? Where and how does it direct the audience to look?

Week 25.21 posts include shots which how to do exactly that, from: Attack the Block (2011); His Girl Friday (1940); Life on Mars (2006-2007) both in super-wide and closeup; and When Night is Falling (1995).

Life on Mars wide

As the camera shows us a crime scene from high above, the colourful, curvy-lined park equipment and ground outlines are framed inside straight-lined brown and grey apartment buildings.

The colour and variable lines draw our eyes to what looks like a sort of child’s playmat amidst the tall, strict buildings of the city.

Life on Mars closeup

When Sam Tyler (John Simm) first meets his big boss Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), we see a High Noon poster through Gene’s office window.

A few minutes later, Gene grabs Sam by the collar and threatens him . . . and that poster is very effectively used to signify what Gene is doing, which is in effect holding a gun to Sam's head.

Attack the Block

This Attack the Block still shows Moses (John Boyega) taking leadership: in focus, his eyes shining under the shadow of his cap, leaning slightly forward.

Though Sam (Jodie Whittaker) is behind him and slightly out of focus, the way Moses and his sword form a V and she’s centre in frame still signify her importance and draw our attention to what she’s thinking and doing.

Brewis (Luke Treadway) isn’t just furthest back and out of focus, he’s mostly in shadow; whatever he’s doing, in this scene it’s tertiary and tagalong.

His Girl Friday

You don't need to hear the rapid-fire-dialogue or know the tumultuous history between Walter (Cary Grant) and Hildy (Rosalind Russell) to understand the story told in these two pictures.

Much is said in their body language and facial expressions, but it's also in the blocking and framing: how they're open to each other and at ease in the first, facing away and hunched over towards the sides of frame in the second . . . but still close enough to literally touch each other.

They may be frenemies, trying to get the scoop, *but they love it*.

When Night is Falling

Camille (Pascale Bussières, centre) is being pressured by Reverend DeBoer (David Fox, right) to denounce queer desire, get married, and become a chaplain. Meanwhile Petra (Rachael Crawford, left) has been determinedly flirting.

This scene comes as DeBoer has rung the doorbell and interrupted a near-kiss; just look at how this stillframe sums up Camille’s situation!

The reverend is against stark colours and a cross, showing his simplistic religious beliefs and 'stark black and white' thinking. Petra sits against a deep background with a variety of colours, and curtains reminiscent of her circus tent home. If you think of ‘shoulder devil and angel,’ the Reverend on one shoulder wears black, and Petra wears white . . . though her red coat does have a hint of devilishness about it.

Camille isn’t just literally ‘caught between them,’ a bowl of apples pops bright green against the table, symbolic of Eve in the garden. Camille would be well aware of the reference not just because of her position in the church, but her degree in mythological literature.