When I lecture on cinematic design and visual storytelling (which I've been doing a lot recently), people often ask me "There are so many possibilities, so many visual devices-- how do I figure out a design for MY story?" A huge key to this is presented in a great book by Bruce Block (of USC): The Visual Story. I clearly remember when Block came to lecture to us at Pixar many years ago-- it made a very deep impact on me and my understanding of cinematic craft.
In his book, Block states a very simple, but exceedingly useful principle: the more contrast (within a frame, between frames, or across a film), the greater the visual (and therefore emotional) intensity; the less contrast, the less the visual intensity. So in other words, you can plot out the story emotionally in terms of intensity and then select a few key visual devices, such as colour, shape, line, and/or value and determine where you want more contrast and where you want less. This can become a very powerful tool for architecting your visual structure in a way that supports the story.
Another thing I hear lots of people say is that they don't like "rules". There's a big difference between "rules" and design. A painting with no design and every colour known to man thrown in is hardly communicative, evocative, or good on virtually any scale. Cinematic design is similar-- it emphasizes consciously selecting an overall style and palette for the film, if you will, but not one restricted just to colour-- rather, considering all the myriad of applicable visual devices: line, colour, shape, space, lens, staging, quantity of light, quality of light, movement, eye fix, editorial pacing, etc. and determining which will dominate and which will be used specifically to underscore the emotion and story.
Cinematic design is a subtle, powerful, and often-overlooked aspect of filmmaking. And it's free for the taking-- every shot has to be designed and considered anyway; it costs nothing to do so in a meaningful and story-enhancing way...
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