Focus: where attention goes, the audience follows

What it does: demonstrates attention and intention.

Scales of focus

Wide / Horizon focus
Attention reaches outward or beyond—toward distance, sky, ideas, or imagined futures.

• Reads as: longing, idealism, abstraction, avoidance, self-mythologizing

• Often used when characters speak philosophically, romantically, or defensively

Relational / Peripheral focus
Attention is oriented toward another person without direct eye contact.

• Reads as: restraint, testing, politeness, power negotiation

• Often lives in the body angled near someone, but eyes held just off

Specific / Task-based focus
Attention narrows onto a small, concrete detail (lint on a sleeve, a ring, the floor).

• Reads as: anxiety, vulnerability, repression, deflection, care

• Gives the audience a precise emotional anchor

Direct and indirect focus

• Direct focus: eyes clearly land on the object or person

• Indirect focus: attention is present, but eyes never fully arrive

Matching and diverging focus

When focus matches:
Two characters share the same scale or quality of attention.

When focus diverges:
One character holds wide focus while the other becomes highly specific—or one is direct while the other avoids.