Framing

Framing is the subconscious process in which all humans relate an action, thought, or event with an emotion which influences the conscious opinion. Framing is encountered by all Americans in everyday life, through advertising.  A car set among trees and blue skies subconsciously produces a serene, calm feeling when looking at the advertisement, where as the same car set in a metropolis at night may give a person a rushed, cosmopolitain view of the vehicle.  Depending on the demographic trying to be persuaded to purchase the car, advertisers would choose one or another.  In the Frontline documentary, The Persuaders, marketers hope to sell the airline to a specific subset of woman, an archetypical 'Carrie.' To appeal to this type of person, their advertisements offer a specific set of images and sounds, and the airline offers specific services, to subconsciously make the traveller choose Song over another airline, even if the fares are the same or higher than another carrier.  Framing began to be employed in this way, in the advertising industry, in the 1960's, when Marshall McLuhan and his cohorts began to shift advertising from the older methods of comparing brands straightforward to one another, to a new method of evoking an emotion and connecting to a brand with advertising. Advertising's public perception began to shift from cold and corporate, to an art form.

Framing is useful in theatre because it is a collaborative art form.  Decisions are made daily on design choices for a show, and depending on how you present an option to a team, they may more quickly decide on your option if it is presented in the correct manner.