Viz Lit Handouts

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Screen Grammar & Visual Language Basics

Frank Guttler [email protected]

presents


"Children turn things into stories, and when they try to make sense of their life they use the storied version of their experience as the basis for further reflection.

Even well into adulthood, we find it easier to process information in narrative form than in more abstract forms like equations and graphs. Most effective of all are narratives that we construct ourselves."

- Jerome Bruner, cognitive learning theory pioneer The Narrative Construction of Reality, 1991


“We need to treat the language and grammar of the screen

exactly the way we learn writing music or painting”

- George Lucas


Screen Ed Process Mirrors Reading & Writing Processes


What’s the difference between a SHOT and a SCENE?


SHOTThe part of a film between two cuts

SCENEA series of shots combined to form a continuous block of storytelling. The end of a scene is typically marked by a change in location, style, or time.


Sentence

Shot

Paragraph

Scene

Chapter

Sequence

Novel

Movie

Comparing Visual Language to the Printed Word


Shots: The Vocabulary of Screen Language


DVD Special Features and Commentaries A Master-Class in film sitting on your bookshelf!

Watch & LearnSunday, October 30, 2011

Raiders of the Lost Ark

• 1981

• 115 minutes

• PG

• Written by Lawrence Kasdan

• Directed by Steven Spielberg

• Starring Harrison Ford

• Paramount Home Video


Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

• 1986

• 103 minutes

• PG-13

• Written & Directed by John

Hughes

• Starring Matthew Broderick

• Paramount Home Video


Storyboard: A storyboard is a visual sketch of how a shot is to be seen through the camera lens.


Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

• 1937

• 83 minutes

• G rating

• Directed by David Hand

• Based on the story by Jacob

& Wilhelm Grimm

• Walt Disney Home Video


Reverse StoryboardingMonsters, Inc.

• 2001

• 92 minutes

• G rating

• Directed by Peter Docter

& David Silverman

• Screenplay by Andrew

Stanton & David Gerson

• Walt Disney Home Video


The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King• 2003

• Directed by Peter Jackson

• Written by JRR Tolken & Frank Walsh

• Starring Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Astin

• 200 min

• PG-13

• New Line Home Video


Shot CompositionThe Rule Of Thirds


A Tale of Two Lamps

Digital Magic vs. Analog Mastery


Luxo, Jr.• 1986

• Directed by John Lasseter

• Pixar Animation Studios

• 2 minutes

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvCWPZfK8pI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw




IKEA Lamp • 2002

• Directed by Spike Jonze

• Advertisement

• 60 sec.

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw






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