Heya,

I just wanted to know whether there is a specific industry term for the space that is left to the side of an interviewee. That sounds very confusing - what I mean is when interviewing a subject you often position them slightly off centre, for example further to the right, whilst they look offscreen to the left where there is a larger void of blank space. My old school teacher called it 'looking distance' but I doubt that's an official term.

Can anyone help? Hope this doesn't divide people!

Thanks

It's a framing technique whereby you compose the shot with the subject in the opposite third of the frame from where they are looking. If they're looking left, you frame them to the right. If they're looking right, you frame them to the left. It's commonly called headroom or noseroom... the term applies to photography as well as the film / video media.

Yep, Chris nailed it. It's also sometimes referred as, "offside-third" based on the two-thirds rule of composition. Personally I like "noseroom" better, insinuates the subject can pick their nose on-camera so you can see all the action. (laughs)

It's commonly called headroom

Headroom is actually the amount of space between the top of the head and the top of the frame. Noseroom or lookroom is commonplace in my market.