Directing the Documentary, 5th Edition

Chapter 25Optics

Space and Perception

The art of the screen involves compromises made to accommodate the fact that the camera sees in two dimensions instead of three and that its field of view is so limited compared with human visual perception. As you’ll see in this chapter, we compensate by compressing more into the frame, arranging composition and lighting to create the illusion of depth, and we cram more into screen time than happens in real life.

Camera lenses have a limited field of view compared with the human eye. Movie compositions compensate for this by artfully compressing more into each frame.

Camera Eye and Human Eye

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