From Cinematic Space To Mental Space

From cinematic Space To Mental SpaceSpace is an the inexhaustible cardinal dimensional expanse in which all objects exist or it is the interval of distance and succession amid deuce contingents, objects or horizontalts.1The concept of the term station evolved with clock clip. Initially this term strictly had a geometrical meaning evoking the nous of an empty set which is Euclidean, isotropic, or infinite, basically a mathematical concept.2 visible quadrangle is often conceived in trine linear dimensions, although modern physicist usually consider it with time to be a spokesperson of the boundless four dimensional continuum kn testify asSpace-time.3According to the Wikipedia nurture, the concept of seat has been discussed throughout history. Plato has discussed close this concept of put in one of his treatise Timaeus, where he reflects on what the unmixed called Chora/ Khora (that is place).Aristotle has dealt with dummy in Book IV, Delta, in the definition of topos which means retell.In a discourse on place (Qawl fi al makan) by the eleventh century Arab Polymath Ibn al _Heythum (Alhazan) discusses geometrical conceptions of place as place qua extension. Aristotelean tradition had held that blank and time were those categories which facilitated the naming and the classing of the evidence of the senses. On the opposite fall in, the thinker, Descartes was taken to be grand in shaping the concept of outer blank position and the key to its matured form. According to most historians of the Western thoughts, he has brought an end to the Aristotelian tradition.As the Cartesian logic evolved, distance was considered to be absolute. It became dominant containing two the event and the object.Science and mathematics has defined this concept of outer shoes in their own dash respectively and afterward even the philosophers. Some scholars has studied and analyzed the relationship of time and stead.The metaphysicist Immanuel Kant defin ed musculus quadriceps femoris and time as elements of systematic fix die hard that benevolents use to structure their experience.In his Critique of Pure Reason, he verbalise that blank shell is a surveyive pure a priori form of intuition. Therefore its existence depends on the human fafuroreies.4The Kantian pose has revived and revised the old nonion of space. hither space is relative, a beam of knowledge, and a means of classifying phenomenon, separated from the empirical electron orbit. It has a transcendental and ungraspable structure.5According to Henri Lefebvre, the mathematicians, quite contrary to philosophical system, has identify space as Non-Euclidean spaces, curved spaces, x-dimensional spaces( even spaces with an infinity of dimensions), spaces of configuration, abstract spaces , spaces defined by deformations or transformation, by the topology and so on.6though the mathematicians has defined and constructed the term spaces, classifying in conglomerate ways and measured them, what philosophy did as Leonardo da Vinci had verbalize, is that it helped in the formation of the genial intimacy that is the cordial space.According to Isaac due north space exists independently and permanently even without the presence of any object in it and because it is absolute.On the other hand naturalist philosophers thought that space was a collection of relations between objects disposed(p) by their distance and direction from one another. The 18th century philosopher and theologian George Berkely attempted to refute the visibility of spatial sagacity in his es regularize Towards a new theory of vision.Initially time and space was viewed as independent dimensions. Einsteins discoveries showed that due to relativity of motion, our space and time apprize be mathematically have into one object space-time. One whoremonger freely move in space but not time.In the middle of the 19th century, psychology first began to study the way space is perceived .Psychologists analyzed the intuition of space and were concerned n ahead of time how the recognition of an objects tangible appearance or its interactions is perceived. The philosophy of space and time be intensitys to and central font of early analytic philosophy. There are questions related to whether time and space exist independently of the approximation and each other.From the theory of logic, space has transcended to nature, practice and theories of kindly life which unfolds in space.7The modern field of enquiry has the notion that space has acquired the view of mental thing or mental space. This concept of mental space has no generalization and even no clear account.We hear of opposite spaces identical literary space, ideological spaces, the space of the dream, psychoanalytic topologies etc.Michel Foucault said that knowledge (savoir) is too the space in which the subordinate may take up a position and speak of the object with which he deals with in his discours e.8 precisely he neither explained the spaces nor defined their distinctions. The linguist Naom Chomsky has nominaten the idea that a mental space has trustworthy particularized properties with orientations and symmetries but completely ignores the gap between linguistic mental space and brotherly space.Lefebvre believed that the modern thinkers had fetishized the philosophico-epistemological notion of space and that the mental realm envelopes the social and physical ones. The quasi-logical presupposition of an identity between mental space (the space of the philosopher and epistemologists) and the real space creates a gulf between the mental sphere on one side and the physical and social spheres on the other.He said that there dopenot be a fixed knowledge of space and without it we transfer to a level of discourse-the level of mental space a large portion of the attributes and properties of what is actually social space. