Left or Right?

Directing Lateral Movement in Film

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by Lubomir Kocka

Type: Studies
Subject: Technique > Cinematography
Keywords: shots, cinematography, actors
Publishing date: 2021
Publisher: Vernon Press
Collection: Cinema and Culture
1st publishing: 2020
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 248 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-64889-254-7

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Book Presentation:
'Left or Right? Directing Lateral Movement in Film' offers an in-depth analysis of film, television, and new media directing from a perspective of clearly articulated directorial concept linked to the placement and movement of performers in shot design. This book strives to demonstrate the mechanism of directional bias and how the effects of perceptual mechanisms can help film directors and image-makers to control, regulate, and modify the viewer's perception of characters and story movement, ultimately leading to higher quality creations.

This highly hands-on, practical book provides novel insights into the significance of laterality effects, equipping film directors, and image-makers who want to create aesthetically valuable and well-crafted visual products with functional tools to employ. The book also examines lateral organization in regard to biological sex, gender identity, class, races, ethnicity, religions, and age in LGBTQ+ films and porn cinema.

'Left or Right? Directing Lateral Movement in Film' holds broad appeal from experiences directors or cinematographers with an established body of work to students working to understand the language of cinema. It will also appeal to film and media theorists, as well as teachers of visual arts education.

About the Author:
Lubomir Kocka has held the position of Professor of Film and Television at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) since 2002 and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film and Television from the College of Muse and Dramatic Arts, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. A native of Slovakia, Kocka is an award-winning director of nine feature films, seven TV series and miniseries, and over a dozen television dramas. His feature films include 'Fallacies of Our Traditional Morale' (1989) and 'Aphrodite' (1993), and the film 'The Lunch Box' he produced was the winner in the Narrative category for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 37th Annual Student Academy Awards in 2010. Kocka has previously published on the subject of film, television and new media directing in his innovative book 'Directing the Narrative and Shot Design: The Art and Craft of Directing' (Vernon Press, 2018).

Press Reviews:
Professor Lubomir Kocka is a consummate filmmaker and an exceptional educator. In "Left or Right" he clearly communicates how and why compelling visual storytelling can be achieved through camera movement and direction as well as the frame composition. I believe both students of film and veteran filmmakers will find this book to be an essential tool for conveying captivating visual narrative.

Peter Weishar

Professor, Director of Themed Experience

University of Central Florida

There are very few rules in film. The "Left to right" or often called the "180 degree" rule is one of the few that has survived through generations of filmmakers. It's used to help orient the viewer in the film space and give a spatial relationship to the character and the importance of their positions. Though, even in the case of this rule, great directors like John Ford and Sam Peckinpah have broken it successfully many times.

In his extremely complex book, Lubomir Kocka, director and film pedagogue, is not interested in this or any other rules or what he calls "regularities". He goes much deeper into reading the left and right sides of the film image and the other visual narratives, but unlike many film textbooks, his approach is not mechanical. He provokes our curiosity and makes us collaborators in his unwavering pursuit. In this book, Kocka does not stop only at filmmaking but draws in the entire spectrum of creativity.

As a director who has been making feature films for fifty years, and as a professor who has educated many generations of future directors, screenwriters and producers at various universities around the world, I can safely say that I will highly recommend this book to my colleagues and those who are on their way to embark on a professional life in film.

Unique, interesting and well-composed book full of rare multidisciplinary knowledge.

Rajko Grlic

Film Director

Eminent Scholar in Film, Ohio University