Working Draft: Vectors and Asymmetry November 12, 2009
Posted by Emmanuel Elpenord in : Uncategorized , trackbackEmmanuel Elpenord
Prof. L. Quinby
*I apologize for the missing images; I’ll figure it out later.
Position Paper:
Working Draft
The adage “time is money” is doubly true in the world of filmmaking. What makes a high-budget film a high-budget film is not only the special effects added in post-production, or the salary promised in the actors’ contracts pre-production, but also the time spent in filming during in-production. A higher budget means more money to pay the cast and crew to shoot for longer. Time in filmmaking allows for multiple takes and allows for shooting a scene from different angles.
At the same time, “time is money,” so the less time spent getting a shot in the can, the better. This is why there are storyboards, and why the specificity of shots and shot angles are so pertinent in the question of how the cinematography and construction of vigilante and lawmen characters affect how viewers perceive them.
One part of screen composition is the vector, the graphic vector, the index, and the motion vector, in order from weakest to strongest. A graphic vector is one “created by lines or stationary elements arranged in such a way as to suggest a line.” They don’t imply a specific direction on screen but do indicate a “directional tendency, such as horizontal, vertical, or curved.” A good example of a graphic vector is a landscape shot of horizon. An index vector is one that is “created by something that points unquestionably in a specific direction.” A good example of this would be the nose on someone’s face, or a samurai sword, or a pointing finger. A motion vector is created by an object actually moving in a specific direction or is perceived as moving on screen. A moving train or automobile on screen would be a motion vector. (Zettl 366-9)
Another important part of dynamic screen composition is the asymmetry of the frame. A subject on the right side of the screen is viewed as more dominant or important than one on the left side of the screen. Talk shows and other such programming take advantage of this phenomenon; to counter-balance the clout of a celebrity guest, the host of a talk show or roundtable discussion program is usually screen-right to maintain dominance and importance on screen. If two subjects were shaking hands on screen, the subject screen-left would be viewed as approaching the subject screen-right, a literal left-to-right inclination.
The natural flow of motion on screen is from screen-left to screen-right. This direction is viewed as the positive in an equation, while the opposite direction is seen as a negative, gaining versus losing. The primary reason for this phenomenon is that most languages are written and read from left to right. This phenomenon can be applied to Japanese film considering that, after World War 2, the right-to-left writing direction in the Japanese writing system was more or less replaced by left-to-right writing, and the Kurosawa films to be discussed were produced post-World War 2. A motion vector moving along an angle on screen, literally, or being perceived as such because of camera positioning, is affected by this directional partiality as well.
Suppose a camera is situated as such that the profile of an empty suburban street runs on a slant from upper-screen-left to lower-screen-right. A car moving from screen-left to right along this asymmetrical graphic vector would be perceived as barreling downhill on the road since it is moving in the natural flow of screen motion. A garbage truck going in the opposite direction in this composition, screen-right to screen-left, would be perceived as crawling uphill along the slant since it is moving against the grain.
Suppose the diagonal traveled from upper-screen-right down to lower-screen left. A dog-sitter chasing a loose hound from screen-right to left, down the incline in this asymmetry, would be considered hopeless and doomed to failure since he would be viewed as both moving downhill and against the natural motion of the screen. Conversely but similarly, when the dog-sitter, in hot-pursuit of the pooch, runs back across the incline, screen-left to right, he’ll be viewed as gaining on the dog because of the motion vector’s positive direction, yes, but still struggling and facing hardship because of the asymmetry of the screen, the uphill climb. This latter effect is used in a very strong way in the well-known running montage from the film “Rocky.” Towards the end of the montage, when Rocky climbs up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, he does so in a tracking long shot where he is moving screen-left to right on an asymmetry from lower-screen-left to mid-screen-right. The effect, in running with his character, portrays him as the underdog on his way up.
This concept translates to much more than making cars look speedy, or dog chase scenes. It can be used to show dominance and rank between two characters, and, more importantly, can foreshadow the outcome of a confrontation between vigilante and lawmen characters by implying one gesture is more powerful than the other.