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, he said t hat space was not only read but there existed a code which is architectural, urbanistic and political, with a ad hoc language which is common to all strata of people.He said that anything care leisure, work, play, transportation etc., can be intercommunicate of in the spatial terms in an artists or writers world. Therefore there is an indefinite multitude of space around us.He questions whether space can be nothing more than the passive locus of social relations. In general he talks about three kinds of spaces1. The physical space nature, the cosmos.2. The mental space with its logical and formal abstractions.3. The social space.What he is concerned with is the logico-epistemological space, the space of social practice, the space occupied by sensory phenomenon, including products of imagination such as projects and projections, symbols and utopias.9There are accepted specializations of space. When we think of a space, we are immediately concerned with what occupies the space an d how it does so along with the energy present within the space. Without energy, the physical space has no reality.This space is always associated with time. space considered in isolation is an empty abstraction.10According to Fred Hoyles theory, space is a product of energy. Henri says that multiplicity of particular spaces, yet diverse are offered by this universe. away from the concept of physical space, mental space and social space, he dealt with the minute elements in space like ideal space related to mental space and real space associated with social space These two spaces are in a way related to each other. He said that philosophy has played an serious part in the development of the abstract (metaphysical) representations of space, where the Cartesian notion of space became significant due to its homogeneous, isotropic portion which helped it to become absolute and infinite and divine.But space is even beyond this. Plato talks about the cosmic space, where the space of t he city is a reflection of the Cosmos.Literature too reveals different spaces to us. But the problem is that the space here is enclosed, described, projected, dreamt off and speculated about.When we talk of a particular space, we distinguish it and not isolate it. Various kinds of space comes together to produce a space. In relation of language, Henri questions whether a language follows or accompanies a social space. Many people have explored space in different ways. In his work, George Bastille has played with the space on inner experience on one hand and the space of physical nature on the other and social space.Through Hegelian viewpoint, space is considered to be a product and residue of historical time. Though Hegel had the idea of a concrete universe.Social space is a social product and when produced serves as a tool for thought and action. As said by many thinkers, it is difficult to distinguish social space as distinct from mental space and even physical space.Every societ y produces a space of its own. The Asiatic mode of production of space is different from the Western mode. There are multitudes of intersection in space. The way certain spaces are represented by the society, lead to the representations of space.Representational spaces on the other hand deals with spaces associated with its ambits and symbols. These spaces represent something of their own. It overlay the physical space, making symbolic use of its objects.Even though they are abstract, the representations of space, has a role in social and political practice. They have a role to play in the realised relations between objects and people, following certain rules. This is not the case of representational spaces. It is filled with symbolic and complex quantity elements. According to Henri Lefebvre, a psychoanalyst or anthropologists are students of representational spaces. Childhood memories, dreams are all part of this representational space.The gap between representations of space an d representational spaces is culture. Therefore what can be concluded is that the producers of space are related to the representations of space while the users of a space are related to their representational space.Here I conclude that space with its original and represented identity occupies a part of our physical and mental self and even helps in the identification of these self.Each physical space creates a mental space, a space with certain paint a picture values.A house can be used for the phenomenological study of the intimate values of space.11All inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home. Thoughts and experience is not the only thing that sanctions human values. We will deal more with this later in the thesis.After traffic with the basic idea of space with the help of the views and ideas of Henri Lefebvre, I want to connect this idea of the concept of space in dealing with the motion picturetic space.cinematic space is the represented space, selected, manip ulated and projected as a finite field of vision.12As Henri Lefebvre has said that it depends on the producers of space. This space is what we gain on the screen. This screen space is marked by a skeletal system which acts like the borders in a