The Powers That Be...On the Screen

In The Two Dimensional Field: Forces Within the Screen, Zettl discusses the different technical elements that have a strong pull and impact on the screen. Zettl talks about several important elements including:

1. Horizontal/Vertical

2. Up/Down Diagonals

3. Framing

4. Attraction of Mass

5. Asymmetry (between screen left and screen right)

6. Figure and Ground

7. Gestalt

8. High and Low definition images

9. Vectors

All of these elements effect the composition of an image and how the viewer/audience sees and interprets the image. 

One of these elements that I found particularly interesting is that of framing and the attraction of mass. Frames create strong pulls. These strong pulls, pull towards the corners of a frame, and therefore, create a strong pull of objects in that frame towards the corners. This ties directly into the attraction of mass. As Zettl says, “graphic mass attracts graphic mass” (Zettl, p. 123). Therefore, an object with a larger graphic mass will usually attract something with a smaller mass. This also leads to an object with a larger graphic mass being more independent in a frame then something with a smaller graphic mass, which often is dependent on the object with the larger graphic mass. 

As a photographer or videographer, it is important to keep the idea of framing and attraction of mass in mind when filming or shooting anything. If these concepts are neglected, it could potentially cause the image to lack effectiveness, or cause a miscommunication between the photographer/videographer and the audience.