Video Production Headroom

Headroom

This term refers to the amount of space between the top of a subject's head and the top edge of the video frame. Too little headroom and the subject's head may appear "cut-off" or unnatural. Too much headroom when framing a shot can make the shot appear unbalanced, and evidently be classed as bad composition within the video production. Several "artistic" slants on the use of headroom within modern video production are common today, yet as a general rule, it may be considered good practice to frame the shot so that the top edge of the screen is just touching, or very close to the top of the subject's head when setting up a close up.