The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV, and Digital Media

Not what you'd call a compelling thrill-ride of a read. :) However, it's been like 20 years since I took Film Studies 101, and this is a really solid textbook for re-familiarizing yourself with the basics of visual literacy - line, tone, movement, shape, color, rhythm, composition. <br /><br />If you are primarily a visual artist, this is all beginner's basics stuff that you probably don't need. But for me, it's extremely helpful for improving my sense of visual composition when I'm working on scripts for comics, or for improving my ability to dialogue with artists when we're discussing how to implement a wireframe for UI, or for giving me a starting place if I need to adjust cameras in a 3D scene. <br /><br />Basically, I'd say it's probably most useful for either people who are just barely getting started in visual media, or for people who don't create visual art but need to interact regularly with people who do.

Preface: This book was assigned reading for a film class.<br /><br />It seems to cover the basics very thoroughly. The illustrated examples worked very well and I liked how at the end of every chapter he lists multiple movies that demonstrate the chapter's content. Personally I found it all pretty clinical in nature so it was a slog to read through, but perhaps if film is more of your thing then you'll enjoy it better. We're only using it for one unit and it's probably the only film class I'll ever take but maybe if you plan on engaging with the kind of content more completely then you'll appreciate how firmly it sets the foundation. But for me it was a big big foundation that I'll probably never come back to so it made absorbing it all rough.

<i>The Visual Story</i> is the best manual for creating your movie visually. All information is directly applicable in practice and clearly illustrated with examples. <br />A book that should be on every filmmaker's shelf.

9/10

عظيم جدًا. مرتب منطقيا؛ يحتوي النظرية والتطبيق؛ قليل السرد؛ غير ممل؛ لا يحتاج إنجليزية متقدمة؛ يصلح ككتاب تعليمي، ولا شك أن العالم العربي في حاجة إلى ترجمته. لكن يحتاج إلى قراءة ثانية وثالثة حتى تحصل الاستفادة القصوى.<br><br>النظرية التي اسخدمها الكاتب تفسر انجذاب المشاهد إلى الفلم - بعد جاذبية المضمون - بأنه ناتج عن "التباين والتشابه"، الحاصل بين عناصر الصورة.<br>Contrast and Affinity<br><br><br>قسم الكاتب عناصر الصورة إلى 7 أقسام:<br>المساحة - الخطوط - الأشكال - السطوع - اللون - الحركة - التعاقب.<br><br>ثم شرع في تقسيم كل عنصر إلى أقسامه لفرعية، ووضح كيف يتم تطبيق نظرية "التباين والتشابه"، وكان يطرح رسومات تعليمية تمثيلية، ومن ثم في نهاية كل فصل كان يضع سلسلة من الأفلام التي تعاملت مع ذلك العنصر الأساسي وعناصره الفرعية.<br>أيضًا كان بين طيات الكلام يضع أسماء أفلام تعاملت بشكل خفيف مع عنصر الصورة في الفصل الحالي، وكان أيضًا يضع بعض الصور من أفلام معينة ليكون التطبيق أدق. وفي آخر الكتاب وضع منحنيات بيانية تنظم علاقة القصة بالصورة.<br><br><br>قال الكاتب بأن المضمون يصلح للفلم، والأنيميشن، والفيديوات القصيرة (كاليوتيوب)، والإعلانات التجارية، وألعاب الفيديو، يعني ببساطة الكتاب المفيد لكل إنتاج متحرك يعرض على الشاشات.<br><br>ركز الكاتب على أمر ضروري، وهو أن التابين والتشابه قد يكون داخل اللقطة الواحدة، وداخل المشهد الواحد، وبين المشهد والآخر.<br><br>الكتاب عرض كيفية استخدام النظرية في عملية "الإديتينج" أو تقطيع اللقطات والمشاهد، كما عرض كيفية جعل عناصر الصورة منسجمة مع القصة.<br><br>بلغ عدد الأفلام الموصى بها كتطبيق للنظرية في نهاية كل فصل، أكثر من 40 فلم معظمها من القرن الماضي، تنوعت بين أفلام ملونة وأفلام بالأبيض والأسود، كما أن هناك أفلاما أخرى بين طيات السطور.<br><br>الكتاب جدًا مفيد على عدة مستويات، لم أجد ما يشبهه في الكتب المشهورة غربيًا، ومن يقرأه ستتغير حياته، وقد قيل: ما قبل سقراط ليس كما بعده.<br><br><a href="https://i.ibb.co/tBLMBVB/Bruce-Block-The-Visual-Story-Creating-the-Visual-Structure-of-Film-TV-and-Digital-Media-Focal-Press.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1625796956i/31609275._SX540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><a href="https://i.ibb.co/nLwGTC4/Bruce-Block-The-Visual-Story-Creating-the-Visual-Structure-of-Film-TV-and-Digital-Media-Focal-Press.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1625796956i/31609274._SX540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a>

Nice clear delineation of the visual elements of screen storytelling and how to structure them to best effect. This book provided some simple working tools to get a handle on the complexities of filmmaking and other screen media in a way that I have sought for years. The framework provided allows you to move beyond intuition and gut-feeling and get a firm grasp on the creative components of the craft.

A must for all Cinematographers.

Very thorough listing/description/analysis of all the characterizations of visual images: flat-deep space, ambiguous-recognizable space, horizontal-vertical line, straight-curved line, shape, hue, brightness, tone, movement, rhythm, etc. Listing and analysis are so thorough they sometimes border on repetitive. Appears to be the distillation of a class about structure of visual images at a film school, with the topic and much of the information having a long pedigree that goes all the way back to Eisenstein, via Vorkapich and Novros. <br /><br />The book is full of pictures. Virtually every definition/comparison is illustrated with a screen grab from a well-known film. The reader is never left wondering "what did he mean by that?"<br /><br />Although most of the individual items are pretty simple, the net effect of having them all organized and in one place is considerable. In fact this may provide the most complete and useful coverage of analysis of moving visual images that I've ever seen. <br /><br />Throughout the book simply assumes _moving_ visual images, i.e. film. With very little effort though you could also quite usefully read it as being about the composition of _still_ visual images, i.e. photographs. <br /><br />Of course only the last chapter even starts to cover the topic I was most interested in: which visual language best tells a particular story. I wished for an entire book on this topic alone, but this is not it. The very partial and incomplete answers in the last chapter seem to be: i] there are a whole lot of different ways to do it right, ii] you'll know rightness when you see it, iii] prior audience expectations are only partial, you get to "make up" plenty of associations, iv] plan it out, don't try to everything by intuition, and v] pay at least a bit of attention to that little voice inside your head, because once in a while an intuition that you can't even explain turns out to be quite good.

The author proposes a useful method to navigate the process of creating visual structure to tell a story. He delineates seven main visual components that can be worked to create visual structure mainly by using the principle of contrast and affinity; according with the needs of the story and expressing the author's point-of-view. <br />Sometimes the book felt a little abridged, especially on giving piratical examples in some of the subjects. But the content is solid, well structured and easy to read.

What is great about this book is how the author is able to translate visual cues in a specific form that doesn’t prescribe a definitive “how to” rather than showing you “what is” or “what happens when” (only chapter he does that is the story structure chapter which is limited in scope). By doing that he really helps one consider how to go about making cinema their own way by understanding its language and how you can make your own.