pictorial matter. It is geometric and represents the space that we see on the screen. In this way it divides the screen space into onscreen and off-screen spaces. The edge acts as a windowpane connecting u to the rent space and on the other hand separating the space we inhabit from the engage space.13We the ravishers look through the cat.According to Gilles Deleuse, the motion-picture showtic frame is a relatively closed systemWhich includes everything which is present in the image- sets characters and props framing14.The frame acts as a system providing us with all the information regarding the image and all these information acts like a data which are known as the elements in the frame.Therefore the frame is inseparable from two t endencies towards saturation or towards rarefaction.15This image that the frame provides is not just to be seen, it is a message, and it gives us certain information, which are produced by the elements present in the frame (these elements are also some information. This is how the space produces its own language. He said that the frame is a spatial composition of parallels and diagonals, helping to form equilibrium.the frame is conceived as a dynamic construction in act, which is closely linked to the scene, the image, the characters and the objects which fill it.16The frame cannot be separated from its rigid geometrical boundaries. It has certain limitations. Like many Western painters this has been explored by many conduct makers like Griffith, Eisenstein. Deleuze said that start too is a subject of geometrical optic, when it is divided into two move forming light and shadow.17They help in the making of this space.The presence of objects inside the frame creates secondary and t ertiary frames like for example the house, doors, windows, mirror and even a fence. Therefore a frame is never fixed.A tardy draw closeion takes place which is physical and affects the viewers psychologically. Each object inside the frame has something to say, something to express and therefore have a meaning. Here geometrical divisions in the frame becomes insignificant.The framing angle is also an in-chief(postnominal) characteristic of the frame. Deleuze said the frame is related to an angle of framing. This is because the closed set is itself an optical system which refers to a point of view on the set of parts. Of course the point of view can be or appear to be bizarre or paradoxical the cinema shows extraordinary points of view at reasonableness level or from high or low, from low to high, etc. but they seem to be subject to a pragmatic rule which is not just valid for the narrative cinema to avoid fall into an empty aestheticism they must be explained ,they must be re vealed as normal and regular either from the point of view of a more comprehensive set which includes the first, or from the point of view of an initially unseen, not given element of the first set. give an example ifIt is here that the frame becomes an optical system, logically justified. But this justification does not always work. In the conclusion of his essay, Deleuze says that the frame finally determines an out-of-field, in the outline of a bigger set which extends it or in the figure of the whole into which it is incorporated.18In the book Republic, Plato talks about two modes of representation which are distinct and opposed to each other. These two modes are mimesis (imitation) and diegesis (narration). Theatre is related to imitation which shows us something whereas novel tells us a story. Cinema on the other hand incorporates both these characteristics.19In its early years, cinema followed the theatrical mode of representation. Here the frame is tableaux form, static and faces the audience. Therefore the cinema much influenced by the theatrical stage. The camera is static. The character enters the stage, performs and walks out. The camera does not follow the move of the characters. thence just fixed in the centre.Traditional theatrical space is an architectural product, where beyond the proscenium it does not exist for the viewers. Classical narrative cinema has transformed this space into an illusorily continuous cinematic space. The cinematic frivol away space is a figurative construction, resulting from medium specific techniques such as framing, camera movement and editing.20This space is linked to the codes of renaissance perspective, where the property of centering addresses to the subject whose position the space determines.Classical Hollywood cinema gave lot of importance to the use of space. This graphic space of the image, that we see on-screen acts as the vehicle for the narrative development.21These films created an deception of re ality where the screen became just a transparent object and the frame became invisible. A powerful three dimensional space is represented through the use of electron lens, lighting, camera movement and angles and other techniques. The space became as important as the narrative structure.So, what is the basic function of the frame?The frame shows us the image and creates an conjuring of reality. We already know that the Classical Hollywood films were highly inspired by visual art and as art has evolved, cinema has also evolved gradually taking inspiration from it. Film studio developed, taking inspiration from the workroom of artists and painters. There is a lot of similarity between classical Hollywood cinema and classical novels. Their look is influenced by the post spiritual rebirth painting. along with centering, the main aspect of this style is balancing, frontality