This blog post examines how film frames define the boundary between reality and imagination, analyzing how these techniques maximize a film’s creativity.
The fundamental unit of film is the frame. Meaning a border or structure, the frame is defined differently at each stage of a film’s creation and screening. During shooting, the frame is defined as the composition of the scene viewed through the camera. At this point, the director and cinematographer deliberate on what scene to place within the frame and how, thereby determining the film’s visual style and atmosphere. They consider how each small element within the frame affects the overall storytelling, making this process a crucial stage in film production.
During editing, the frame is defined as an individual still image developed on film. The editor connects countless frames to construct the narrative, focusing on how each frame transition conveys rhythm and emotion. Each frame captures a specific moment, and these moments collectively form the film’s narrative. The sequence and transition methods of frames determined during editing are crucial elements that shape how the audience experiences the film.
During projection, the frame is defined as the boundary line separating the theater’s darkness from the screen. Here, the frame acts as a vital medium that immerses the audience into the film’s world. In the dark theater, the frames unfolding on the brightly lit screen become a gateway that transports the audience away from reality into the world of the film. This is a crucial concept for understanding the essence of cinema, aligning with the fact that film is a world illuminated through frames, and that the frame serves as a boundary separating it from the real world of the dark auditorium.
Unlike paintings or photographs, which possess only a single frame, film consists of a large number of frames that change continuously. These frames undergo a process of integration to form a single film. Consequently, no frame exists in isolation from its original temporal and action-based context, and rarely does any frame possess an independently complete meaning. Thus, the audience understands the frames—constantly shifting and reconfiguring before their eyes—by considering their dramatic and temporal context.
Moreover, unlike painting or photography, which frame their subjects or compositions, film arranges its content within frames of constant, uniform size and aspect ratio. This fixation of the frame stems from cinema’s mechanical and technical constraints, which require adherence to standardized formats like film stock or theater screens. Consequently, vertical composition presents significant difficulties within the film frame. Consequently, it is rare to see a vertical frame in film that can effectively show a street lined with skyscrapers all at once.
Due to the rigid formal nature of the frame, depending on the conditions under which the film is screened, the original frame can be distorted, resulting in the director’s intended composition being severely compromised. This problem becomes particularly pronounced when theatrical films, which effectively utilize the advantages of widescreen, are broadcast on TV. Reducing a 35mm film to 16mm means approximately one-third of the original frame is cropped off. However, cropping the screen in this manner can result in characters positioned at the edges of the original frame becoming completely invisible in the altered image. Alternatively, characters might react with surprise or terror to something that is not even visible to the viewer.
Yet, it is difficult to argue that the constraints inherent in the film frame diminish the appeal of cinema. This is because these very formal limitations often spur the development of diverse cinematic techniques and elevate the artistic quality of the work. In this regard, a film director can be compared to a sonnet writer who is drawn to the formal requirements of the sonnet and chooses its strict form. A sonnet is a fixed-form poem consisting of 14 lines, each line having 10 syllables. The pleasure we derive from reading a sonnet largely stems from the tension between form and content. When technique and subject matter fuse perfectly in this manner, our aesthetic enjoyment is heightened. The same principle can be applied to the film frame. The constraints of the frame actually provide an opportunity to unleash creativity, enabling film to deliver original and memorable visual experiences to its audience.
