FINALS

Dr. Roel U. Hernandez

 CONTENT

What is Visual Narrative? Narrative Devices Cinematic Devices

• Definition • Devices • Devices
• The Art of Storytelling • Misc-en-scene • Montage
• Entertainment Value • Multiple Person • Flashbacks
Perspectives • Foreshadowing
• Subplots
 What is • A visual narrative (also visual storytelling) is a story
told primarily through the use of visual media.

Visual Distinguishing characteristics of the visual narrative

include:

Narrative? – a persuasive story with a point of view

– high quality images, still or moving
– subject matter with pressing social, environmental, or
spiritual value
– an appeal (explicit or implicit) for transformation in
attitudes and behaviors
 The Art of Storytelling is about presenting a series of events as
words, images and sounds that are of such interest and

Storytelling novelty to an audience that they become fully engaged in

the presentation. Stories teach and entertain.
• The character’s world
• Conflict
• Characters
• Plot
• Audience Appeal
Entertainment Audiences want the emotional experience of observing
the conflict of the story and at the same time they want
Value to be entertained. Certain story elements will give the
audience the entertainment aspect they want. Look at
your story idea and see if you can incorporate some of
these.
 Entertainment Value

Example of Entertainment Checklist

• Does the story have toe tapping,
involving music and rhythm?
• Does the story have dance?
• Does the story have fun, involving skits?
• Does the story have humor?
• Does the story move fast?
• Does the story transport the audience to
an unfamiliar world?
• Does the story have luxury?
• Does the story have things you can't
have, or that don't happen in their lives?
• Does the story have fantasy?
• Does the story have elements of another
interesting time period?
• Does the story have war or other
extreme violence?
• Does the story have large
crowds/armies?
• Does the story have exotic foreign
locations?
• Does the story have sex/romance?
• Does the story have booze/drugs?
• Does the story have guns?
• Does the story have murder?
• Does the story have other crime?
• Does the story have juicy
gossip/scandal?
NARRATIVE
DEVICES

CINEMATIC STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES

 NARRATIVE A first-person narrative is a story from the First-Person
Perspective: the viewpoint of a character writing or
DEVICE: speaking directly about themselves.

Multiple Person The second-person narrative is a narrative mode in which

the protagonist or another main character is referred to
Perspective by Second-Person personal pronouns and other kinds of
addressing forms, for example the English second-
person pronoun "you.“
Many stories, especially in literature, alternate between
the third person limited and third person omniscient. In
this case, an author will move back and forth between a
more omniscient third-person narrator to a more personal
third-person limited narrator. This is often called
Multiple-Person Perspective
 NARRATIVE DEVICE:
Multiple Person Perspective

First Person Third Person Multiple Person

Twilight Saga – the novel Fifty Shades of Grey – movie Dracula – novel
Fifty Shades of Grey – the novel Harry Potter – movie Vantage Point
Deadpool Hunger Games Jologs

Counter-Strike and any other FPS games

NARRATIVE In fiction, a subplot is a secondary strand of the plot that
is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot.
DEVICE: Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and

SubPlot place or in thematic significance.

Subplots are good for character development or

establishing a background on the main plot.
NARRATIVE Before the hero battles the main villain in an all-out duel
to the death, he will have to face a number of minions,
DEVICE: each with their own skills. This is a subplot to develop the

SubPlot character, and make the audience cheer for him or

sympathize for him.

In a suspense thriller, the hero will have to investigate

seemingly random crimes/deaths but will eventually link
to his main target/suspect. This subplot creates more
depth to the main story. It branches off and once the
audience is immersed, it will go back to the main plot.
SubPlot
In the Age of Ultron, the fight between the Hulk and and Hulkbuster is an example of a subplot. I mean, the story doesn’t need
that, but the fight immerses the audience on the relationship of Stark and Banner.
SubPlot
In the movie Me Before You, the couple attending a wedding is a subplot as it’s only goal is to kick off the attraction between the character, and
make it clear that the guy has already moved on from his ex girlfriend who happened to fall in love with his bestfriend.
CINEMATIC
DEVICES

CINEMATIC STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES

CINEMATIC Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of
short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space,
DEVICE: time, and information. The term has been used in various

Montage contexts.
The montage sequence is used to suggest the passage of
time, rather than to create symbolic meaning.
CINEMATIC Two common montage sequence devices that were first
utilized were the newspaper and the railroad.
DEVICE: • The Newspaper Montage is used to tell a story in quick
Montage succession rather than elaborate deeply on each. It is
literally like flipping pages of a series of pictures rather
than reading it page by page.
• The Railroad Montage has similar use that of the
Newspaper but instead of a figurative page-like
execution, it makes use of many zoom in shots.
Newspaper
Montage
Railroad
Montage
CINEMATIC ACTIVITY 2.1

DEVICE: Recall atleast 5 movies or TV shows (other than the given

Flashbacks examples) that made use of either a newspaper or a
railroad montage.

Discuss briefly each scenes and tell if it helped you as the

audience in appreciating the story better. If you deem it
useless, tell why.
CINEMATIC Flashbacks are an alteration of story order in which the
plot moves back to show events that have taken place
DEVICE: earlier than the one already shown. This way the scenes

Flashbacks that interrupt the sequence can explain what the

characters are talking about in the current scenes. *

Flashbacks can occur before the film’s narrative to fill in

back story or to fill in another character on what
happened while they were not around to witness the
events for themselves.
CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES

DEVICE: Blurred or Framed : One technique that makes the

Flashbacks transition obvious is blurring the outer edges of the
current scene leading to the first scene in the flashback.
This is occurs in a wipe pan, which is when the scene
moves rapidly creating blurred edges

Black & White Flashbacks: Another technique that allows

the audience to realize a flashback is being utilized is a
departure from the normal color format. This can be
illustrated by having the flashbacks in black and white
while the present narrative is in color, or just arrange the
flashback to be in off color.
FLASHBACKS
 CINEMATIC Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives
an advance hint of what is to come later in the
DEVICE: story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of

Foreshadowing a story or a chapter and helps the reader develop

expectations about the coming events in a story.*

Moreover, foreshadowing can make extraordinary and

bizarre events appear credible as the events are predicted
beforehand, so that readers are mentally prepared for
them.
 CINEMATIC Romeo & Juliet
In the balcony scene, Juliet is concerned about Romeo’s
DEVICE: safety as she fears her kinsmen may catch him. Romeo
says, in the above lines, that he would rather have her
Foreshadowing love and die sooner than not obtain her love and die later.
Eventually, he gets her love and dies for her love, too.
Foreshadowing
 CINEMATIC ACTIVITY 2.2

DEVICE: Recall 5 movies and/or TV shows (other than the given

Flashbacks & examples) that made use of Flashbacks and another 5 for

Foreshadowing Foreshadowing
• Summary
• Rating (5 stars is highest)

Submit at uglywriters.com via the Submissions Page

Activity #2 1. Recall 5 movies and/or TV shows (other than the given
examples) that made use of either a newspaper or a
railroad montage. Discuss briefly each scenes and tell if it
helped you as the audience in appreciating the story
better. If you deem it useless, tell why. (20pts)

2. Recall 5 movies and/or TV shows (other than the given

examples) that made use of Flashbacks and another 5 for
Foreshadowing. Discuss briefly each scenes and tell if it
helped you as the audience in appreciating the story
better. If you deem it useless, tell why. (30pts)