and knowledge.Here, in the composition of the image, the subject or the character is always in the centre, wi th all the attentions, in focus. With the coming of the Renaissance period, human thoughts became anthropocentric. It is no more centered on the religion, god. The importance of man as an individual identity instead glum out to be the thought of the period. There was a highlight on the facial expressions and the human luggage compartment became the centre of attraction other than the narrative.Like in the paintings, a balance is always maintained in the visual composition of the film. The characters are evenly distributed in the film space. both these technique helps in the progress of the narration. The use of frontality is an influence of the Greek and Roman theatre. Through this technique the narrative action is addressed to the viewers. The depth is established through the use of lighting mainly 3 point lighting (the key, fill back end lighting and etc.) and costumes. Sometimes the set is painted in different colour to create the various depths.I think the use of sound to pro duce an illusion of depth came much later. By the establishment of depth, the film s tries to portray a perspective which is more or less linear, influenced by the ancient Greek Perspective, where the vision is organized around the static monocular observer, and in his vision all the parallel lines recede in the vanishing point. In this way, a personalized space is achieved, trying to conceal the flatness of the film space. The emergence of this classical narrative logic gives rise to cinematic subjectivity and the isolation of the spectator.22Classical Hollywood cinema places the spectator in an ideal position of intelligibility.23A film uses onscreen and off screen space to produce the diegetic world. Cinematic off screen space is different from the theatrical off stage space. The off screen film space has a pro filmic reference. The early films of Lumiere a Melies, had camera pointed at the action and remained static for the date of the action. The early films acknowledged the s pace outside the frame, for example the workers leaving the Lumiere factory 1895, showed the people moving through the frame and off the edge.The most important element of the film frame is mise-en-scene, a theatrical term. Both are depended on each other. It means everything which is put into the scene, or what we find in the film space. The frame along with the set design, camera and character movement, lighting and even sound, everything combined together form the mise-en-scene. And this mise-en-scene helps in the formation of the composition.Mise-en-scene can be defined as the articulation of the cinematic space, and it is only concerned about the space.24On the film set it creates an illusion of the reality or fantasy. The backcloth of the film is an important aspect of the mise-e-scene. It includes the shapes, designs and color of the film set. Colour also helps in the development of the narrative. It is used as a symbol. A set can be artificially constructed for an indoor s nap fastener or manipulated in the outdoor shot. Apart from the design and colour, props play an important role, in the development of the narrative. In the absence of the actors, they even tell a story and which are not possible in a theatre. They express certain mood, and say what is unsaid by the film narrative.the elements of the setting turns into motifs25Along with the props and costumes, the make up of the actors also furnishes the setting of the narrative.The props and costumes are also used for the film publicity, and they even help to turn certain characters into cult figures.Lighting is another aspect of the mise-en-scene, other than creating the illusion of reality, artificially producing light for an indoor shoot or day for night shoot, light along with colour and sometimes the prop creates the mood of his film. In the shot composition light and shadow works together. It helps in the development of the film space, sometimes maintaining continuity when camera movement ta kes place within a space. And at other times, different lighting helps to distinguish various spaces used in the film. I must say here that along with lighting sound also plays the same role. Light, colour and sound combined or individually can create suspense, horror, happiness and even loneliness. Light creates texture.Four major features of film lighting can be isolated are its quality, direction character and colour.Light quality depending on its intensity creates a sharp or a soft image by diffusion. With the use of hard light the shadow becomes bold creating definite contours. Light along with the lens and camera angle can be used to manipulate the shape of an object to enhance a mood.the proper use of light can embellish and dramatize every object-Josef von Sternberg.As preceding film makers used the frontality of the characters to highlight their presence, to give them a central position, as well light is used to play along certain character at the centre of attention. T his technique is also used in theatre.The direction of light in the film space, creates the presence of an off screen space. This idea also developed from the influence of paintings from the Renaissance period.Every light has a point where it is brightest and a point towards which it wanders to lose itself completely.The journey of rays from that central middle to the outposts of blackness is the adventure and drama of light. 