In Sanjuro, the relationship between the nine young samurai and Sanjuro is established early on using this screen-left/screen-right concept. In the very first scene of the film, we meet the nine young samurai in a temple. The shots in this sequence consist mainly of medium-long shots with the chamberlain’s nephew seated in the center of the shot facing the camera and four samurai seated on either side of him with their backs to the camera facing the chamberlain’s nephew. The four samurai on either side of the nephew, while facing him, also face inward to the vertical centerline of the screen, in profile essentially. Altogether, these shots form a horizontal graphic vector that suggests balance and stability, which speaks to the squeaky clean, clean-cut nature of the young samurai. At the same time, this graphic vector is composed of index vectors, the eight other samurai’s noses and faces, which point inward at the nephew, giving him more dominance and focus on screen. This composition confirms him as the leader of the nine. Whenever this composition is not the case, the shots used are medium-close shots of a few or several of the other eight samurai in profile as index vectors, pointing screen-right to the off-screen nephew.
Plot-wise, during this scene, the chamberlain’s nephew is explaining what happened when he voiced his concerns of corruption among the elders and junior chamberlains; the chamberlain himself was “unreasonable” while the superintendent agreed to have a meeting with the young samurai. During the nine young samurai’s rejoicing at this success, Sanjuro, with his five o’clock shadow and unkempt clothes and hair, emerges yawning from the darkness of the inner sanctum of the temple. The next shot of Sanjuro is a medium shot with him as a motion vector going screen-left to right, hinting at his gaining authority, a higher status in the future. When Sanjuro reaches the right side of the screen, the next shot shunts him back to screen-left as the nine young samurai, righteous and steadfast, ready their swords from screen-right. [1]
Because of their subscription to a code, to a set of significations, they mistrust the one man who can help them. The fact that Sanjuro is a ronin, an unattached Samurai, disturbs the young Samurai’s sense of order. Further, he is dirty, grubby, ill-mannered, and gruff. This, too, goes against their sense of order. They see his clothes and apparent attitude as an objective correlative, which it indeed is, but his actions do not correlate to what they infer. (Desser 106)
Sanjuro, barely glancing at them, verbally disarms the young men and the camera tracks-right on him, that is to say the camera follows him as he moves rightward so that he remains on the left side of the screen. During this tracking, the more down-screen men of the nine young samurai slightly adjust themselves so that by the end of the track Sanjuro is screen-left while the chamberlain’s nephew, previously established as the leader of the nine is screen-right. After a prompt from the nephew, Sanjuro explains he’s there for the “free room overnight,” then confesses to overhearing what they were talking about and gives his two cents, seeing as “outsiders can be good judges.”
The speech that follows where Sanjuro postulates that the chamberlain is ugly but “is a great man,” and the superintendent is “good-looking” but “no good,” begins with him walking “continuously” screen-right on a slow pan-right. Whenever he’s arrived at the right end of the screen, he’ll move toward or away from the camera along the z-axis as a new shot is established where he continues walking rightward gaining steam and building a more convincing argument. The last thing he says before an outburst from one of the samurai is, “people aren’t what they seem,” the thesis statement of the film. Sanjuro sits down center-screen with the samurai split on either side of him upon saying this. On this action, the shot switches to a low angle, medium shot of three of the samurai towering over Sanjuro. Since the three samurai are standing over Sanjuro, “higher” and more rightward in the shot, it shows he still has a long way to go in justifying himself to the nine young men.[2]
After Sanjuro supposes the superintendent’s plan, which is dangerously close to the reality of things, the nine young samurai seat themselves by Sanjuro and finally start to heed him. The same three young men who towered over Sanjuro in the previous low angle medium shot are now below the horizontal centerline of the screen, “below” Sanjuro, when they profess that they have arranged to see the superintendent there that night. The next shot is a long shot of Sanjuro prowling clockwise, screen-right that is, with the young men in medium shot in the foreground. He moves around the temple, peeking out of windows and chinks in the walls to find that the superintendent’s men are slowly approaching. This clockwise, rightward movement but clinches his level of competence and aptitude, despite his dishonorable appearance. After divulging his discovery, he has to stop the nine from dashing out of the temple like lambs to the slaughter and tells them to “leave it to him.”
