Left or Right? Directing Lateral Movement in Film

Professor Lubomir Kocka is a consummate filmmaker and an exceptional educator. In “Left or Right” he clearly communicates how and why compelling visual storytelling can be achieved through camera movement and direction as well as the frame composition. I believe both students of film and veteran filmmakers will find this book to be an essential tool for conveying captivating visual narrative.

Peter Weishar

Professor, Director of Themed Experience

University of Central Florida

There are very few rules in film. The “Left to right” or often called the “180 degree” rule is one of the few that has survived through generations of filmmakers. It’s used to help orient the viewer in the film space and give a spatial relationship to the character and the importance of their positions. Though, even in the case of this rule, great directors like John Ford and Sam Peckinpah have broken it successfully many times.

In his extremely complex book, Lubomir Kocka, director and film pedagogue, is not interested in this or any other rules or what he calls “regularities”. He goes much deeper into reading the left and right sides of the film image and the other visual narratives, but unlike many film textbooks, his approach is not mechanical. He provokes our curiosity and makes us collaborators in his unwavering pursuit. In this book, Kocka does not stop only at filmmaking but draws in the entire spectrum of creativity.

As a director who has been making feature films for fifty years, and as a professor who has educated many generations of future directors, screenwriters and producers at various universities around the world, I can safely say that I will highly recommend this book to my colleagues and those who are on their way to embark on a professional life in film.

Unique, interesting and well-composed book full of rare multidisciplinary knowledge.

Rajko Grlic

Film Director

Eminent Scholar in Film, Ohio University