Screen direction In Film Editing-Hello friends, screen direction is the usual term used in editing of a film. This is nothing but as i told u screen direction is used to maintain the continuity in the shots while editing. I have explained u in short about screen direction in my last post regarding 180 degree rule. This post explains u in detail about what is screen direction and how it is used in film editing. I dint find time to update my post about film editing please forgive for that..i will try to update it as soon as possible. Screen Direction:
Screen direction is a common term used in film editing and story boarding in order to maintain consistency between shot to shot with out confusing the viewer. This is also very fundamental rule in film editing as well as story boarding. As i told u in my last post 180 degree rule, the things which are on right of the camera should be on right and the things which are on left should be on left else it will result in jump cut or disorientation in audience.For example, if u show a women walking from right to left in one shot and in very next shot if u show her walking from left to right then it will create a dilemma in the mind of the viewer that where this lady is actually walking..if u continue the shot of lady walking from right to left the viewer will recognize that the lady is continuing her action. To avoid these kind of jump cuts screen direction will be very useful in pre- production stage itself.
Conditions:
Camera lefts tells u that the movement is from left of the screen,camera right lets u that the subject/object is moving from right of the screen. Camera foreground and background are the terms used to indicate that the camera movement is near and far away from the subject and object with respect.
Example 1:
Just imagine a person is walking from left to right of the screen in one shot and in very next shot if he is walking from right to left what will u feel..? we will surely feel that person is again coming back to his normal position where he started..This is nothing but confusing the audience. To avoid this confusion, the very next shot shot be the person walking from left to right so that audience may get convinced that he is continuing his action without any confusion.
Example 2:
Just think of two persons in a medium shot talking to each other with line of action. Let one character name be Arun and the other character name be Tarun. Assume this is the very first shot in a scene. Let it be Arun is on right of the screen and Tarun is on left. This is nothing but we are establishing that who is on right and who is on left.Both of them are looking each other. Now when u cut to the close up to the single character it will create a confusion in the mind of audience that where this character is looking at..To avoid this kind of confusions screen direction is a must and a fundamental rule to be followed.
I have already told u in my last post it is the duty of director, script supervisor and cinematographer to follow the screen direction all the way to avoid jump cuts. If in any case if u want to violate this screen direction rule then u have to skillful to do so.If u have any comments or suggestions please feel free to do so.
