Zayne's Theory of Cinematic Reality

This work presents Zayne’s Theory of Cinematic Reality, a conceptual framework explaining why certain visual images feel real while others feel artificial.The theory proposes that realism emerges from constraint satisfaction rather than visual fidelity, emphasizing temporal causality, physical light behavior, perceptual prediction, spatial coherence, and emotional justification.This framework is not a scientific theory in physics or neuroscience, but a cinematic perception model derived from long-term observation of real-world imagery, filmmaking practice, and interdisciplinary study.The theory applies across live-action cinema, animation, photography, and AI-generated imagery.