On 11/7/05, Shel Belinkoff, discombobulated, unleashed:
>A few months ago I was talking with a film maker, and she mentioned that
>showing a subject moving from left to right on the screen indicates
>movement towards something, such as when a ship leaves a port and heads out
>to sea it will be shown on the screen as moving L to R. Right to Left
>means that the subject is returning home, or to a point of origin. Some
>time after that, while watching a special feature on a DVD, the director of
>the film made the same comment. I wonder if that may in any way be related
>to why we see, and, perhaps, generally prefer, L to R movement, and
>subjects looking L to R, in many photographs? Might there be something
>within us that more readily accepts that idea, and that's why film makers
>have been using the concept as well?
I've been working in professional broadcast since 1979 and I have never
come across this concept before. Personally, I would say that's a load a
bollocks.
There are certain 'rules' in film and TV ('crossing the line'), but
essentially these are as useful a set of guides as 'the rule of thirds'.
Just as an adept photographer can skirt past the rule of thirds and
produce a composition of charm and accomplishment ion direct
contravention, so can film-makers. An astute editor can easily cross the
line without one ever realising.
I shoot an average of five minutes of broadcast TV a day, and I firmly
believe, and always have - ever since departing art college - that there
is only ever one golden rule with visual imagery:
If It Looks Right, It Is Right.
.02
:-)
Cheers,
Cotty
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