the arrangement of visual weights and movements within a given space; in film, it is defined by the frame that encloses the images and how it is photographed ” (556)
Mise en s cene: How the visual materials are staged, framed, and photographed. The frame’s aspect ratio: dimensions of the screen’s height and width. Film, TV, video, technology.
Functions of the frame: excluding the irrelevant, pinpointing the particular, symbolizing other enclosures. The symbolic implications of the geography of the frame: top, bottom, center, and edges. What’s off-frame and why. How images are structured: composition and design. Where we look first: the dominant power. Staging positions vis-
à-vis [facing] the camera and what they suggest. How much room for movement: tight and loose framing. Proxemic patterns [ the relationship of organisms within a given space] and how they define the relationship between people. Camera proxemics and the shots. Open and closed forms: windows or prosceniumframed images? (48)
—for the viewer to keep in mind
Determine a director’s ability to use space within a frame and manipulate that space or those things within the space including actors.
FRAME: “each movie image is enclosed by the frame of the screen, which defines the world of the film”
 observe horizontal shots vs. vertical shots, placement of objects in particular spaces within the frame, location of characters within a frame
TERRITORIAL SPACE: “filmmakers compose images on three visual planes—the foreground, the
midground, and the background
 “territories have a spatial hierarchy of power, that is, the most dominant organism of a community is literall y given more space, whereas the less dominant are crowded together”
 actors can be photographed in five basic positions, each for its own effect: full front (facing the camera), quarter turn, profile (looking off frame), three-quarter turn, and back to the camera
PROXEMIC PATTERNS: “the relationship of organisms within a given space”
 personal distance between characters or objects to develop characterization
 “the shot” and its distance clearly helps with this development (generally, the greater the distance between the camera and the subject, the more emotionally neutral we remain)
OPEN FORM (stressing simple film techniques and informal, unobtrusive compositions, allowing the
filmmaker to emphasize an environment that is familiar and rather intimate) and CLOSED FORMS
(stressing more complex film techniques with rich and compelling compositions, allowing the
filmmaker to emphasize an environment that is unfamiliar and rather artificial)
Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960)
Coppola’s The Godfather (1972)