Left or Right? Why a Character's Lateral Movement On-Screen Matters in Film

http://nofilmschool.com/2016/02/left-or-right-why-characters...

These aesthetic theories are explored (finally, a film theory actually put through an official test) in a study conducted at Cleveland State University, in which participants were asked to, first, watch a scene where the characters' movements went from left to right, as well as from right to left, and then share how each video made them feel.

Their findings? The footage that showed right to left lateral movement made the participants feel -- bad. They responded that watching the footage made them have more negative feelings than the footage in which the lateral movement went from left to right. Why? It's not entirely or definitively clear, but if you think about it, our culture has trained our brains to view left to right movement as an indicator or progress -- of success.

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Which Way Did He Go? Lateral Character Movement in Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys8-a0yD-MM

What's the difference between moving left to right or right to left? The difference is everything. Let's talk about movement, and why it means more than you'd think.

[partial transcript:]
The answer comes from time and language. In Western culture left to right indicates the progression of time. Our language reads from left from right. Books begin from the left and finish once we get to the right. In video games players start on the left side and finish the level on the right. On any line graph, time increases as we move right. In our everyday life, movement towards the right indicates time, progress and normality. And movement towards the left indicates moving back in time, abnormality and regression. From this thinking came the thinking among film scholars that people will interpret left to right movement as more natural or normal than left to right movement because of how our brains naturally process moving images.

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Which Way Did He Go? Directionality of Film Character and Camera Movement and Subsequent Spectator Interpretation

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228448619_Which_Way...

Matthew L. Egizii, James Denny, M.A., Kimberly A. Neuendorf, Ph.D., Paul D. Skalski, Ph.D., Rachel Campbell, School of Communication, Cleveland State University.

Abstract:

Elements of on-screen motion hold specific meanings and contexts depending on their
usage. This study focuses on how a film viewer interprets lateral motion from left-to-right
and from right-to-left. A posttest only experimental design used previously existing
footage from a short film to test movement in one of these two directions. Participants
answered a short questionnaire after watching the sequence and answered items
concerning affective and perceptual evaluations of the sequence. Data were also collected
about factors the researchers suspected were possible causes for the effect, including
religion, psychometrics, recall, media use, and handedness. After performing a factor
analysis, an ANOVA showed a significant relationship between viewer evaluations on
the Negative Affect factor and the two experimental conditions, such that right-to-left
motion was perceived more negatively. Additionally the study found no support for
explanations by religion, handedness, recall or the psychometric items (except for
psychoticism).