Showing Power

A couple ways to show power is to have powerful people and organizations centered in frame, higher than others and bigger than anything else. 

In this frame, from Children of Men, the government building dwarfs the car carrying Clive Owen. It's directly centered in frame, which makes it appear solid and powerful. Lines from the road lead directly to the building, guiding our eye to the building and emphasizing its importance.

 When a busload of citizens enter a government facility, it's clear to see who's in charge. The officer stands tall over everyone, directly in the center of frame. All perspective line lead to him.

With the statue, the massive room, the large dogs, centered frame and perspective lines, there's no doubt that the guy at the end of the hall is powerful (and egotistical).

In contrast, as Clive Owen's character is weakened to the point of death and things seem hopeless, he is placed to the far left and bottom of frame. By doing this, his power is reduced to nothing. The Negative Space overwhelms him and when the boat emerges from the fog it's more centered, as it's taken control.

The art direction for this space creates a massive clean room with straight bars on all the windows and simple colors. The sense from this, is it's large and powerful, but bleak and controlling. Bars are, of course, symbolic of jails, institution and security.

Opposite of that,  this  smaller space has many colours, straight lines are broken using books, plants, lights, etc. This helps give a comforting, lived-in look and feel.

Using Art Direction and Cinematography means the story never needs to specifically say which place is powerful, the viewer can feel it. Imagine if the government office was in the cozy room example! It would completely change the feeling of the story.

However, since we expect evil government offices to be in large cold buildings, putting them in direct contrast could be more powerful, if set up well!