Video/Cinema vs Stage terminogy

[Bruce Baird]

MarK (and others),

I guess the question is more simply put like this:

If you need to refer to something in the upper left hand corner of  
the screen, do you just say simply that?

In dance and theater, if we are talking about something in the upper  
left hand corner of the stage.  We would need to distinguish between  
upstage and down stage, (meaning of course towards the back of the  
stage or towards the front of the stage) and then stage right and  
stage left, (meaning to the actor's right or left), etc.

Best,

Bruce


On Aug 18, 2007, at 10:10 PM, Mark D. Roberts wrote:

> Bruce,
>
> In the so-called "primitive cinema" (e.g., Méliès), when the camera  
> was often placed directly in front of the "stage" and the space of  
> the theater was still generally understood as a model for cinema,  
> it would make sense to use these terms in a more precise analysis  
> of mise en scène, but with the introduction of montage, close-ups,  
> and all the devices used in the modern narrative cinema, the camera  
> becomes mobile and so the left/right orientation becomes relative  
> rather than absolute.
>
> If I might hazard a general observation, it seems that in the  
> criticism of more recent decades, there is a tendency to speak of  
> the type of "space" that is constructed via camera placement and  
> movement, rather than any particular orientation between the actors  
> and the pro-filmic space. In relation to the Japanese cinema, there  
> is also a long discussion around the so-called 180° rule.
>
> If you're interested in a discussion of the relation between on-  
> and off-screen space, you probably couldn't go wrong to look  
> briefly at Noel Burch's "Theory of FIlm Practice". If you're  
> interested in a more focused discussion of the Japanese cinema, and  
> how camera movement may be used to orient (or disorient) viewers,  
> you could also look at: Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell.  
> "Space and Narrative in the Films of Ozu." in Screen 17.2 (1976).
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> M. Roberts
>
> On Aug 19, 2007, at 8:33 AM, Bruce Baird wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> Aaron, thanks for the info on screenplays.  Also while I am at it,  
>> I have a question about how to write about film and video.
>>
>> Its standard practice in dance and theater to employ the terms  
>> stage left and stage right which imagine the stage as from the  
>> perspective of the person on it, so stage left is the actor's left  
>> and will look like the right side of the stage to the audience.   
>> When writing about film and video, is there a standard practice to  
>> talk about the right side of the screen or left side of from a  
>> particular vantage point?  Is there an equivalent screen right and  
>> screen left and do those correspond to what the viewer experiences  
>> as the right and left side of the screen, or not?
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>>
>> Bruce Baird
>> Assistant Professor
>> Asian Languages and Literatures
>> University of Massachusetts Amherst
>> Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History
>>
>> 717 Herter Hall
>> 161 Presidents Drive
>> University of Massachusetts Amherst
>> Amherst, MA 01003-9312
>> Phone: 413-577-4992
>> Fax: 413-545-4975
>> baird at asianlan.umass.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Bruce Baird
Assistant Professor
Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History

717 Herter Hall
161 Presidents Drive
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003-9312
Phone: 413-577-4992
Fax: 413-545-4975
baird at asianlan.umass.edu




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