The Meaning Potential of Motion Vectors in Cinema

Authors

  • Maarten Coëgnarts University of Antwerp

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2036-461X/16785

Keywords:

Camera movement, Editing, Embodied cognition, Film style, Forces, Vectors

Abstract

This paper examines the meaning potential of directed forces or vectors in cinema. The first part draws on the pioneering work of Rudolf Arnheim to highlight the prominent role of vectors in the visual structuring of meaning in paintings. In the second part, we move on to explore the semantic significance of motion vectors in cinema. To this aim we first define and diagram the filmic space in which vectors may articulate themselves visually. Having firmly grounded this spatial framework in film theory, we adopt the terminology of Herbert Zettl to further distinguish between three types of motion vectors: primary motion vectors (elicited by motion of visual objects), secondary motion vectors (elicited by camera movement) and tertiary motion vectors (elicited by editing). We conclude this paper by applying the proposed conceptual tools of this paper to three filmic case-studies in which the relation between narrative meaning and motion vectors is further discussed and illustrated.

Author Biography

Maarten Coëgnarts, University of Antwerp

Maarten Coëgnarts holds a PhD in Film Studies and Visual Culture and an MA in Sociology (University of Antwerp, Belgium). Since 2010 he has researched the interplay between embodied cognition, metaphor and cinema. The results have been published in, among others, Image [&] Narrative, Projections, Cinéma & Cie, Metaphor and Symbol and Metaphor and the Social World. He is co-editor of the book Embodied Cognition and Cinema (Leuven University Press, 2015) and author of the book Film as Embodied Art: Bodily Meaning in the Cinema of Stanley Kubrick (Academic Studies Press, 2019).

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Published

2022-06-27

How to Cite

Coëgnarts, M. (2022). The Meaning Potential of Motion Vectors in Cinema. Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal, 22(38), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.54103/2036-461X/16785