The goal of any writer or artist is to use these five tools to create a totally immersive world, one that the reader, viewer or user falls into and doesn’t want to leave. Anything that doesn’t work within the context of the story being told, and the style and output medium being used to tell it, can interfere with TOTAL IMMERSION.
CONFLICT: All good characters travel along an EMOTIONAL ARC as their personal attitudes toward new ideas or other characters in the story are changed by their experiences.
This creates interesting moments for the audience, witnessing a character’s EVOLUTION and CONTRADICTORY BEHAVIOUR as the changes occur. Conflict is a common scriptwriting term used to describe these behaviours, and its meaning shouldn’t be taken literally.
Convincing characters, while being involved in finding solutions to external conflicts, also suffer from inner conflicts; e.g. protagonist Peter Parker continues to fight evil as Spider-Man, battling against antagonists like the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, etc; but he also questions his own motives, realising that his personal life is being wrecked by his superhuman activities.
Rather than just showing arguments, fisticuffs and bloodshed, conflict can take much more subtle emotional forms; e.g. in Blow-Up (1966), writer/director Michelangelo Antonioni investigates the mystery of subjective truth, creating a hypnotic pop-culture parable about a fashion photographer struggling with the elusive nature of perception in order to prove to himself that a murder has been committed. He fails, losing his own identity in the process.
CLARITY: The camera doesn't lie, or does it? The best visual storytelling is achieved when the audience isn’t really aware of the way the story is being told. In most cases, they must not get lost or confused as the story unfolds; e.g. there are crucial points in gaming when the player can make certain choices, and if these aren't understood the outcome can be very disappointing.
One of the first steps in any story is setting the scene, called 'establishing shots' in film. These can also establish the relationships between major characters. An unforgettable example is the opening scene of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, (1975) utilising unusual camera angles (even the shark’s POV), John Williams’ musical score and the off-camera, unseen underwater action, all so suggestive of the victim’s plight; without ever literally 'seeing' the shark, we are attacked.
The 180˚ RULE: “Crossing the Line” is a strict guideline in traditional film-editing when cutting between shots in a scene, which should be applied to storyboards, if not all visual storytelling.
In any shot or scene, whatever is established as being to the left of frame before a cut, even if it is miles away on the horizon, should be kept to the left of frame in following shots. Otherwise, if you cross the line, the shots won’t cut together and characters will seem to jump around from place to place, with backgrounds appearing and disappearing for no reason in the scene.
Of course, carefully planned exceptions to this rule can be very effective; e.g. say the hero always moves from left to right across the frame, following the audience’s natural eye direction as if they were reading a sentence. Then suppose that in a scene in which the hero is being beaten back by an enemy, both characters move from right to left. Such moves go against natural eye movement, creating the sensation of chaos unleashed.
In the film Raging Bull (1980), Martin Scorsese frequently breaks the 180˚ rule; characters cross the line during fight scenes, adding great visual tension to the mayhem in the ring.
Another exception to the 180˚ rule is to have the camera travel across the line in a 'dolly shot' (as indicated), but this kind of camera move needs to be motivated by an action so that it doesn’t appear extraneous. There is also the 30˚ RULE to consider; a cinematography and editing rule that specifies that a shot should only be followed by another shot taken from a position greater than thirty degrees from that of the first. Otherwise, dimension and dynamics are lost.
In 3D gaming, cutting shots cinematically (from one camera angle to another angle) can disturb the audience, while continuous travelling shots allow total immersion. Since the player/story author is imbedded in a 360˚ CGI-room/landscape, moving TRANSITIONS are used to move from scene to scene, usually in the form of a 'tunnel' opening into a greater space.
REALISM: The audience's perception that what is happening on-screen is real within the context of the story. This “SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF” is the psychological state a film lulls us into at the cinema, and it can be destroyed by a single inappropriate creative act.
Several recent films have dealt with the nature of reality; e.g. The Truman Show (1998) and The Matrix (1999, both inspired by the books of The Wizard of Oz and Through the Looking Glass…), portray our 'known' world, one we easily understand and identify with, so that we are drawn deeper into their worlds and easily accept the 'way-out' stories involved.
The foundation of a well-conceived and seamlessly executed visual story is simply that every creative choice made is logical or real within the structural and stylistic framework of the presentation.
TAKING LIBERTIES WITH REALISM: There are attributes of the real world which, rather than copying slavishly, writers and artists may be able to 're-use' and exploit, in order to clarify or enhance meaning. These include focus, distance, atmosphere and scale.
• FOCUS: Rembrandt's self-portraits owe their presence to his depiction of differential focus, so that the eyes are in sharp focus while other parts of the head are defocused. By selecting the definition of contours, the artist can capture the way in which the eye prefers certain paths across a landscape, leading the viewer's eye on a similar journey in negotiating the painting. A contemporary example; the use of selective focussing to take in and out of attention different parts of a movie scene, perhaps PULLING FOCUS from one character to another.
• DISTANCE: By taking advantage of the non-physical nature of what's on-screen, we can all but abolish the lapse of time in translating ourselves from place to place. Within an interactive application, the conceptual distance between two things can be presented in a form that instantly clarifies context for the user; e.g. check out musicplasma.com or visualthesaurus.com/index.jsp.
• ATMOSPHERE: The effect on clarity and color of distant objects is another accident of reality that can be turned to advantage on-screen. In physical reality, atmosphere is a function of distance and climate, and we can find uses for the effect. For example, we could assist the audience in giving attention to certain features by partially obscuring some and clarifying others. In making such a decision, we are designing for user-friendliness.
• SCALE: If we take a narrow view of photo-realism we deny ourselves all the possibilities of using scale to create meaning. Filming an actor from above usually indicates how isolated they are. A figure on the horizon can appear threatening or isolated, depending on its scale. Look at cartoons to see what can be done once adherence to 'correct' scale is abandoned.