26Depending on the narrative, the film space is generally lit up by top lighting, backlighting, side lighting, and frontal lighting and under lighting.Backlighting creates a dreamy fantasy image similarly under lighting is used to create a horror image.Different sources of light works together in the cinematic space to create the mental space of the spectators.Generally during a shoot three point lighting is used with key light (primary), fill light (secondary, softens the shadow) and backlight which highlights the character and separates it from the backgroun d thus creating depth. We have already discussed earlier how this method of lighting is use in Classical Hollywood cinema. Along with the direction, the source of the light on the film space creates an impact. For out door shoot during the day, we get the insolate light, the sky light and the reflected light from the objects around. The lighting is natural and therefore the look is also natural. This light can be manipulated to give a bluish tone with the use of 85 filter and the light can be further controlled with the use of neutral density filters to avoid over or under video of the film. In the case of indoor shooting, it is obvious that artificial light is to be used even to give the reference of a natural source of light. Light is continuously measured and blended to create the cinematic space. Here I want to say that though the basic reason for the use of lighting in a cinematic space is similar to theatrical space but the technique is different. This is because lighting in the theatrical space is more loud and dramatic whereas in the film space it is subtle.From all the information that I have acquired and the knowledge that I have gained, I therefore say that light is a language through which we can also tell a story. Its use is dynamic and is very important in the cinematic space. Only through light, we can see the film space.Mise-en-scene helps the character to express feelings and thoughts. The movement of the actors, their action, everything gets enhanced by the presence of the mise-en scene. Even acting in the cinematic space is different from the theatre. Cinematic space creates an illusion, where the screen frame acts as the window but the actors never stairs at the window they do not stare back at the audience, unless and until it is required by the film narrative. So through the presence of the actors, the way they move, talk, behave provides the film with an illusory realistic space.When we take a shot, the space in front of the camera is two dimensional when we take the shot, it remains the same but when the film is projected, and we see it on the screen, we see a three dimensional space and this space is enhanced through certain aspects of the mise-en-scene like colour, balance, size and movement. In a static set the movement of certain objects draws the attention. Colour can enhance certain mood. We know that it is used as a symbol. It can refer to different time space or change of space. The balance in placing the figure is also important. It determines the attention of the viewers. Size work in relation to the movement, colour and balance. The size of the objects creates the illusion of depth, where the objects in the foreground are generally larger in size and the objects in the background are small. The closer the object, it is more in focus. The depth creates a volume in the space. A different plane of the shot gets established due to the use of depth which creates the illusion of space.A film suggests volume by the use of movement, shape and shading.27Mise-en-scene can control not only what we look at also when we look at it.28It creates a sense of movement in time.Mise-en-scene helps to compose the film shot in space and time.Inside the film space, therefore it is the mise-en-scene which creates the cinematic space using both the onscreen and off-screen space and it is this cinematic space which creates the illusion of a real world or a fantasy world.The film narrative does not work with space alone but space and time. Time is ever changing and space also keeps evolving. Leaving aside, all the scientific reasons for the evolution of space, what I think that a space evolves with time only with the intervention of a man. It evolves in the imagination of the man. The cinematic space is an example of this space. Other than cinema this space can also be created through literature, music, dance, painting and even food.We prefer more of this cinematic space other than where we belong to, bec ause it incorporates our likes and dislikes, keeping in mind that it is our own creation.In dealing with the space and time in a film, it is necessary to study their unison within a shot and between two shots. It is not possible to visualize time on a screen without any action or movement in the space.Movement in reality is continuous but movement on the screen is discontinuous and is achieved very quickly by a series of still photographs.29In a film the dimensions of space and time cam be manipulated and this has become easier with the digital techniques. Slow or fast motion is used by changing the film speed. This manipulated space is artificial.From the early years of human civilization, paintings, sculptures have evolved as a language. A visual language, which can preserve itself. It creates its own memory. With the coming of industrialization and modernity, photography became more popular. Its basic function or utility is to freeze a moment, capture it and create a memory. Cin ema moves a step ahead. It not only captures a specific a moment, but a period of time30It is som