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Theory of Geoffrey's

posted 13 years ago by Bubbles22
2 replies | jump to latest

This was posted under the trivia section on the Curse of the Black Pearl page:

According to the DVD commentaries, Geoffrey Rush has a theory that people watch the screen from left to right, just like when they read a book. Therefore, he tried to be in the left side of the screen as often as possible. He was particularly intent on doing this in the scenes with the monkey and Keira Knightley because he didn't think anyone would look at him otherwise.

This is the only time I've read about this but it caught my attention as, just thinking about it, though I can understand his logic I don't necessarily agree as I 'read' the screen from the centre, outwards - as with a painting.Unlike with prose one has to read from left to right in order for the words and sentances to make sense, I find with things projected on a screen the action mostly tends to happen in the centre, which is the main focus and therefore what helps to make sense of what's going on, before starting to search the peripherals for extras.

...Just something that I found interesting.

[–] JenniFehr 13 years ago

I'd never thought of it. I'm not sure I agree, either, but I really can't say which I focus on most, left, center or right. I read a book on body language that said you should try to get on the left (I think it was the left?) side in photos, because you're more likely to get noticed, or seen as the dominant person in the pic. Don't know what's true, but I'm not an expert on body language, despite having read some, lol!

Jen

[–] dweediecat 13 years ago

I took a course in human communications (part physiology, part anthropology) and it's true for cultures who read left to right.

The brain is wired to search for patterns and becomes biased to assuming those patterns always apply... the paradigm effect.

For westerners in general - it is expected, and therefore more comfortable to have new information introduced (visually) from the left. It is unexpected, and therefore startling (less comfortable, less attention given to detail?) to have something new introduced from the right.

This is also a common consideration for theatrical staging (among those cultures.)

"Geoffrey Rush - The Thinking Woman's Crumpet"