The Visual Story: Seeing the Structure of Film, TV and New Media (Paperback)

~ Bruce Block (Author) "Everywhere we go, we're confronted by pictures..." (more)
Key Phrases: aerial diffusion, basic visual components, subtractive color wheel, Color Plate, Howard's End, Story Sequence List (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Book outlines the concept of visual presentation as a science, using everything fromt he dynamics of perspective to shape, tone, color and rhythm. A textbook take on what makes visuals work or fall flat." - Variety -- Review

Review

"Book outlines the concept of visual presentation as a science, using everything fromt he dynamics of perspective to shape, tone, color and rhythm. A textbook take on what makes visuals work or fall flat." - Variety

"love that it uses classic and contemporary film, eg Run Lola Run, would like to see a DVD or CD-ROM with the film clips, mesh between theory and parctice excellent"

"concise reference of practical applications"

"very interesting approach...innovative intersection of theory and practice."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press (May 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240804678
• ISBN-13: 978-0240804675
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #233,011 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #54 in	Books > Entertainment > Movies > Cinematography
  #80 in	Books > Entertainment > Television > Direction & Production

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for Serious Filmmakers and Film Buffs, August 21, 2001

By	Noah Kadner (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a revelation! If you are all serious about making movies (or getting the most out of watching them) you must have this book. Bruce Block's theories will open your eyes to a hidden world of communication encoded into film. You will learn how visuals and their structure are just as effective and important as story and dialogue. You will see all films in a completely new and exciting way. You will gain the insight and tools to make your own movies visually compelling and powerful. I've also attended Bruce's visual expression classes in Los Angeles and can honestly say they were the most formative and enlightening of any film theory class I've ever had. Read this book and you'll never see movies the same way.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius, October 31, 2003

By	Sydney (London, UK) - See all my reviews

Eye-opening is an understatement, Bruce Block turns film editing from mysterious gibberish into a language. I was fortunate enough to hear him speak at Warner bros., it was the single most useful lecture on anything I've ever been to. My notes are falling apart from constant use, finally he has a book out!

This book explains with crystal-clarity how to use shapes, colour, and motion on screen to control pacing and feeling. No film student should be without it; screenwriters, comic artists, web designers, anyone who deals with visual storytelling will wonder where Bruce Block has been all their life. Five stars, I'd give it more if I could!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear and insightful guide to seeing the visual structure of moving images, August 9, 2007

By	Nathan Andersen "film lover, philosophy profe... (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Visual Story" really is unlike anything out there for its emphasis on the ways in which the structure of an image or of images in sequence -- its shape, its apparent spatial dimensions, its movement, its complexity, its rhythm and texture, its color dimensions -- can all work together to support the emotional and thematic dimensions of the story it aims to tell. His explanations are simultaneously simple and insightful, and spending time with this book can really open your eyes to the wide range of ways in which moving images can be meaningful at a level that can be independent of the actual content of the image (who is in it, what is being shown). Essential reading for filmmakers who aspire to take advantage of the potentials of the medium, this book would also be enormously revealing and useful for students of film, for film lovers, and even for those who have a broad interest in the visual arts. His chapters on space and on color, and his discussions of their emotional as well as their formal content, are especially valuable and full of insight. I can't recommend this book highly enough.