Comics are not film

[bcholmes]

In film, there's a magic "line" that you're supposedly not allowed to cross. You're not supposed to, for example, cut from one shot to another shot taken from a spot 180 degrees on the other side of a character. You can dolly around to the other side, but the theory is that if you cut to a shot from the other direction, viewers get disoriented and lose their spatial awareness of the environment in which the scene takes place.

(I've seen a few instances where the line has been crossed. Ozu often violated the 180 degree rule. I also recall a moment in a key scene in the movie Quiz Show when a shot cuts from in front of Ralph Fiennes to directly behind him.)

That same rule doesn't apply to comics it seems.

Edit: Curiously, Questionable Content this morning makes a comment that there's a "don't let the characters switch places" rule.

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

It totally doesn't, and it's one of my favorite formal things about comics. S and I are hoping to visit some friends in Toronto - maybe we can get together and talk landscape and comics and representation though lines on paper.

N.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

That'd be cool. What sort of time frame?

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

*Eventually*? :) I'm hoping this late summer/early autumn post-baby, while it's still warmish in Canada. I finally got my new passport and am so ready to go :)

N.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Cool. I look forward to it.