In the next scene, the superintendent’s men, in the several dozens, surround the entrance of the temple, from screen-right, demanding surrender. At this point, the mob of men is in control, in power, the authority figure, as their screen-right position implies. After a few moments, Sanjuro flings open the temple doors, stands in the threshold, sheathed sword in hand, and from screen-right of his own medium-long shot asks, “What do you want?” The head of the throng silently commands a handful of men to inspect the temple; they rush up the stairs past Sanjuro on the screen-left side, as he eyeballs them reproachfully. He follows close beside the second batch of men to enter in a medium, track-left shot where Sanjuro is screen-left. This apparent demotion of screen position is immediately followed by Sanjuro single-handedly shoving the second batch of men with a high-magnitude screen-right motion vector amplified by the natural left-to-right flow of the screen. The following shot, a medium-long shot, that comes in as the second batch of men are falling backwards along the z-axis, towards the camera, adds to the initial shoving motion vector as well. Sanjuro and the camera handle the first trio of men, now deeper into the room, in a similar manner. However, the shoving screen-right motion vector is prolonged this time into a push that ends with several of the men collapsed on the temple steps, scrambling to their feet, and readying their swords for a fight.
Sanjuro’s next shot is almost identical to his first shot in the scene; he is screen-right in a medium shot where he officially challenges the horde of men. One man rushes up the steps during this shot, interrupting Sanjuro, and with three slashes the challenger goes writhing down the steps screen-right. Sanjuro then marches toward the camera, right down the z-axis, which becomes a screen-right march in the following shot where he deftly dismisses nearly a dozen men with his sword, advancing rightward in each subsequent shots. This brief march works in the same way as the aforementioned shoves; the momentum of a z-axis motion vector works like a running start when the vector is continued into the next shot. The superintendent’s second in command, Hanbei Muroto, finally calls the brawling to an end, and approaches Sanjuro. The next shot where he invites Sanjuro to work for him after complimenting his swordsmanship is one where Hanbei is screen-left and Sanjuro, retracting warily, is lower screen-right. The henchmen all disperse up-screen and the camera wipe-cuts to the next scene. [3]
The very things that the young Samurai mistrust about Sanjuro endear him to the henchman [Hanbei Muroto]. Just as the Samurai misjudge Sanjuro because of their institutionalized codes, the henchman thinks he has Sanjuro figured out via his own (different) set of codes. Bad attracts bad, he thinks, and it is this belief that proves ultimately to be his undoing. (Desser 107)
Sanjuro shuts the temple doors from within in the continuing scene and turns to center of the room saying, “It’s safe now. Come out,” which is following by a high-angle, medium-close-up of the nine young men poking their heads out one by one from under the floorboards of the temple. Another wipe-cut is used here, as a sort of punctuation mark, a punch-line tool. This film, as Kurosawa does with many of his films, uses wipe-cuts in various places as a cap on a joke or for comic relief.
The very next scene is the grand finale of this bit of evidence; the next shot is long shot where Sanjuro sits concretely glued the screen-right side of the screen while the samurai, in a pair of staggered rows stretching across the screen, bow deeply to the ronin. When the chamberlain’s nephew says he doesn’t know how to thank him. Sanjuro says there’s no need to thank him, just give him money. [4]
When he asks them for money following the rescue of them from the magistrate’s henchman, their mistrust of him is complete. Bushido does not allow for the pursuit of money; a Samurai, even a ronin, cannot accept payment for his services. Most of the young Samurai are therefore not able to trust him because he does not appear to subscribe to their codes. (Desser 106)
Mifune surprises them again by not taking the whole thing, but merely as much as he needs. They quite obviously expect people to be completely virtuous (to refuse all money) or completely bad (to take it all). The first are obviously like themselves (all of whom would die before accepting, much less demanding money); the second are (equally obviously) like the corrupt junior chamberlains whom they are attempting to expose—or the superintendent himself, who has recently been revealed as their real adversary. For them, the world is a very simple place, made up of the black and white, the bad and the good. (Richie 156)
Sanjuro takes what he needs from the nephew’s money pouch and without so much as crossing the vertical centerline, maintaining his screen-right dominance, he gets up and continues moving rightward in the next shot. As Mifune bids them farewell and steps out the door, the camera goes to a medium, ground shot of Mifune’s feet and lower legs, again screen-right, with the nine young men bowing deeply in the background. If the shot is flattened, it puts the young samurai literally bowing at Mifune’s feet in gratitude without them actually doing so. The flip in status prevalent in this shot and developed throughout this first scene establishes their relationship for the remainder of the film. [5]
* * *
In Yojimbo, this screen-right/screen-left technique is used in a very sly, sarcastic way for a very strong comedic effect; motion vectors are used to lose dominance on screen. Yojimbo happens upon a town where there are two warring families. Yojimbo in an effort to get the families to kill each other off, he decides to be a bodyguard for one of the families (and alternately the other). After he proves himself by killing two and maiming one of the enemy family’s gang members in three slashes total, he strides away nonchalantly with his musical signature playing underneath. He pauses briefly, as does his theme, and says to the coffin maker of the village, “Cooper. Two coffins…No, maybe three,” and his music picks back up as he continues right on to the first family’s abode. Needless to say, after this snarky remark the camera wipe-cuts to the scene in question.
