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Lauren Mosher
ENG102-Williams
25 September 2014
Objective Summary
Duke Universitys Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing About Filming allows the
reader to understand, appreciate, and decode films as more than popular entertainment, but as
visual mediums. By knowing what goes on behind the scenes during film creation, the
audience of a film can identify strategies that were used to elicit a reaction and effect from and
on them. The three basic components of film discussed in this articleimage, movement, and
soundallow the reader to recognize these components importance and effect in films.
As stated in the text, the two main things to pay attention to in a filmic image are miseen-scene and framing (p.2). Mise-en-scene refers to what was put into the film including actors
settings, lighting, props, etc.; and framing refers to the angle and composition of the image that is
being shown through the camera lens and is later portrayed in the film. Viewers of film can
visually analyze the images of films and their qualities, and get a better understanding of the
scenes in films through detailing. The author(s) encourage viewers to infer and interpret scenes
of films by depicting the mise-en-scene and framing.
Duke Universitys article focuses on images, and how the series of succession of
images can create the illusion of movement (p.3). The role of movement, whether it be
movement of the camera, actors, or setting, effect viewers reaction to a film and make viewers
question the movement throughout a film. The author provides us with tips to analyze films for
their visual qualities like finding the meaning of the continuous or discontinuous movement and
why it makes viewers feel a certain emotion. There are various questions that one could ask

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themselves when thinking about the role of movement in a film concerning the movement of the
characters, the pace of the movement, whether the camera is stationary or not, and what effect
these aspects have on the entirety of the film.
Furthermore, the impact of isolating imagery and sound from one another while watching
a film gives viewers more of an opportunity to visually analyze a film. The author states that
most films are accompanied by some composition of sound either made up of dialogue, sound
effects, or music. The article suggests its readers to watch a movie, first with sound, and then
without and then recognize how they compare and what and how the film communicates (p.4).
Overall, Duke Universitys Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing About Film
considers how a film appears rather than how it was made by taking a deeper look into the three
basic components to creating films: image, movement, and sound. In addition to the information
sated within the article, useful links and recommended texts are attached for the readers benefit
in grasping a better understanding of what was discussed and shared throughout the article, and
terminology related to film.

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Works Cited
Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy: Writing About Film. Writing Studio. Duke University.