Raze the Proscenium Arch!!! Film Logic Rant 02

It's funny, you take the 'is' out of raise and you insert a 'z' and the word becomes the opposite of what it means even though the pronunciation is still the same--English is funny like that, but I digress.

So why raze the proscenium arch? What the hell is the proscenium arch? Anyone who is familiar with theater and how stages are set up know that the proscenium arch is the "window to the stage."  It is the framing of the stage and where the composition of the stage is realized to the audience; it is what the audience see. This is a film blog, so why am I babbling about the mechanics of theater?

In film history 101, you will most likely be given a brief introduction into theater because it is the precursor to film. You will eventually learn about the proscenium arch. Why is it important? The framing of a shot is much like the framing of the stage. Whereas the stage director uses the proscenium arch to control what the audiences see, the film director uses a camera to fulfill this same purpose.

So what is the problem with the proscenium arch? It is not a problem with the proscenium arch per se, but how certain film directors intentionally or unintentionally frame a shot like they were directing a stage production.

Although there are myriad examples of movies that abuses this framing technique, the most egregious offenders are horror films. You've seen it. A scene where a character is standing alone in an empty room surrounded by cobwebs, shattered mirrors, and a creaky floor. The camera pans and suddenly out of nowhere someone jumps into frame and frightens the bejesus out of our horrified character. This is the abuse of the proscenium arch-like framing. On the stage, the fiction of the world is confined within the proscenium arch. On film, the world isn't limited to the frame. There is an agreement between the audience and the director that there is a world that exist beyond the frame; and that this world behaves much like our very own. So with that in mind, our lone character standing in the empty room would've noticed the person creeping up on her even though we do not see them in the frame. These panning jump scares are cheap and antiquated techniques some filmmakers are still utilizing for suspense.

Another framing abuse I despise started with the first Final Destination movie (maybe another film did it first but I personally remember seeing it for the first time here). The framing of the scene has a medium shot of a female character verbally lashing out at her friends before deciding to step out onto the street. Once on the street she is immediately struck to goo by a speeding bus. Sure, pretty effective sequence to shock and rattle the nerves but again, it frames the shot like a proscenium arch dismissing the realities of the surroundings and the bigger world outside the frame. This framing technique has been done to death in films like Constantine, The Orphanage, The Devil's Reject, Edge of Darkness, and countless others...it definitely needs to be put out pasture much like the shaky cam without POV and ADD editing.

Evolving filmmakers need to understand that the world beyond the frame needs to be respected and treated like the real world. It is this inherent connection that makes the believability of the fictional world told through the lens that much more convincing and engaging. Keep the proscenium arch directing style mentality on the fukin' stage.