Orgeron 1

Holly Orgeron
Mrs. Williams
ENG 102
22 September 2014

Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing About Film

The article is titled Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing about Film and does not have
a single author but is attributed to the Writing Studio at Duke University. The thesis is explained
in two key passages that read as follows: The simplest definition for visual rhetoric is the use of
visual images to communicate meaning. It is also important to note that visual rhetoric is not just
about superior design and aesthetics. It is also about how culture and meaning are reflected,
communicated, and altered by images (pg 1, Duke). The second important passage is Visual
literacy involves all the processes of knowing and responding to a visual image as well as all the
thought that might go into constructing or manipulating an image (pg 1, Duke). Three main
components to film making, and particularly as it relates to passive versus active viewing, are
image, movement and sound.
Image refers to composition and that is manifest in two main ways; framing and a technique
called mis-en-scene a French word that encapsulates the set up that must be done before
filming commences. The mis-en-scene includes costumes, lighting, dialogue, actors and location
among other things. Where actors stand, their costumes, the sets and the lighting give meaning to
the film. The angle of the camera and the way the image is composed, both of which are the
framing are important to the visual qualities of the film.

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Movement, or the illusion of movement, is created when still photographs are shown in
rapid succession of 24 frames per second. Two types of movement are continuous and
discontinuous. Pacing is important to the role of movement as are how the camera moves
(quick, slow, jerky or smooth).
Sound is what makes the film have life and reality. For example, a horror film becomes
more frightening when combined with a scary sound experience. One way to test this is to watch
a scene in a horror film with the sound and then watch it again with the sound turned off. Just the
opposite can be used in a scene with dialogue where the absence of sound can focus the
viewers attention on the intimacy of the conversation.
In conclusion, visual strategies are used to create cretin effects and viewers are influenced by
such things as framing, camera movement and other things that they might not even be aware of.
Three main components to film making are image, movement and sound; an example of sound is
the narrative and that dialogue is an important way to give meaning to the characters actions.
Viewers can often repeat the plot of a film even if theyve only seen it once, which speaks to the
power of narrative. To understand how a film works, one must take notes, while watching and
watch more than once.

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Works Cited
Duke Thompson Writing Program. Duke University, N.p., n.d. Wed. 24
September 2014.