Ways in Which You Have Misjudged Keira Knightley

Writing for film, especially features, is not as similar to writing for the stage as you might suspect. What makes them so different is that film tells a story by cutting from shot to shot, but a stage play is told through continuous action.

You know what is like writing a film? Writing a comic book! A comic book jumps from panel to panel in the same way film jumps from shot to shot.

In this post, I'll be elaborating on ideas expressed in Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, and pointing out how these ideas apply to film. You should get this book, by the way. It's a valuable reference for any kind of visual storyteller.

In the book, McCloud outlines the 7 ways an image can relate to accompanying text. In a comic book, this means the words written on the page. In film, it could refer to words written on the screen, but generally we're talking about spoken dialogue or narration.

1. Word Specific

You'll see a lot of this on television. The story is essentially being told through the text, with little being added by the image. Think about when you're folding laundry in front of the TV. King of Queens is on. You're not really looking at Leah Remini and Kevin James, and you don't need to. You can understand the story and the jokes without having to look up from all your new pink clothes courtesy of that one red sock that snuck in with your whites. The pictures are just along for the ride.

2. Picture Specific

The opposite. The pictures are what it's about; any language is extraneous. Like when you're watching The Lion King and that wildebeest stampede is coming after Simba and SPOILER ALERT Scar kills Mufasa. Simba is screaming, "Dad!" and Scar is like, "Long live the king!", but you better have your eyes glued to the screen or you're not gonna know what's happening.

3. Duo-Specific

What you see and what you hear are essentially the same thing. I would recommend avoiding this kind of thing in film because it feels redundant. Remember my post about Party Down? Duo-specific is pretty much the opposite of what I was praising there. Duo-specific is spelling it out for the audience. Like in a basketball movie where the clock is running out and at the last second they sink a basket to win the game. And we see the scoreboard change to reflect the basket. And we see the fans jump up and cheer. And someone says, "WE WON!!" and you're like, "Yeah, I got that." This also applies to a voice-over that is describing exactly what is happening on screen.

4. Additive

The words amplify the image, or vice versa. In Season 6 (SPOILER ALERT) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (it was only a matter of time before Joss Whedon found his way into this blog), Willow gets sad about stuff and becomes a powerful, angry, bad witch. The dialogue is enough to tell the story, but is amplified by the image of her hair and eyes turning black and her face turning pale and veiny. The image adds something to the words. I don't have an example of words amplifying an image. So sue me. Maybe you can think of one. Like homework.

5. Parallel

The text doesn't have any apparent correlation with the visual. Both are telling their own story. Did you see the film version of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley? It's so good. Anyone who doesn't think so is probably just jealous. And anyone who says they don't like Keira Knightley without having seen this film holds an uninformed opinion. Anyway, there's a scene where we hear a voice-over of Mr. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth. The voice-over tells a story of Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley and Mr. Wickham. This is paired with images of Mr. Darcy riding away on horseback and Elizabeth looking sad and stuff. Both words and pictures are giving us necessary information, but the information doesn't overlap in any way.

6. Montage

I don't really get the name McCloud gives this one, but that's okay. It refers to text that is part of the image. A car drives down a highway and passes a sign: "Welcome to Swampville! Population: 700." The sign is part of the picture. They work as one to tell us that our heroes have just rolled into a hick-town stereotype.

7. Interdependent

The more you can use this one, the better. It means you are using text and images to their full potential. In this relationship, the two work together to convey a message that neither could get across on their own. There's a lot of good examples of this in animation. Here's one. In an episode of Futurama, Bender is looking at a page saying, "Oh yeah, you're a bad girl." We see that the picture on the page is a complex diagram of a circuit. The words tell us that Bender is looking at porn; the image shows us that porn for a robot is not the same as human porn.

Think about how you use all of these relationships when writing for film (or comics, or picture books, or whatever). It will help you ensure that you are telling a visual story and not writing a radio drama. It also gives you the chance to play director a little.