Cinematography Recaps: Frame Axis

Developing my research further into framing, I researched the term 'frame axes'. A frame is seen as two-dimensional and is therefore defined by two different axes: a horizontal (x) and a vertical (y). There is also a third axis (z axis), which is used to denote the depth within a particular frame; this means that this axis is mainly used to create either a deep or flat frame.

Here's a quick example of what I mean by deep framing. In this (rather terrible) shot, we can see that there is a depth within the frame, the teddy is sat far away and therefore emphasises the use of the z axis as a deep frame. 

Here is an example of flat framing. The bear is sat against a wall, which shows a lack of depth within this particular shot. Even though we see a little depth in the bears features, the shot itself is quite flat, with no depth shown (like the corridor shot I took above).m 

It is said that in most film-making cases, this idea is used to create compositions in depth, and to further enhance verisimilitude. The perception within these frames can also be manipulated by the type of camera lens used by changing the visual relationship between the subject in frame (object 'teddy in my example' and the space around them (the corridor).