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Visual Storytelling | by Mina Zaher

by guest columnist Mina Zaher.  Find her on Twitter.

At a recent Linda Seger seminar in London, Seger discussed the screenwriter’s need to think visually. Seger advised the writer to ask themselves, “what does my movie look like?” She also stressed the importance of writing vivid description and being able to visualise as well as identify images. “Think in terms of black and white; think in terms of wide spaces vs. small spaces,” she advised.

And keep a notebook to record fresh images.

Normally as screenwriters, we’re preoccupied with structure, character arcs, tone, genre and theme. The “promise of the premise” is also an important concern as is “the first ten pages” rule. It’s no wonder one of the biggest issues a new writer faces is the curse of characters as talking heads if we’re so focused on dialogue and turning points that we forget about visual storytelling.

In On Directing Film, David Mamet’s chapter on storytelling explains,

“You always want to tell the story in cuts. Which is to say, through a juxtaposition of images that are basically uninflected.”

Mamet also discusses the positioning of the camera and its role in following the protagonist around. So whether it’s the camera set-up or the juxtaposition of scenes, Mamet’s chapter highlights the importance of visual language through movement and images as the necessary means to tell stories.

Of course, the screenwriter would do well if they had a close working relationship with a director. This would be ideal: the screenwriter could contribute to the structural discipline of the script whilst the director would focus on the visual language of the story; but not all screenwriters have this luxury.

So what’s a screenwriter to do?

• Take an acting class. Roman Polanski, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are just some of the great filmmakers who have studied acting and they certainly know how to make their characters interesting and engaging.
• Make your own films. This is what I’m doing right now and it’s really helping my writing. You don’t need anything swish. Just something to record on and something to edit with: say your phone and iMovie (which is free if you have a Mac). Not only am I learning how to tell stories through images, the editing process is also teaching me about pacing and editing my own scripts.
• Listen to Linda Seger: open your eyes and record the images you see.
• And of course, read, read, read. See how the experts do it.

It’s true that film is a director’s medium. But if screenwriters want to have a part in this filmmaking game then we too need to know how to tell our stories visually.

So what’s it going to be? Can you convince the reader that your story is ready for the screen? Can you convey a series of images in the name of story?

|MH|

Mina Zaher spent five years working in script development, from literary assistant at The Agency (London) Ltd. to being a freelance script reader/script editor. Mina holds an MA in Film and Television Studies and an MA in Screenwriting. She is currently working on a number of writing projects, which are at various stages of development and regularly writes for her blog, Journey of a Screenwriter. Mina is also the EURO moderator for #Scriptchat.