CONTINUITY: Make sure that everything stays within the same world. Visual details, from the colour of a distant mountain range to the mannerisms of a character, must be consistent from scene to scene unless the writer is emphasizing the change. When Dorothy meets Scarecrow in Victor Fleming's film The Wizard of Oz (1939), her hair changes length five times between shots. This breach of continuity slips by first-time viewers, but it shouldn’t happen in the first place.
One obvious exception to strict continuity; a character wakes up in a mysterious environment and the audience has to explore and discover the new environment with the character; e.g. someone has a flashback, or walks through a door to enter the Twilight Zone, or a delusional character hallucinates. There are no clear thoughts expressed and perhaps no clear eye path to follow.
As mentioned, consistent points of reference are extremely useful, providing the audience with visual hints that serve as identifiers for a character's location within their environment; e.g. two people stand beside a lit-UP button, then in the next shot they're standing beside the control panel, watching numbers. The button and the panel tell us that we’ve passed into the elevator.
Anything that might cause the viewer to do a double-take can shake their belief in the IMMERSIVE world of the story.
When game players can return to a character or situation repeatedly, such a mistake is far more obvious and will disturb the audience’s conviction that the story is real. Anything that encourages the audience to have a greater sense of being a participant in the storytelling, rather than merely watching the story unfold, is empowering and immersive.
Interactivity has many ways to keep the experience immersive (too may to get into here), but one of the great flaws of early games was that little attention was paid to writing a solid story, and the audience’s 'suspension of disbelief' was blown by inferior plot-lines and clumsy dialogue.
The best gaming applications blend a host of different activities with very sophisticated stories, photographically detailed 3D locations, complex characters and meaningful dialogue. As more lateral activities become available, the more 'real' the game feels.
This all starts within the writer, intuitively and personally; the artist's task is to capture these feelings in the storyboards.
DYNAMISM & EXPOSITION: A force of energy, active, potent, compelling, vigorous, electric, high powered. Dynamics can be created by the emotions, words and actions of the characters within the worlds they inhabit, or by the dynamics of information layering and time compression.
Special effects are not necessarily dynamic. The laws of optics dictate there is only so much that can be altered digitally without losing the illusion of reality. Well-done effects can add momentary excitement, but if they are not used for enhancement of the story then they are just eye-candy.
“They think it’s about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with special effects. I think it’s really about storytelling, and the special effects should serve the storytelling.”
Chris Carter, creator of The X-files
There are two primary types of perception:
• INTRINSIC PERCEPTION relates to the components of a single image; e.g.
A baby sits on the ground holding a teddy bear, looking up in innocent surprise, suggesting happiness and contentment – nothing more than what it is, a neutral image.
• EXTRINSIC PERCEPTION develops when the above image is juxtaposed with a picture of a moving car (in itself a neutral image). Together, however, they create a shocking and suspenseful response (particularly if the car is seen head-on from a low angle), that suggest that the child is in the path of the car, even though they might be in different locations.
The images conflict. Though there is no evidence of proximity, the viewer’s mind works with this 'friction' and makes a narrative connection, creating a third and completely different meaning than can be derived from the pictures individually.
There is no need for a character to shout a warning, as the viewer’s narrative comprehension provides an observation more powerful than any dialogue. The challenge for the visual storyteller is to find dynamic ways to express character development, plot progression and dramatic themes, using imagery that stimulates both kinds of perception.
CAUTION: Words can turn a desperado into a dead bore. EXPOSITIONAL DIALOGUE is usually delivered during that dull spot in the second act when the hero suddenly has to explain what's been happening. Words are the antithesis of action, so be wary of the conspiracy of words that can deflect you from the creation of lucid, moving, storytelling pictures.
Seeing is believing.
TELEGRAPHING & FORESHADOWING: ACTION & REACTION - In dynamic media like comic books, film and interactive gaming, quick cuts between shots/angles make rapid-fire action scenes an effective storytelling tool. These shots can be related by visual devices within the frame, or by sounds.
The terms TELEGRAPHING and FORESHADOWING are used by screenwriters in reference to the way images and sounds inform the audience subconsciously, and they can have a positive or negative outcome for the viewer depending on how they're used.
• TELEGRAPHING: Image and sound informs the viewer about things they shouldn't know… yet!
Four shots can describe a tragic moment by visual exposition; e.g.
Shot 1: A woman stands at the edge of a cliff high above us -
Shot 2: Cut to a close-up of her face -
Shot 3: Cut to the crowd below staring up at her - then...
Shot 4: From over her shoulder as she leaps into the void.
The first shot gives the whole game away; telegraphing, or giving advance warning of where she is and her intention to jump. The scene would have much more impact by removing it.
• FORESHADOWING: Image and sound enhances the creative connections of form and content for the viewer. In Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane's final deathbed utterance, the word "Rosebud" (ironically at the start of the film) foreshadows a lifelong mystery in a brilliantly epic, enigmatic way. Luke Skywalker's amputated hand foreshadows his connection with his father Darth Vader.
Anything that is to be the focus of attention later in a story should be set up in an earlier scene, but without telegraphing what is to come. It can be as prominent or unobtrusive as necessary; e.g. if the character who is trying to work out how to escape a predicament eventually uses a broken window, show the intact window in an earlier shot or scene (see examples, page 50/51).
Set up and pay off are very important, advancing the action without confusing the audience.
Chekhov's famous shotgun is a fine example:
“If you have placed a gun above the mantelpiece in act one, be sure to shoot it before the final curtain falls. Otherwise it will only serve to distract your audience.”
Anton Chekhov
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