Article Response: "Left or Right? Why a Character's Lateral Movement On-Screen Matters in Film"

[ Link to Article ]

    Recent film studies primarily explored by Cleveland State University have shown that viewers, whether they know it or not, have a preference for when it comes to characters moving from either left to right or right to left. As an amateur filmmaker and movie enthusiast, I've been realizing that basically everything that is said or done in a movie is usually done for a reason, because everything in your film matters. Even something as small as a character or object moving one way or the other? It seems so, as it can effect your perception or feelings towards that character. It all has to do with psychology.

    The video featured in this article, by Now You See It, goes more in depth into this theory that a person will presumably like a character more if they're moving from left to right, than a character moving from right to left, and it's exceptions. They first give an example of a girl sitting in her living room, and a boy walking past her window from right to left, looking in for a brief moment. She gets up and walks across the living room from left to right to look outside to check it out. They then mirror that same clip so that they're walking in the opposite directions, and it just doesn't seem to flow as well as the first clip. However, not only can moving from one side to another affect the chance of you enjoying a movie, as a character can go right or left, up and down, or backward and forward.

    Usually, when a character is advancing towards the camera, this means that they have power or are aggressive, while on the other hand, a character walking away from the camera can be perceived as weak. Movement towards the right of the screen can indicate time passing, progress, and normality, while moving to the left can signify moving back in time, innormality, and regression. A perfect example of this, as stated in the video, is the Lord of the Rings, and how during the scene where the characters are on a long voyage, they continuously move to the right of the screen, to show progression. Same with the movie Rocky, especially during the scene when he runs up the stairs in triumph to celebrate his accomplishments.

    When I first watched the video, I thought it was a little silly, I mean, something to small and frivoulous as a character's movement affecting how someone preceives a movie? I wasn't sure what to think of it, but I suppose it is quite interesting. Of course, these 'rules of movement' can be altered, I'm sure, depending on what you're trying to convey on screen.

(move your finger from side to side in front of this gif :3 )