The Visual Story: Seeing the Structure of Film, TV and New Media [Paperback]

Bruce Block (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0240804678 | ISBN-13: 978-0240804675 | Publication Date: April 23, 2001

The Visual Story offers students and professionals in cinematography, production design, directing and screenwriting a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film or video. An understanding of the visual components will serve as the guide in the selection of locations, set dressing, props, wardrobe, lenses, camera positions, lighting, actor staging, and editorial choices.


The Visual Story divides what is seen on screen into tangible sections: contrast and affinity, space, line and shape, tone, color, movement, and rhythm. The vocabulary as well as the insight is provided to purposefully control the given components to create the ultimate visual story. For example: know that a saturated yellow will always attract a viewer's eye first; decide to avoid abrupt editing by mastering continuum of movement; and benefit from the suggested list of films to study rhythmic control. The Visual Story shatters the wall between theory and practice, bringing these two aspects of the craft together in an essential connection for all those creating visual stories.

*Encourages the filmmaker to develop a "visual vocabulary"

*Shows the filmmaker how to structure visuals, communicating moods and emotions with style and variety

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

"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."

From the Publisher

The Visual Story offers those interested in cinematography, production design, directing and screenwriting a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film or video. An understanding of the visual components will serve as the guide in the selection of locations, set dressing, props, wardrobe, lenses, camera positions, lighting, actor staging, and editorial choices. The vocabulary as well as the insight is provided to purposefully control the given components to create the ultimate visual story. For example: know that a saturated yellow will always attract a viewer's eye first; decide to avoid abrupt editing by mastering continuum of movement; and benefit from the suggested list of films to study rhythmic control. The Visual Story shatters the wall between theory and practice, bringing these two aspects of the craft together in an essential connection for all those creating visual stories.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press (April 23, 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 Best Sellers Rank: #78,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Cinematography

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

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.

6 of 6 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
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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

"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.

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

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

Eye-opening is an understatement, Bruce Block turned film editing for me from a mystery into a language. I was fortunate enough to attend his seminar once, 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!

Going beyond the usual editing basics of clarity and information delivery, this book explains with how to use shapes, colour, and motion on screen to control pacing and feeling. No film student should be without it; also screenwriters, comic artists, web designers, anyone who deals with visual storytelling. Five stars, I'd give it more if I could!