Middle School Media

The photographic frame is not just a simple border, according to American film academics David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. It is not like the margin of a page. The frame produces a vantage point. It gives a point of view, and it selects some details over others. The frame lets us  see some things and not others. 

 

There are four main ways that framing can influence what the audience sees:

 

Frame movement. As the camera moves, so too does the frame. How this happens in relation to the events on the screen changes our involvement in the story.

 

 

Aspect ratio. The size and shape of the frame is called the aspect ratio because it is based on the ratio of width to height (gained by dividing width by height). The standard television ratio is 4:3 or 1.33:1, while widescreen television uses 16:9 or 1.78:1. Cinema uses a variety of ratios, but most widescreen formats are slightly larger than 16:9, with 1.85:1 the most common. However, some epic films such as The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) use Cinemascope with a ratio of 2.35:1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On-screen and off-screen space. When the audience sees a shot on screen everyone assumes that space and life continues consistently outside the frame and all around it. How a director uses this assumption can be important to the narrative. An example of this is the use of looking space or talking space. This is an area of negative or empty space in front of a framed person that suggests someone else is outside the frame. Another way of suggesting space outside the frame is to use eyelines. A character can appear to look towards a point outside the frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angle, height and distance. The idea of the frame as a vantage point suggests that framing places the viewer in a certain position — perhaps above or below the subject, or close or far in the distance. Each of these positions affects the narrative in some way.