The Visual Story, Second Edition: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media |  | Author: Bruce Block
Publisher: Focal Press
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $18.85
as of 11/23/2009 14:46 CST details
You Save: $16.10 (46%)
New (36) Used (13) from $18.32
Seller: M. Maynard
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 16730
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0240807790
Dewey Decimal Number: 791
EAN: 9780240807799
ASIN: 0240807790
Publication Date: November 7, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
If you can't make it to one of Bruce Block's legendary visual storytelling seminars, then you need his book! Now in full color for the first time, this best-seller offers a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, video, animated piece, or video game. You'll learn how to structure your visuals as carefully as a writer structures a story or a composer structures music. Understanding visual structure allows you to communicate moods and emotions, and most importantly, reveals the critical relationship between story structure and visual structure.
The Visual Story offers a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, video, or multimedia work. An understanding of the visual components will serve as the guide to strengthening the overall story.
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.
Bruce Block has the production credentials to write this definitive guide. His expertise is in demand, and he gives seminars at the American Film Institute, PIXAR Studios, Walt Disney Feature and Television Animation, Dreamworks Animation, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Industrial Light & Magic and a variety of film schools in Europe.
The concepts in this book will benefit writers, directors, photographers, production designers, art directors, and editors who are always confronted by the same visual problems that have faced every picture maker in the past, present, and future.
* Now in full color!
* Written by a renowned producer, visual consultant, and teacher
* The material in this books applies to any kind of visual story, including films, animated pieces, video games, and television
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Totally Disappointed! October 7, 2009
Lloyd Lopez (Everywhere it seems)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media"? Are you kidding me?
I bought the book based on the great reviews from this and the previous edition. As the back cover states, I couldn't attend one of Bruce Block's legendary visual storytelling seminars, so I bought the book.
After six pages of saying, "Ok, get on with it already. Let's get to the meat of the book," I read the following: "Right now you might be thinking that this book has made a sudden turn off the path of practicality. The introduction promised a book that would help you plan and shoot a movie or video..."
"Reading my mind," I thought. So I hung in there thinking this is just one of those books that just takes a while to get going.
But I got to the end wondering if I totally just missed the point of the book. This book did NOT help me plan and shoot a movie.
It gives some of the most simple and "DUH" statements at times that leave you wondering if this is a book on film-making or design for adults or a 2nd grade geometry book for kids.
The following are lines from the book that are so obvious you wonder why the author even feels he needs to point it out:
- This is a line
- This is a dot
- This is a red dot on the page
- This is a red square
- This is a red square that is more complex
- This grey
- This is contrast
- This is a red dot on the page
- This is a red square
- This is a red square that is more complex
- This grey
- This is contrast
Did you feel that something was repeated? Get used to it because the same thing is mentioned over and over again. For example, from page 14 to 30-ish it talks about the vanishing point. OK, I get it. Two lines eventually intersect. The point is called a vanishing point. So why 15 pages on it with no new information?
- Here the vanishing point is on the left
- Here the VP is on the right
- Here it is middle
- This one is also on the right.
- If you look close, the VP is on the left in this example
- The VP is also called the vanishing point
- The vanishing point is where two lines intersect
- Lines aren't always apparent, but if you look for them, you will find them. Where they intersect is called the vanishing point.
- The VP is where two lines intersect, or cross
- If you look carefully, you can find the VP of lines in movies. VP means Vanishing Point
I'm exaggerating slightly of course, but not by much.
This whole book could have been printed up on one of those nice laminated 8.5x11 flash-card type sheets you see at Office Depot for chemistry, or algebra, etc. and would have been one-tenth the price.
Did I mention that where two lines intersect is call the vanishing point? Have you noticed that if you're on some train tracks, even though the rails are parallel to each other, they appear to touch at some point. That is the vanishing point (or VP).
Ok, so it's only page 30 or so. So I kept reading, albeit with a bit of a unsettled feeling in my stomach. It's one of those things that you don't want to miss anything important, but by page 150 I found myself skipping every other paragraph since I figured out the author's style of:
1. Topic introduction
2. Reintroduction
3. Repeat of 1 and 2
4. Repeat of 1 and 2
5. Topic reintroduction
6. Conclusion and reintroduction.
If you just read the first paragraph and look at the pictures like my kids do, you can get the same out of the book that I did but in one-tenth the time. Trust me, you're not missing anything.
Now, with all that said, I did find about 3 or 4 things very interesting that I never knew (and I'm certainly not a seasoned vet).
1. A red door at the end of a hallway seems closer than a blue door of the same (with the exact same scene). This is very useful. (Page 40). This is the stuff I was hoping to see filling the pages.
Can't seem to find the rest since I decided not to highlight anything after page 30 so I could return the book. But there were a few very cool things.
If the book would have taken the approach of "This is a vanishing point. Use vanishing points to your advantage to give the audience a sense of........ like in this example....." then it would have been cool. But to just say, "This is a vanishing point" leaves you saying to yourself, "OK... so.....???? What am I supposed to do with this info? How do I use it for my films?"
