A few cinematography theoretical things to remember

At the heart of film industry, filmmaking is shooting - but cinematography is more than the mere act of photography. It is the process of taking ideas, actions, emotional subtext, tone and all other forms of non-verbal communication and rendering them in visual terms.
(page ix, Brown,2002)

Good composition reinforces the way in which the mind organizes information. In some cases it may deliberately turn counter to how the eye/brain combination works in order to add a new layer of meaning or ironic comment. Compositions selects and emphasizes elements such as size, shape, order, dominance,hierarchy, pattern,resonance and discordance in ways which give meaning to the things being photographed that beyond the simple "here they are".
(page 30, Brown 2002)

Visual balance is an important part of composition. Every element in a visual composition has a visual weight. These may be organized into a balanced or unbalanced composition.
(page 31, Brown 2002)

Brown, B. 2002, "Cinematography:theory and practice: imagemaking for cinematographers...", Elsevier Science,USA

"With old photographs it is often as useful to imagine why the picture is shot and styled in a certain way, as this puts one`s thinking into the mind of the original photographer and you can begin to feel more of the mood of the times. "
(p.11, Wheeler, 2005)

Wheeler, P. 2005,"Practical cinematography", second edition, Focal Press, Burlington MA