What is Visual Culture?
Visual culture is a term whereby the culture itself is expressed via visual images, still or moving. This broad area of study doesn’t focus too much on the aesthetics of things, as its purpose is to represent the culture’s meanings in the best possible way, which can be illustrated in several ways. For instance, a character’s daily ritual can easily represent and communicate their culture to the audience without speaking.
When watching a film, I believe we as the audience should strictly notice the character(s) culture from the visuals and not require the character(s) to tell us via dialogue. This could be done through the set dressings, costumes, props, etc. One example would be Quintin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds”. If I was to put this film on without any knowledge about it, other than it is starring Brad Pitt as the protagonist of the story, I’d still be able to pick up an idea of what the story is about strictly from the opening scene. We notice from the get-go that a family becomes frightened as vehicles drive up towards their house. The next shot shows the men getting out of the vehicles wearing black-white-red leather uniforms, which automatically gives us the impression that they’re part of the Nazi party. From visualising a white family being afraid of the Nazi’s presence, we can assume straightaway that the family is somehow associated with the Jewish culture. This is due to historical events, where Nazi’s were known for hunting down Jews across Europe during World War 2.
The same way visual culture is embedded into films, we could do the same with animations. We’ve seen this with some of our favourite TV shows and movies. Japan, China, and Korea have created hundreds of amines, expressing their cultures. Moreover, a famous company to portray various cultures via animation is Disney.
Visual Metaphor
A visual metaphor, also known as an analogical juxtaposition, is either an idea, a feeling, or a story represented in an object. Many visual metaphors examples can be found throughout the Harry Potter franchise. We get introduced to three crucial visual metaphors during Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Harry’s Wand – Generally speaking, a wand functions as a tool for magic. Metaphorically speaking, a wand is a source of personal power, representing the holder’s status and a reminder of individuality. Whereas for Harry, acquiring the wand was a reclaiming of his birthright, as well as a restored connection with his parents, reminding him of their love. Furthermore, the wand symbolised Harry’s great potential.
Harry’s Scar – Throughout the franchise, Harry’s scar symbolises his parents’ love and sacrifice and represents a deep connection with Voldemort. The scar is shaped like a lightning bolt representing Lord Voldemort’s failed murder attempt on Harry Potter when he was a baby.
The Mirror of Erised – During the films, the mirror embodies the danger of intense desire for those who stare at it, causing individuals to lose themselves when looking at it willingly. In Harry’s case, it symbolises his loneliness and the eagerness built within him to feel the connection and the love he once had with his parents, causing him to struggle with moving on from the past.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics are essential in films as they reference the style and look. They’re incredibly vital for the audience as they’re responsible for how they feel and respond to characters, situations, and locations. Directors use a combination of elements such as props, costumes, and lighting to construct the style of the scene.
For example, suppose you have watched several horror movies. In that case, you may have noticed many similarities with their aesthetics that you wouldn’t usually see in a standard action, comedy, or romantic film. Horror movies tend to use low=key lighting in their scenes to create an effect that builds tension due to the dark, mysterious atmosphere. In many horror films, we often see shots set in either an abandoned or old building, consisting of broken equipment, cracked walls, etc.
Aesthetics are vital and strongly considered across all forms of media, including video games and animation. The same way a director would construct a scene in a movie, designers would apply the same concept to their game or animation as they intend to make the audience feel a particular way. However, in video games and animations, designers can get away with emphasising the elements within their scene as they’re not necessarily required to be portrayed realistically the majority of the time.
Colour in Film
Colour is also an essential factor in movies as it is what sets the mood, causing the audience to feel a certain way. During a film, colours can be used as indicators of time, location, and characters. For example, in the Matrix franchise, the directors used a tinge of Green in many scenes to represent the events that occurred inside the computer simulation, known as The Matrix. This is because Green was the default colour used by the older consoles operating systems.
Another great example is in Disney’s Pixar Coco, when the father sings to his daughter during a flashback scene. The colours before and after the flashback scene were a tad dark. However, during the transition to the flashback scene, the colours became brighter and warmer, indicating that the flashback was a happy moment in the character’s life. As an audience member, the colour effect and the scene heightened my emotions and made me feel a particular way, which I can assume was the director’s intention.
Rhythm
Rhythm is one of the most critical concepts for film editing. Rhythm refers to edits’ pacing, which is most noticeable when synced up to music. It tends to be used mainly in trailers, musicals, and montages. Editors vary the rhythm they use depending on the scene. For instance, fast-paced editing is typically associated with tension, usually seen during action or chase scenes. In contrast, slow-paced editing is generally associated with calmness, seen throughout romantic encounters or sad occasion scenes.
A great example where we see rhythm go from slow-paced to fast-paced and back to slow-paced again all within one scene is in the movie Psycho. The famous shower scene is considered one of the most outstanding achievements in film editing mainly because of how the rhythm was used. Whilst the lady is getting into the shower and begins washing, there’s a total of 13 edits within 72 seconds, resulting in an average of 5.5 seconds shot duration. The last shot, which occurs just before the attack, is 18 seconds long, indicating the calmness setting up the storm. Whereas the attack only lasts for 22 seconds, it consists of 31 edits, calculating an average shot duration of 0.71 seconds. The editing for this section is ruthless, similarly to the attack itself. The post-attack section only consists of 8 edits over a 67 second period, resulting in an average shot duration of 8.4 seconds. This section releases the tension from the attack and restores the calmness.
Conclusion
To summarise, all of the sections I spoke about above all come under the visual culture umbrella and are equally as important because they tell us the story before anything is said. From an animator’s perspective, visual culture is something we need to apply to our work as we’re also storytelling in everything we do. The environment around our characters builds and gives life and personality to them.