He also says things like
- This film uses contrast
- This film uses affinity
- This film uses saturation
With some very nice color (huge cudos on the colors) pictures from the movies he's referencing. If the examples would have been like this, it would have been a great resource:
- This film uses contrast to convey a passionate romance and a sense of love.
- This film uses affinity to create an illusion of mystery. You can use this for X, Y, and Z on your own projects
- This film uses saturation heavily to create a sense of motivation. Using high saturation is a good way to XYZ in the audiences' minds.
I might keep the book just for a good reference for the color correction techniques used on various films (not that they are described at all in the book). The color pictures are top-rate. The text was a huge disappointment.
Disclaimer, perhaps I just misunderstood what the book was supposed to be about.
By the way, did you know to intersecting lines are called a vanishing point (VP)?
 Good service and product. Would buy from again. August 10, 2009
Ron Leopold
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book was shipped in pretty good time and in condition advertised. Would buy from again.
 It has changed the way I handle preproduction for life! April 1, 2009
N. Schale (Kansas)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Visual Story by Bruce Block
reviewed by The Monkey Butler Ninja [..]
The subjects covered in this book are CRITICAL to all artist, Photographers, Painters, Game Designers, and Videographers. We must have a good grasp of fundamental principles concerning visual structure.
The Visual Story by Bruce Block reads a lot like a textbook. Since I prefer a book to come across as if hearing some guru on the subject teach me, this is a con. That being said, it is an excellent textbook. In the early chapters it sets stages for fundamentals like Contrast/Affinity and Space for example. Then, throughout the book it constantly refers to these pillars of visual design giving real world examples.
Which brings me to my next point, the examples this book gives are superb. Bruce Block will cover a subject, like TONE, for an entire chapter and at the end he will bring the lesson full circle by giving you `films to watch.' But wait! The films that Bruce recommends vary extensively! In the TONE chapter, `films to watch' include the movies T-Men (1947) and Kill Bill (2003) [plus a handful more]. Using this layout, Bruce is able to convey that the subject matter for each chapter is TIMELESS! His example movies transcend not only time released, but also subject matter and themes.
This book really shines with its illustrations. An absolute ideal amount of visual aids are delightfully displayed throughout the book. Not too many, not too few. Even the graphs (which typically aren't the most exciting graphical element) had a proper layout. I seem to remember running across somewhere that the first edition of this book was all black and white, wow. GREAT move going to full color, I can honestly say that this book would have not been nearly as impacting. I do have a problem with the cover art though, it's a small gripe but I always use my hands to frame a picture in widescreen (thumbs to index fingers). That is very nitpicky but the cover to a book is pretty critical, and since it aced the illustrations in the book, I wanted to mention it.
Early in the book it can seem a bit drawn out and basic. I would encourage readers to not skip the beginning chapters as they are constantly referenced throughout the book. Even if you feel you have a fantastic grip on the subject matter, it never hurts to review.
The appendix is very detailed and honestly, it feels like these were sections of chapters pulled out to keep the pace up a little. Regardless, this section is full of info that needs to be read.
Chapter Nine is Story and Visual Structure. I have a post-it note sticking out of this with "fantastic chapter" written on it. Seriously, this graph filled chapter will change the way I look at all productions and will effect my planning and execution for the rest of my professional career.
I was going to give The Visual Story 4.5 out of 5 stars but realized the impact this book has on my future work and decided it deserves my highest recommendation. Full 5 stars for Bruce Block. It may feel a bit `text-booky' but it has certainly changed my work process.
Bravo Bruce this Monkey feels more like a Ninja. Monkey Butler Ninja gives The Visual Story 5 out of 5 ninja stars and a banana tree!
Go BUY IT!
[..]
A Very Useful Addition to the Composition/Design Literature for Photography February 8, 2009
T. Campbell
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Photographers should own this book. It has the best, clearest presentation of visual space/depth in images of any book I know of currently in print. The only book that is more advanced is Alexander Lapin's "Photography as ..." and that is only in Russian. Hans Hofmann comes to mind in theoretical sophistication.
I like the way he separates topics and uses diagrams. He breaks out his argument almost in outline form. The only thing easy to criticize is some repetition of statements through the text.
The section on visual rhythm is as good as I have seen anywhere.
While not everything in this book applies to still image photography, 70% to 80% of the topics do. The presentation is basic, but substantial. It is probably the best presentation for photographers at the elementary theoretical level available. Freeman's book is much more comprehensive, but Block's approach stands up well.
Some of the vocabulary will not necessarily be what photographers and painters are used to. Block's term "affinity" is the film maker's term for what the rest of us would call "harmony," as the other end of the spectrum from contrast. Maitland Graves has the best presentation of defining contrast and harmony among design elements that I have seen.
Knowing this material about moving pictures can translate substantially into better understanding of one's still pictures.
very easy to read September 13, 2008
Alexander
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Because of plenty of pics the read is very easy and took me something like 2 days (on occasional reading). The book itself deals both with composition and movement, and some very interesting points about flat and deep space. I recommend it not only to cinematographers but also interested in composition. This is a good explanation of all types of perspectives and many other things. Easy to read but quite solid in quality of info.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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