On Cinema — Deleuze
II. The Frame and the Shot
Deleuze defines the set as a closed system that includes everything appearing in the image. The set is a collection of data or images. The frame functions like the camera's depth of field — the boundary that determines how much content falls within the image. Whatever lies within the frame is in the field; everything beyond it is out of field. As Deleuze writes, "The out of field refers to what is neither seen nor understood, but is nevertheless perfectly present." (Deleuze, p. 16) Bogue extends this by drawing on non-visual body perceptions — scents, temperature, tactile sensation — as examples of out-of-field content that remains present without appearing in the image.
The contents of any set depend on the set itself, but the set in turn belongs to a larger web of relations. A closed system is never fully closed: it is always embedded in a more extensive whole. The frame isolates a section of this set, defining what falls within the depth of field and excluding everything beyond it. Within what is excluded, Deleuze distinguishes two kinds: the "relatively out of field," which expands the spatial dimension of the frame and is often implied within it, and the "absolutely out of field," which tends to be uncanny and unexpected — something the frame could not have anticipated.
The shot, or the plane, is the movement image — an immobile section extended into a specific duration. Movement can be thought of as a set, but the shot records only the particular interval in which a movement occurs. As Deleuze writes, "The shot, that is to say, consciousness traces a movement which means the things between which it arises are continuously reuniting, and the whole is continuously dividing between the things." (Deleuze, p. 20) What the shot and the immobile section share is their dependence on concrete duration: just as movement depends on change, the shot depends on the duration in which a specific section of that process unfolds.
The shot is also a section of the set, and the set may contain multiple movements happening simultaneously. As Bogue summarizes it, the shot functions as a "unity of movement" — "plan as spatial distance and temporal continuity." (Bogue, p. 43) The shot is an image of the set: an immobile section, a slice of space, since movement is defined as the continuous translation of space.
Deleuze synthesizes three types of image: the perception image, the action image, and the affection image. For Bergson, all perception is structured by preestablished images — prior expectations about how matter behaves. Perception forms when objective data is received and processed into a subjective conclusion based on those prior images. The sugar-in-water example illustrates this: seeing the sugar dissolve produces the image that the water will be sweet, and tasting it confirms a conclusion already formed through accumulated images of sugar's properties. Perception is thus the connection of one image to another.
The action image adds a temporal delay. After the glass of sugared water is consumed, the body responds — either rejecting it as too sweet or adding more sugar. The structure is: receive data, form a conclusion, then move to reaction. The affection image arises in the interval between perception and reaction. Bergson describes it as what registers when consciousness is no longer directing action: "affection: consciousness replies that it is present indeed… that it fades and disappears as soon as my activity, by becoming automatic, shows that consciousness is no longer needed." (Bergson, p. 18) It is a response that operates before deliberate decision-making begins.
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