Cinema is an Art and Art doesn't have a language.
It is we, the people, who have divided it based on language.
And yes, Regional Cinema is important for many reasons
like    retaining nativity, establishing relatability and other such factors,
but it, in the end, it all boils down to the story
and how effectively you visualize it.
How do you convey a story that breaks all the language barriers?
How does a filmmaker convey anything without a dialogue?
You guessed it.
By visual storytelling
Visual Storytelling has the ability to effectively erase the lines
that normally separate cinema by demographics.
When a director or story writer, write a script they visualize the story,
they have an idea about what to convey and how to convey it.
It's a known fact that the audience remembers 20% of what they read,
10% of what they hear, but 80% of what they see.
Who envisions the director's vision?
What is the craft of narrating through visual storytelling called?
Or better yet, Who is the "eye of the director"
The cinematographer
We all know what a cinematographer's job is.
It’s anything but easy!
It's all about understanding the director's vision
and interpreting the screenplay into visual form
about how he can visually portray the metaphors in the screenplay
such that they convey things like emotions of the characters,
 philosophy behind the story, and the essence of the narrative.
Today, on “The Alternate Reality”
we try to explain the best way to guide an
audience through visual storytelling.
COMPOSITION and FRAMING
Composition is about what you see or basically what the camera sees.
A good composition has the right focal elements wherever necessary
and tend’s to attract the audience's attention.
And framing refers to using the elements of a scene to create a frame.
Composition has the ability to guide the audience
 into the story and convey the metaphors.
Which props and scene elements should be emphasized upon
Whose perspective are we seeing through, in the scene,
and how much light should they be able to see
How do characters in a single frame differ from one another
What colors to pick and how harsh should the light be?
How would the emotion of the scene change,
by changing these to factors?
Let's find out.
Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson's films are
notable examples of good composition and framing.
They are widely known as genius filmmakers
and the masters of film composition.
They would use this type of composition to elicit a psycological reaction,
to place the audience in an uncomfortable state.
The frame is planned so well, that these become
the natural reactions of the audience while watching it
There are some major rules of composition
that we evidently see in their films
Rule of Thirds
Symmetry
Leading room and headroom
Leading lines
Depth of field
Rule of Thirds
The Rule of thirds is the most fundamental rule of composition.
it divides the frame into thirds, horizontally and vertically
so that the image is divided into 9 equal parts
which create control points.
placing your main objects along or within
these lines or at an intersection of these lines
creates a spectacular composition and makes the frame look attractive.
And of course, since rules are made to be broken,
there are some ways to creatively break these rules too.
Following these scenes from Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson movies
we can see clearly see how they break the rules,
 but beautifully.
SYMMETRY
Symmetry is an extremely impactful style of filmmaking
which impacts imagery and evokes  emotions.
It can be characterized as the type of composition
where two halves of the images are a mirror to each other
There two types of symmetry
AXIAL SYMMETRY
AND TRANSLATORY SYMMETRY
Axial symmetry is simply called objects mirroring each other
where as translatory symmetry is basically
reputation of objects based on the Formula 1 + 1.
the best thing about the symmetry visuals
is when the subject is framed at the center
and we as an audience have a deep and
intense focus on the point of interest.
LEAD ROOM AND HEADROOM
If a character is looking towards the left of the frame,
then he should be placed at the right of the frame.
That way, the subject is now looking at an open space created beside him,
 making the frame very comfortable to view.
The open space is called a lead room.
And, headroom, is the space between the top of your subject’s head
and the top frame of the composition.
you can make an extreme close-up of the subject’s face
this will give an extremely intimate and even uncomfortable feel.
So be very careful about what vibe wish to
create in the frame while deciding on a headroom.
LEADING LINES
Leading lines allow you to grab your viewer’s attention and
take them on a visual journey by ultimately drawing them
towards the points of interest that you want them to look at.
Leading lines connect the foreground to the background of a scene,
they help to create depth and dimensionality
which draws the viewer into the image.
DEPTH OF FIELD
It is  distance between the nearest and the
farthest objects in your frame, that are in focus
It allows a filmmaker to evoke several emotions visually
Let's see how it's blended in storytelling
There are two types of Depth of Field
Shallow focus
and Deep focus
Shallow Focus can be achieved by having a wide aperture
whereas a Deep focus is normally achieved by choosing a smaller aperture.
The level of the depth of field that you set for your frame,
allows a filmmaker to evoke different emotions
ranging between loneliness
fear
doubt
insecurity
heightened senses
and anger.
COLOR AND LIGHTING
The primary reason for using color and lighting in the film might be obvious.
To make the images colorful, dynamic, and beautiful.
But there is a secondary reason that facilitates visual storytelling.
The Colour Palette and the light setting
help a viewer to visually enhance
the emotional aspect of a film and guide
the viewer to respond to it viscerally.
Light on specific objects or people helps to pull the
viewer’s focus on to the intended spot,
while lighting effects can transform the
way people and objects appear in a scene.
They help to set the mood and can
create a substantial emotional impact.
Some crucial uses of this in storytelling are
To elicit psychological reactions
To draw focus to significant details.
Set the tone of the film.
Represent character traits.
How communicate the arch of the story
Not all colors give exactly the same meaning each time.
 It depends on the emotion and the state of the character.
Some classic examples of using colors and lights
in storytelling that we all know are from the films
AWE
PUDHUPETTAI
and DEV.D
so let's use them as reference and study about color
Some major colors that tell the story are.
Red, which emotes  anger, passion and violence.
In PUDHUPETTAI red is used to show violence,
The rage of Kokki Kumar’s character.
But in AWE and Dev.D red is used as a visual medium
to convey the characters inner state
PINK emotes love, innocence and feminity
In this scene, pink sets the mood by showing
the kind of relation Eesha Rebba and Nithya Menon's characters share.
Innocent, Feminine Love
In Dev.D pink is used to represent the role of Chanda's character
and her new, independant way of living
GREEN emotes healing, unchanging nature, jealousy, envy,
In the context of PUDHUPETTAI, the color shows a character Arch
But in Dev.D,it shows the state of mind of the protagonist.
In AWE, the role of Parvati role is shown by green
which represents unchanging nature.
BLUE emotes faith, spirituality, peace, calmness,
confidence, conservatism and depression.
In AWE blue is used for faith and spirituality.
In Dev.D the same blue is used for showing
Dev. using drugs and him drifting away.
In the end, the blue is used to show peace.
BLACK & WHITE emote evil & good
In Vikram Vedha, these colors are used to tell which side of good or bad
do the characters standing in, purely through blacks and whites.
Colour is the most essential storytelling element
and how it’s used affects how we experience both
the characters and the entire message of the film itself .
So, depending on the color of light you use for your photos,
you can control the emotion you want to depict in a scene.
Softer, high-quality light creates drama but adds more warmth to the shot.
This indicates the tenderness and emotional aspects of the film.
Harder and lower quality light is also dramatic,
but the harsh shadows are edgier
it is used to draw attention and add a dramatic effect.
But not everybody can know all of this.
It take many years of training and much more of experience
to understand visual storytelling perfectly.
This video is just to give you some insights into visual storytelling
so that you can enhance your viewing experience and appreciate cinema better,
 irrespective of the region or language it belongs to.
For more such interesting videos on cinema,
please subscribe to our channel, THE ALTERNATE REALITY
We put out interesting videos like these every week.
So, thank you and see you next week.
