Chapter 6 – The 2D Field: Area
Screen Space: fixed borders that defines the new aesthetic characteristics
• Aspect ratio: relationship of screen width to screen height
• Horizontal orientation
• Standard ratios
• Standard TV / computer screens adopted 4×3 ratio of early motion
pictures (1.33:1 ratio)
• Digital / HDTV – 16×9 (5.33×3 or 178:1)
• Standard wide screen of motion pictures (5.33×3 or 1.85:1)
• Panavision / Cinemascope has extremely wide aspect ratio – 7×3
(2.35:1)
• Wide-screen – format of most U.S. films
• Framing
• 4×3 frame (film standard was established as early as 1889)
• advantage is that the difference between screen width & height
does not emphasize one dimension over another
• works well with close-ups
• 16×9 frame
• have to pay more attention to the peripheral pictorial
elements/events
• Changing the Aspect Ratio
• Matching aspect ratio
• Letterboxing: wide screen letterbox is created by showing the whole
width & height of the original format, and masking the top and
bottom of the screen with black, white, or colored bands called
dead zones
• Pillarboxing: fitting a standard 4×3 image onto a 16×9 screen
(vertical pillar bars)
• Cutting, stretching, squeezing
• Secondary Frames
• Masking – blacking out both sides of the screen (ex. D.W. Griffith –
Intolerance)
• Multiple screens
• Moving camera
• Object size > context
• Knowledge of object
• Relation to screen area
• Environment & scale
• Reference to a person
• Image size
• Size constancy – we perceive people and their environments as
normal sized regardless of screen size
• Image size & relative energy
• Requires constant psychological closure
• Facilitating Closure – low definition image is helpful only if it facilitates,
rather than inhibits, closure
• Proximity – when similar elements lie in close proximity to one
another we tend to see them together
• Similarity – similar shapes are seen together
• Continuity – once a dominant line is established its direction is not
easily disturbed by other lines cutting across it
Vectors – directional forces that lend our eyes from one point to another (force
with direction & magnitude)
• Vector Field – combination of vectors operating within a single picture field;
picture field to picture field; picture sequence to picture sequence; screen to
screen; on screen to off screen events
• Vector Types
• Graphic Vector – stationary element that guides our eyes in a certain
direction
• Ambiguous direction
• Index Vector – points in a specific direction
• Vector Magnitude – determined by screen direction, graphic mass, perceived
object speed
• Z-axis vector: points toward or away from the camera
• The larger the graphic mass in motion, the higher its vector magnitude
• The faster the speed of an object the higher its vector magnitude
• Vector Directions
• Continuing Vectors – point in the same direction
• Converging Vectors – point toward each other
• Diverging Vectors – point away from each other
Chapter 8 – Structuring the 2D Field: Interplay of Screen Forces
Stabilizing the Field Through Distribution of Graphic Mass & Magnetic Force
• Graphic Weight
• Dimension
• Shape
• Orientation
• Location
• Color
• Hue
• Saturation
• Brightness
• Screen Center – most stable position of an object
• Off Center – the more the object moves off center the greater its