Understanding Screen Direction

1. Understanding Screen Direction The ABCs of the XY and Z

2. Static Image and Motion • Like a painting, frame of image really important • Unlike a painting, composition continually changes, creating both a challenge and an opportunity • Gives us 2 important story elements: • Screen direction • Comparison

3. Screen Direction • Refers to the direction a character or object is traveling • 3 axes: • X-Axis: Line that cuts the frame horizontally • Objects run Left to Right or Right to Left • Y-Axis: Line that cuts the frame vertically • Objects run up or down-top of frame to bottom or bottom to top • Z-Axis: Line that runs from foreground to background or background to foreground • Gives the audience sense of 3-D space

4. Representation • Screen Direction can represent (for example): • Antagonism • Individualism • Conflict • Partnership • Moving frame can represent (for example): • Change • Similarity/Dissimilarity

5. 2 Dimensional Screen Direction Ascent: Difficult Y-Axis • Right to Left: Uncomfortable X-Axis Left to Right: Comfortable X-Axis Descent: Easy

6. X and Y Axes • X-Axis: • Eye moves comfortable from Left to Right because it mimics reading • The eye is less experienced moving the opposite direction and is therefore less comfortable • Y-Axis: • Moving an object down the screen appears easy as it is aided by our sense of gravity. • Moving an object up the screen appears difficult because it is assumed that it will be resisted by gravity

7. 3 Dimensional Screen Direction Smaller Z-Axis Larger

8. Z-Axis • When an object moves along the Z-Axis, the object appears to move in 3-D space moving from front to back or back to front. • Image size will change depending on where the object appears on the trajectory and the lens used