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

by Bruce Block

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0240804678
• ISBN13: 9780240804675
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Focal Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

A clear and insightful guide to seeing the visual structure of moving images

"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.

Genius

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!

Former Student

Having taken Bruce Block's visual expression class while getting my MFA at USC Film School I highly recommend this book. It's one of the few classes I took in film school that has had any lasting value. It should be part of any filmmakers foundation.

A must read for amatuer filmmakers

This is a fantastic book. The book explains many visual tools used to make better films. I can't recommend this enough. Take your films from an amatuer level to professional level. Helps you to build great visual style.

A Must Have for Serious Filmmakers and Film Buffs

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.