Describe the differences in how film and theater deal with space

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. Space in the live theater is dependent on the basic unit of the scene. The action takes place in a unified area that has specific limits, usually defined by the proscenium arch. Drama, then, almost always deals with closed forms: We don’t imagine that the action is being continued in the wings or the dressing rooms of the theater.
2. The “proscenium arch” in film is the frame—a masking device that isolates objects and people only temporarily. Movies deal with a series of space fragments. Beyond the frame of a given shot, another aspect of the action waits to be photographed. A close-up of an object, for example, is generally a detail of a subsequent long shot, which will give us the context of the close-up. In the theater, it’s more difficult to withhold information in this manner.
3. These spatial differences don’t necessarily favor one medium over the other. In the live theater, space is three dimensional, is occupied by tangible people and objects, and is therefore more lifelike. That is, our perception of space is essentially the same as in reality. The living presence of actors, with their subtle interactions—both with other actors and the audience—is impossible to duplicate in film.
4. Movies provide us with a two-dimensional image of space and objects, and no interaction exists between the screen actors and the audience. For this reason, nudity is not so controversial an issue on the screen as in the live theater. On stage the naked people are real, whereas in movies they’re “only pictures.”