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Video Space

There are very different laws that govern space in the video universe. You can take advantage of these to communicate information and feelings to your audience.
When viewers watch a video they unconsciously think they are looking through a sort of window at events on the other side. However, video images are not on the other side of the screen, but on it and that creates two fundamental differences from the real world.
First, video is limited by the borders of the image. By opening a real-world window and leaning through it, you can see more of the scene outside. But no matter how close you get to a television screen, you can never see anything beyond its borders.
Secondly, the screen is flat, which means it has only two dimensions instead of three. There is no true depth in a movie image. No matter how dramatically that spaceship seems to zoom away from you, its not actually moving farther back from the screen, but merely growing smaller on it.
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Laws of Video Space

• What is outside the frame does not exist, unless that existence is implied.
• Height and breadth are determined solely by the frame and depth is only an illusion.
• Size, position, distance relationship, and movement are not fixed.
• Direction is determined solely by the frame.

MINI - ASSIGNMENT #4 FRAMING

The frame controls content. The first law is perhaps the most important: what is outside the frame does not exist, no matter how real it is in the real world. Video makers use the frame to alter reality in countless ways. 
 ​Mini Assignment #4: (Complete the following with a partner/group - use supplied video equipment.
 Task Criteria: 1) Only use in camera functions to edit; 2) each member must participate and write a summary of their role ; 3) final video must be uploaded to individual Google Classroom folder for full marks
 Video(s) Criteria:

• create the illusion of a large crowd. Have a small number of spectators sit close together and framing off the many empty seats, you will make an audience seem bigger than it really is. Use chairs and classroom space to complete.
• create the illusion of a forest by showing only trees/shrubs behind the actor but framing off any houses or structures using the trees around the school yard. On the screen, the houses outside the frame does not exist.

​Using the frame to include or exclude information from a shot is perhaps the most universally exploited technique in video communication.

Frame Composition and Movement

Video makers also use the frame to control how information is presented. Most video is filmed at a speed of 24 frames per second, which basically takes 24 still pictures and presents them to the human eye one after the other to create the illusion of movement. Today's film industry has attempted to use 60 frames per second, called high temporal resolution to increase the depth and colour. Although, it's not necessary to use more when the human eye can be easily fooled at a much slower rate. Check out the video below which demonstrates the power of illusion and the law of video.

Video makers use the frame to control how information is presented. The frame is the viewer's only fixed reference. They depend on the frame to locate and organize the parts of the pictures they are watching, and to judge the speed with which things move. That is, viewers use the frame to perceive composition. Composition is the organization of the elements of a picture. These elements are arranged in relation to one another. More importantly they are arranged in relationship to the border which surrounds them.

Mini - Assignment #5 Composition

Again, the frame controls the content but equally important is the use of composition to place your subjects in the proper position when creating a video.
Task Criteria: 1) Only use in camera editing; 2) display proper use of composition ; 3) each member must complete a journal brief and upload a video to the Google Classroom folder for marks.
Video Criteria:
With a partner/group use the supplied video equipment to

• create a composition that highlights headspace and rule of thirds.
• create a composition that highlights lead room and rule of thirds.
• create a composition that highlights all the following (Pan, Tilt, Pedestal, Dolly, Track, Zoom, Dolly Counter-Zoom)

Tip: When thinking about how to frame the shot divide the viewing area into a grid of thirds (horizontal and vertical); try and keep your subject on a point where both the horizontal and vertical grid cross); it is generally less effective if all the shots contain the subject in the middle of the frame.

Movement refers to motion on the screen, and viewers perceive that motion by two sets of clues:

• How rapidly the background (such as scenery flying past) changes in relation to the subject in the foreground.
• How quickly the subject moves in relation to the frame.

Think of the video images you have just watched. The actors do not move on the screen in the space shuttle, but they seem to on the screen due to illusions of rapid movement. Think of the spaceship that zooms across movie and TV screens at warp speeds, spanning whole galaxies in minutes. In reality, these spacecrafts are often miniature models that do not move at all. They are fixed in place, and the illusion of rapid motion is created by moving the camera past them. Making the camera fly past the stationary ship model causes them to move violently in relationship to the frame.

Video Dimensions
While the frame around the screen forms the boundaries of the video world, it is the screen itself that displays that world as a strange, flat universe in which space acts differently from real-world space. In the video world the dimension called height is not always vertical and the dimension called depth does not even exist. Height and breadth are determined solely by the frame and depth is only an illusion.

In the real world, height and breadth are determined by gravity. In the video world, however, height and breadth are not defined by gravity but by the frame around the image. Height is the dimension parallel to the sides of the frame. Breadth is the dimension parallel to the top and bottom. This means that video height and breadth are determined by the video maker. By tilting the camera sideways, you can make vertical and horizontal whatever direction you choose.

Playing Tricks With Video

Since height and breadth are not fixed in the video world, you can play all kinds of tricks with them. For example, by turning the camera 90 degrees, you can reverse the two dimensions. An actor standing on a walkway can appear to be scaling a wall. Check out more illusions by watching the following video.

Mini-Assignment #6 Spatial Rules

The second law of video world leads to the third law: size, position, distance, relationship and movement are not fixed. Video space is completely fluid and is controlled by the video maker. In the actual world objects keep the same size and position; but in video space nothing is fixed.
Task Criteria: 1) in camera editing only; 2) Journal Brief explaining role, skills utilized and techniques; 3) uploaded video and journal to assignment Google Classroom folder
Video Criteria: 1) working with partner/group complete the following using supplied video equipment

• Create an illusion of an actor to appear further away from the wall while only standing 1 foot away using a long shot and 18mm focal length. In a second shot take a close up and a 35mm focal length.
• Create an illusion make the actor appear taller by using a closeup and a low angle shot. Then in a second shot make the actor appear shorter using a medium shot and high angle shot. 
• Create an illusion that make it appear 2 people collide into each other; although one actor is placed behind and one actor is placed in-front of the other. 

Mini-Assignment #7 -  Video Space

Controlling spatial relationships usually means putting things together in the screen world that are far apart in the real world. This is so common in movie making that professionals take the process for granted. Typically, spatial relationships are altered by editing two or more separate shots together into what seems like a continuous action.
Task Criteria: 1) in camera editing only; 2) Include Journal Brief with submission; 3) each member upload video to their own Google Classroom.
Video Criteria:

• Create the illusion on screen, demonstrate space by having a subject walk down a hall,  turns a corner and continues up another hall, turns another corner and starts back at the original starting shot location (creating a loop effect).
• Create an illusion on screen, a character climbs six flights of stairs. In actual shooting, a single flight was used repeatedly with different floor number signs and camera angles.
• Alternate option if not doing stair scene, on screen, a character crosses a courtyard in fifteen steps. The real-world location is 50 steps wide and obstructed by a the school building by having the character move from the front of the school to the main field, but the director and editor have condensed the space by means of clever camera setups and editing. 

Using the Google Classroom complete the your written assignment Journal briefs for these short mini-assignments. Complete all sections and upload your completed work for your teacher. The mini-assignments can be completed in any order, but must be submitted for a mark to receive credit in COM1105. 

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JUST FOR FUN:
What We Hear Might Be an Illusion

Check out the following video to see how our brain can be made to believe something that isn't there.