4/11/2018

WHAT IS A VISUAL DEVICE?

• An object which enhances the artwork, or adds to it
• For example, objects people can hold for symbolism and meaning
VISUAL STORYTELLING • Used individually or in combination, these devices can add impact and
interest to art
Seymour Barros Sanchez

VISUAL DEVICES IN FILM

• One way to make a scene more effective and more energetic is to make it
more visual. We would like to have the mood, nuances, texture, subtext,
and rhythm of the scene.
• We intensify the experience of the audience so he/she can feel it, instead
of just understand it.
• Let us remember that a film is physical, specific, concrete, filled with images
that are moving, heightened by juxtaposition, connection, disconnection,
and interaction.

VISUAL AS AN INTERESTING
SETTING
• Change the neutral location with a more interesting locale.
• For example, the ending of The Shining is set in a maze of crops.
• In Lady of Shanghai, it is set in a hall of mirrors.

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VISUAL AS BUSINESS OF
CHARACTER
• Give the characters an interesting activity while they are talking.
• In Broken Marriage, for example, the characters of Vilma Santos and
Christopher de Leon get busier with their jobs as their relationship gap
becomes wider and wider.
VISUAL AS BACKGROUND
• Place an interesting happening at the background.
• This can be in contrast with the emotion of the scene. For example, in Ikiru,
while the main character is troubled in a restaurant because he is going to
die soon due to cancer, the people on the other table are singing “Happy
Birthday.”
• This can also serve as a commentary to what is happening like Lorna
Tolentino’s revelation scene in “Manila By Night” with Orestes Ojeda.
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VISUAL AS TIME OF DAY OR
SEASON
• Make the time of day more interesting
• For example, the sun is setting when he said goodbye to his wife.
• It’s harvest time when she said she’s pregnant.
VISUAL AS BACKGROUND
• While Lorna’s character reveals that she is pregnant, before them is a traffic
obstruction because dead bodies are being unloaded out of a jeepney. We
know that Orestes’ character will only leave her in the end.
• The visual as background can also illustrate the emotion of the characters.
For example, in A Man and a Woman, while the lovers are happy on the
beach, a puppy seems to jump with joy.
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VISUAL AS BACKGROUND
• The visual can also be ironic. In Private Show, Gino Antonio’s character
cannot tell Jaclyn Jose’s character what he wants to tell her. When she
leaves, an “I Love You” sign can be seen on her head while she is inside a
tricycle.
• This can also add contrast to what is happening. In Manila By Night, while
Cherie Gil’s character is making love to Rio Locsin’s blind character in a
wooden cart, not far from them is Rio’s guide stealing shirts from a
clothesline.
VISUAL AS PROPS OF CHARACTER
• In “Ligaya ang Itawag Mo sa Akin,” whenever Eva Darren’s character is
running, the audience will always notice her moving breasts and the
umbrella she is holding.
• In Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close’s character is passionately making love with
Michael Douglas’ character so while in the heat of the moment, she opens
the faucet near them and tries to cool herself with water coming out of it.
VISUAL AS PROPS FOR TRIGGER
• In Moral, Lorna Tolentino’s character wants to “explode” while talking to a
psychiatrist but she can still control herself. When she runs out of cigarettes
and has no one else to turn to, she finally breaks down.
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VISUAL AS FOREBODING
• In My Best Friend’s Wedding, while Julia Roberts’ character is inside a
gondola with the man she wants to marry and steal from Cameron Diaz’s
character, they pass by a huge shadow.
• In Batman Returns, Christopher Walken’s character caught Michelle Pfeiffer’s
character looking through documents so he pushes her to the window to kill
her but before she drops, the shadow on her clothes resemble that of a cat.
VISUAL AS PROPS OF CHARACTER
• Other examples of visual devices as props of character are the umbrellas of
Alma Moreno and Rio Locsin while they are talking in a rainy scene in Manila
By Night; the red umbrella of Hilda Koronel in “Kung Mangarap Ka’t
Magising,” and Al Pacino’s cane in Scent of a Woman.
VISUAL AS ALTER EGO OF
CHARACTER
• In The Piano, Holly Hunter’s character is symbolized by a piano. When she
escapes from her husband’s oppressive control, she throws the piano to the
ocean but it is still tied to her feet until she unties the rope and escapes from
it.
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VISUAL AS SYMBOL OR METAPHOR VISUAL AS REPEATING MOTIF

• “Ikaw ay Akin” is filled with clocks. The love triangle of the characters of
Christopher de Leon, Nora Aunor, and Vilma Santos differs in their views of
love and time. But when the time comes, who will end up with each other?
• In The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s character can be seen on the swimming
pool or in front of an aquarium as if he is slowly drowning from the middle
class values that surround him.
• In Private Show, while Jaclyn Jose’s and Gino Antonio’s characters are
performing a live sex scene, there is always a large ceiling fan on top of
them. When Jaclyn’s character dies in the end, the electric fan slowly comes
to a stop.

VISUAL AS CONTINUITY FOR THE

NEXT SCENE
• In Dracula, Lucy is bitten by a vampire. It dissolves in Dracula’s eyes as a wolf
in the following scene.

VISUAL AS BOMB VISUAL AS IRONY

• When a character finds out about an object or it appears in a scene, a • The audience sees something that the character cannot see. “I’m so
revelation will take place. happy,” says the character but little did he know that his wife is being killed
• Literally, it may be a bomb in the jeepney or it may be a secret hidden inside at his back.
a wooden chest.

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VISUAL AS EXTRA EMOTIONAL

TOUCH
• In Thelma and Louise, the friends decide to take their car to the cliffs of the
mountain to evade the chasing police and plunge to their death but at the
back of their car, towards the end, we see a happy picture of them.

VISUAL AS GRAPHICS OR
ANIMATION
• Uma Thurman signals a “square” while talking to John Travolta in Pulp Fiction
and the audience sees a graphic of a square in the scene.
• In The Piano, while a story of an old man hit by lightning is being narrated,
the audience sees a drawing of a person hit by lightning.