The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE COMPOSITIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHOT J yith the aid only of the usual methods of photographing, the employment of linear j >erspective has definite limits. But the camera-man can resort to a number of echnical methods which will enable him to some extent to go farther than the transmission of space in the form of a primitive reproduction. Among these j nethods are the employment of special lenses which cannot be used in the so |; ailed simple ' record ' shot. By choosing his lens the camera-man can modify he perspective to some extent, so creating the illusion of greater or less depth ] o the image. And by resorting to certain methods of combined photographing i t is not impossible to combine in one frame a number of objects not geometrically issociated in perspective unity. Thus, in transmitting space by methods of linear perspective the cameranan's chief task is not to make a simple ' record ' reproduction of the object, put to achieve an expressive organisation of the dimensions and space within the frame, with the aid of the representational resources available to cinematographic echnique. Hitherto, in so far as we have been speaking of static perspective construction, the foregoing considerations equally apply to simple photographic representation. The cinema shot introduces a new factor into perspective unity, which we may ;all the kinetic of perspective construction. The movement of the object along he main line of vision into the depth of the frame, or along the diagonal of the rame, at a certain angle towards the main line of vision, creates a dynamic perspective not only in the sense of the dynamism of the lines projected into the depth, but also in that of the movement of the objects themselves in the frame, in the cinematographic representation this perspective movement is perceived differently from its perception in reality. A number of laws govern the cinematic transmission of the illusion of perspective movement, and on these laws the theory pf cine-perspective is based. A mathematical theory of cine-perspective, establishing the inter-relationships between the representation of the object on the plane of the screen and its novement in space and time has been worked out by A. N. Rinin. We think it desirable to give his thirteen basic theorems of cine-perspective. The reader will find their mathematical bases in his work Cine-perspective and its Application in Aviation.1 Theorem i. (The law of relativity in cine-perspective.) If an object is moving in space according to a given law, and the camera is motionless, the change of its perspective in the picture will be the same as if the camera moved according to the same law, but in an opposite direction, while the object was motionless. Theorem 2. If the object moves along the main ray its perspective is in converse proportion to its retrogression from the lens. Theorem 3. Given the same movement, the speed of change of perspective is in converse proportion to its retrogression from the lens. Theorem 4. Given the same movement, the speed of change of perspective is in direct proportion to the square of the speed of the object and in converse proportion to the cube of the object's retrogression from the lens. Theorem 5. Given the movement of a plane figure parallel to the picture dlong the main ray, the area and clarity of its perspective changes in proportion to the square of the relation of the focussing distance to its retrogression from the lens.2 1 Published by the Section for Aero-Photography of the Scientific Research Institute For Aviation, Leningrad, 1932, p. 75. — N. 2 ' Clarity of the perspective ' is the relation of its area to the area of the figure. — NK 53