ABSTRACT
The screen space presents the audience with a variety of changing visual forces, a rich two-dimensional stimulus set, a visual field that our brains habitually decode using the fundamental gestalt principles our perceptual systems have evolved like laws of grouping which include proximity, symmetry, similarity and closure. The early theorizing about screen space and the dual nature of the frame was broadened, and carried into the contemporary arena of practical theorizing by Dr. Herbert Zettl. Zettl is a Professor Emeritus of Broadcasting and Electronic Communication Arts in the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University. Early influences included the philosophy of Bauhaus design and gestalt psychology. According to Zettl, the film frame gives us a field with three axes, following the Cartesian coordinate system of x-axis for the horizontal dimension, y-axis for the vertical dimension and z-axis for the line extending from the camera to the horizon.
