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Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
screen.movment

In an effort to maintain constancy of movement and screen direction various rules were articulated for narrative cinema. These are preserved today in most sporting telecasts, and are a common feature in all film making. Very schematically, if a character (or car or other moving object) leaves screen left, then it must enter in the next shot from the right hand side of the frame but continue moving screen left. The reverse is also true.

Additionally, if there is movement towards and past the camera, say to the right (so since they have moved towards and past the camera the moving object would exit in the lower right of frame), then the next shot requires that the figure enters from the lower left of the frame - in effect the camera crosses the axis of direction. These concerns about screen direction are used in combination with those that apply to movement across shots.

In these examples constancy of direction is directed towards readerly intelligibility - an assumption being that this consistency will aid the viewer. However it is widely accepted theoretically that the major import of such a practice is as much to conceal the presence of the edit as it is to enhance readerly comprehension.

This constancy is evident in the rescue sequence in Keaton's Our Hospitality, though is broken where the boat plummets over the waterfall.

Adrian Miles: Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
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