Space and Time

BVP 1

Essential Questions

• What is video space?

• What is video time?

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

The Frame

• Controls content – what is outside the frame does not exist

• Elements that do not exist in the real world can exist in the video world – p35 – 36

The Frame

• Determines Composition and Movement

• Composition: the organization of the elements of a picture

• Movement: motion on the screen

Height. Breadth. Depth.

• Height and breadth are determined by the frame, depth is an illusion• P 40 – Scaling a wall• P 40 – One finger pushups

Size. Position. Distance.

Relationship. Movement.• These are not fixed.

• Two actors may escape from a full size car just before it explodes, but the car that actually blows up is only a foot-long model

• An actor standing a foot away from a wall in a long shot may be “cheated” several feet farther from it for a closeup.

• A character walks down a street, turns a corner, and continues up a side street. In actuality, the main street is on location and the side street is a construction on a studio lot.

Direction determined by the frame

• Direction is perceived with reference to the borders of the screen.

• P 43 for example

Laws of Video Space

• These may seem abstract, but remember that professional video makers understand these fundamental rules of screen-world operations and use them constantly to make their programs.

Magic Pushups

• P 33 in workbook

Video Time

• Real-World Time vs. Video-World Time• Real = time behaves in exactly the

same way with respect to speed, flow, direction and coherence.

• Video = nothing about it is constant

Video Time Speed

• Altering speed within a shot• Recording or playing the shot at a slower

or faster rate than normal• In slow motion, hummingbird’s wings seem

to flap was deliberately as a buzzards• In fast motion, clowns skitter around like

doodlebugs or a flower’s night long opening unfolds in seconds

• These types of shots remind you that you are watching video and are used rarely

Video Time Speed

• Altering speed in editing• Overlapping – to slow things down,

editors show parts more than once• Omitting – to speed up action, editors

cut out repetitive or uninteresting action

Video Time Flow

• Serial Time Flow – events moving forward in a single sequence

• Parallel Time Flow – Two or more sequences of action happening at the same time p 51

• Disjointed Time Flow – the way sequences are usually recorded in production…then reorganized into proper order during editing

Video Time Direction

• In real life we move from past to future or forward

• In video, we can jump backward and forward in time

• Reverse Motion – p 53

Video Time Coherence

• Split Edits – transition from one shot to another in which the video and audio portions do not change at the same time• Either the video changes first or the

audio changes first

Playing with Space and Time

• Your final video will be graded on:• Maintaining screen direction• Altering time to make the 2 minute walk

shorter than 30 seconds.