How Screen Direction Controls the Movement of the Story? - Paper Examppe

Introduction

Screen direction refers to the direction in which objects or the actors tend to be moving on the screen which is from the audience or camera's point of view. In the film, the continuity of the story requires that there be the maintenance of a certain sense of screen direction. In many chase sequences, heroes usually seem to occupy a given side of the screen while the villains tend to hold the other hand (Romero-Fresco 210). Maintaining the screen direction is essential in that it helps to avoid confusion in the film as well as the keeping of the characters in the movie distinct hence controlling the movement of the story. Screen direction controls the movement of the story by maintaining of either a right-to-left pattern or a left-to-right pattern (Jeong 23). The direction in which a subject tends to move the screen is essential that the direction which the character travels in the real world.

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The movement of the story is influenced by the screen direction in a film in that the screen direction illustrates the scene continuity in a film. It is the screen direction that makes sure that the co-actors, costumes and the surrounding of a given story remain identical in both fros and to secessions (Begleiter 12). Preserving of the actual sense of direction is undoubtedly vital especially when a movement of a story comprises of more than one character. For instance, when one of the characters is appearing to be following another character, then the same pattern of the screen direction will work correctly. However, when two characters are coming from two different locations and tend to meet at a central region, then a separate screen direction will have to be maintained.

Furthermore, the screen direction controls the movement of the story as it determines the consistency of the movement of the objects or characters on the screen. Screen direction is directly influenced by an axis of action which assess its preservation and the sense of continuity (Shimotono and Yamazaki 17). The screen direction then is responsible for orienting the viewers within the scene. This makes sure that there is the consistency of directions between and across cuts and develops a concise sense of the relations existing between the sequential spaces (McCabe 9). The screen direction can determine the consistency of the movement of the story by having the axis of action changing as the characters shift within the frame and while the camera shifts.

How to Control, Manipulate, and Modify the Audience's Responses to Characters and the Story by Screen Direction

The screen direction may be used to manipulate the response by the audience to the story through the building of tension. The building of tension through using screen direction is possible since the direction of the screen may be changed in a manner it creates tension in the sequence (Rizzo 22). For instance, when the screen direction is portraying a person who is running away from a dangerous encounter, the screen direction may be adjusted such that it runs from the camera left to the right. Additionally, one can instead choose to change the screen direction to have the unfortunate encounter being the one moving from the camera by adjusting the screen direction from right to left. As a result, there is the creation of tension to the audience since the audiences expect that both the character and the unfortunate encounter will run into each other.

The screen direction may be able to control the response of the audience to the story by helping the audience in avoiding confusion. For instance, during a situation involving a character getting something that they have forgotten, the screen direction may be manipulated such that the audience does not get confused while viewing the film. Therefore, given that the next shot involves the character moving from right to the left, then the audience would be controlled to think that the character has maybe forgotten something that is important and that is why the character is moving towards his initial position.

Screen direction may influence the response of the audience by helping the audience to understand the direction of the screen, and its Screen direction usually is relatively connected to the camera. The left side of the screen's frame is known as camera left whereas the right side of the frame is referred to as camera right (Gilje 511). The objects or characters that are seen on the foreground are the one viewed to be close to the camera (Ohanian and Phillips 11). On the other hand, those objects or characters that are seen to be farther away are the one known as the background. According to Shapiro (21), the understanding of the screen direction help in controlling of the audience' responses to the characters and to the story since they can understand the proximity of the camera in relation to the film which helps the audience to assess the size and distance of the objects or characters observed in the movie.

Additionally, the screen directions determine the response of the audience to the story and the characters regarding their satisfaction with the film. The break in the screen direction results typically in confusing and distorting of the audience (Phillips 98). This makes the audience to give a negative response to a given film.

Works Cited

Begleiter, Marcie. From word to Image: Storyboarding and the filmmaking process. Michael Wiese Productions, 2001.

Gilje, Oystein. "Multimodal redesign in filmmaking practices: An inquiry of young filmmakers' deployment of semiotic tools in their filmmaking practice." Written Communication 27.4 (2010): 494-522.

Jeong, Seong Yeong. "Method for controlling screen direction of a video display stand." U.S. Patent No. 6,354,550. 12 Mar. 2002.

McCabe, Bob. Harry Potter: Page to Screen, the Complete Filmmaking Journey. Harper Design, 2011.

Ohanian, Thomas, and Natalie Phillips. Digital filmmaking: the changing art and craft of making motion pictures. Focal Press, 2013.

Phillips, Patrick. "Spectator, audience and response." An Introduction to Film Studies 3 (2003): 92-128.

Rizzo, Michael. The art direction handbook for the film. Focal Press, 2013.

Romero-Fresco, Pablo. "Accessible filmmaking: Joining the dots between audiovisual translation, accessibility, and filmmaking." The Journal of Specialised Translation 20 (2013): 201-223.

Shapiro, Matthias. "The Novice User's Camera Control Interface (NUCCI): A Real-Time Cinematic Solution to Previsualization." (2006).

Shimotono, Susumu, and Satoshi Yamazaki. "Method and apparatus for changing a display direction of a screen of a portable electronic device." U.S. Patent No. 7,932,882. 26 Apr. 2011.