Sight Sound Motion - Herbert Zettl

CHAPTER 7 -  THE TWO DIMENSIONAL FIELD:FORCES WITHIN THE SCREEN

• Normality is seeing things horizontally, vertical lines will create power and be much more dynamic
• Due to our strong perceptions as to what is horizontal or vertical, we can easily judge when something is hanging crooked for example
• EXAMPLES OF HORIZONTAL: a lake, renaissance building...
• EXAMPLES OF VERTICAL: trees, sky rise building, cathedrals
• By titling the horizon, you can create dynamism. It suggests stress, power, speed, energy..
• MAGNETISM OF THE FRAME - edges of a frame act like magnets and attract objects to them
• HEADROOM: no headroom makes it look as though the top of the screen is pulling the head too high and firmly pressing against the top edge. Proper headroom counteracts this, looks normal. Too much headroom makes the image look bottom heavy as if the model is being pulled down too much.
• When filming interviews, it is good to have space at either sides of the edges; cutting out this space by zooming in will make the people look even further apart
• DIAGONALS are read from left to right; can cause asymmetry in a frame