NOTES ON FRAMING: Toward a Cinema of the Senses

Jul 29, 2025

Beginners (2011)

“Filmmaking, at its core, is sensory storytelling. You don’t just see it — you feel it.”

I’ve always had a soft spot for a frame within a frame. There’s something about it — the literal act of looking through one space into another — that mimics the quiet theatre of daily life. It’s cinematic, yes, but also deeply human. A reminder that we’re always observing, always interpreting, always edging toward the next scene.

Lately, I’ve had the strange sensation of peering into a future that’s just about to begin. Standing at the threshold of something — not quite through the door, but close enough to feel the shift in light. Maybe it’s a phase many new mothers pass through in the early years: part of life, but a little on the outside too. Watching others move through chapters that no longer feel like yours, while you orbit a story entirely new. A little disorienting, a little profound.

Of course, maybe I just love a frame within a frame because, frankly, it’s beautiful. Mesmerising, even. The filmmaker in me will always find delight in the art of turning the mundane into a moving portrait. There’s nothing too ordinary to be elevated — the way light dances across wooden floors, the tactility of an orange being peeled, the microscopic tilt of a head in thought.

So — before I spiral into more misty-eyed musings about symbolism and new beginnings — here are a few frames I’ve gathered. Scenes that stopped me in my tracks with their quiet composition.

Because filmmaking, at its core, is sensory storytelling. You don’t just see it — you feel it. The image, the sound, the texture of it all. The rhythm of one shot bleeding into the next. It’s a collage of colour and noise and emotion stitched together in real time.

Past Lives (2023)

Sex Education - S3E6 (2021)

The Master (2012)

20th Century Women (2016)

Adidas - HEY JUDE (2024)

Marriage Story (2019)

You see this kind of framing in photography too — doorways, windows, mirrors — those natural apertures that invite you to look through rather than just at. They create a sense of intimacy and distance all at once.