The next scene opens with Yojimbo and Tokuemon, the town’s sake brewer, in a medium-long shot, where Yojimbo is screen-right and Tokuemon is serving him sake from screen-left. The action of the screen and the composition of its subjects coincide very well in this case; Tokuemon needs Yojimbo more than Yojimbo need him, and his screen-left position suggests he’s the one doing the approaching in this business transaction even though Yojimbo is the one who availed himself. The first words in this scene are from Yojimbo, “Name me a price.” After Tokuemon offers a measly three ryo, the camera goes into a medium-close-up, over-the-shoulder shot over Tokuemon of Yojimbo screen-right giving him a comical, sideways look before getting up and saying aloud that Ushitora, the head of the rival family, might pay more—and hilarity ensues.[6]
Yojimbo gets up and crosses screen-right to left between Tokuemon and the camera to exit the room, going into the hallway; Tokuemon also gets up and follows, but not before throwing out another offer of four ryo. In the next shot, Yojimbo continues down the hallway silently, screen-right to left, with Tokuemon close behind him making more offers incrementally higher than the one before it. In this sequence, the use of motion vectors show dejection and desperation on the part of Yojimbo and Tokuemon, respectively. Tokuemon’s first priority is to get Yojimbo and his side and to keep him happy there, hence, the scene opening with him screen-left to Yojimbo’s screen-right. As soon as he makes the insulting offer of three ryo, Yojimbo relinquishes his sway over Tokuemon by moving screen-left, giving up the dominance, the power, that Tokuemon is giving him. Yojimbo continues leftward and descends the stairs to
put on his shoes in the vestibule. The subjects coming down the stairs in addition to moving leftward across the screen increases Tokuemon’s anxiety, which may or may not be why the stair descent is when the, as of yet, largest jump in offer occurs. The next shot places Tokuemon at the far right side of the screen, at the base of the stairs and Yojimbo at the far left side of the screen by the front door of the house—the ball is in Tokuemon’s court. [7]
This shot uses a concept called the magnetism of the frame to expand the distance between Yojimbo and Tokuemon on-screen. When a subject is framed with the top of his head inches from the top of the frame the subject will look elongated and glued to the roof of the shot. A Krazy Glue advertisement campaign made use of this very concept in their advertisements, where a construction worker wore a hard hat “krazy-glued” to an I-beam. The construction worker is framed in an extreme-long-shot with very little headroom to emphasize the strength of their product using the magnetism of the top of the frame.
The large distance between Yojimbo and Tokuemon elicits the largest jump in offer from 35 ryo to 50 ryo. Tokuemon frantically makes this final offer after jetting screen-left after Yojimbo and situating himself screen-left to Yojimbo’s screen-right, which is the first time he is screen-right since Tokuemon made his first lame offer. Yojimbo finally pauses, much to Tokuemon’s astonishment, returns passive-aggressively to screen-left for a drink of water, and stipulates a “half-now and half-later” arrangement while Tokuemon plops down on a seat behind him and the scenes ends with a wipe-cut. [8]
[1] Image Source: Sanjuro; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[2] Image Source: Sanjuro; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[3] Image Source: Sanjuro; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[4] Image source: Sanjuro; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[5] Image source: Sanjuro; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[6] Image Source: Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[7] Image source: Yojimbo; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
[8] Image Source: Yojimbo; Akira Kurosawa, Dir.
