An Ecological Approach to Dynamic and Static Camera Framing Techniques

Media practitioners and scholars have long pointed out that a camera’s angle, movement, and distance are a fundamental part of video communication, as they alter the message in meaningful ways that in turn affect the viewer’s experience. Drawing on J. J. Gibson’s ecological approach to perception, this paper argues that camera effects are not arbitrary, but are rooted in how video interplays with our perceptual and motor systems, rendering it a universally accessible mode of communication. Through a comprehensive review of empirical and experimental studies on camerawork, the ecological paradigm is proposed as a coherent framework capable of explaining seemingly unrelated camera effects, with great potential to drive future research in audiovisual communication.