a visual metaphor is literally something
that you see that has more intrinsic
meaning than just what it is a brilliant
example of this would be the stairs in
rocky one as he runs up the stairs that
journey up something that is physically
difficult represents him becoming ready
for his final major fight you can
literally use almost any item that we
interact with or even that we see to
create a metaphor a boulder blocking our
way or even an ocean in front of us so
one of the most obvious areas that we
can create visual metaphors is within
set design a brilliant example of this
would be in anchorman when we see ron
perlman inside a phone box and obviously
this phone box turns out to be a visual
metaphor for the emotional prison that
he's found himself within five in a
glass case of emotion visual metaphors
within set design is also known as
misonsen or the placement of objects
well it's not just the placement it's
also the types of objects used
the window creates a boundary between
his innocence outside playing in the
snow showing how naive he is at that
point in his life it also creates a
fantastic frame around him as the child
as he is the center of all of these
characters focus and they decide his
future
within squid game i believe the use of
props as visual metaphors for many of
the characters journeys is one of the
biggest reasons that the show has done
just so well one of the areas where the
characters traverse from their waiting
area their holding area to the game is
through this myriad of stairs which is
almost puzzle-like and obviously it's
based on a fantastic piece of art or
series of pieces of art which is meant
to throw off our sense of direction
throw off our sense of geography knowing
where things are so when we look at this
space it is obviously meant to be
confusing and this adds to a sense of
anxiety and apprehension before each
game because we don't know where the
characters are going to end up we don't
know which room they're going to enter
and because of that it adds even more
tension to an already very very tense
show
[Laughter]
it's really interesting to think of an
action
as a metaphor
but pretty much every action your
character does
is a representation of their beliefs in
the brilliant
falling down with michael douglas we see
a character who continually acts acts
upon his world and by doing so he
actually creates meaning to his actions
the filmmakers obviously have very
strong opinions about consumerism
and well greed when the character
earlier in the film visits a small
liquor store he all he wants is some
change for a phone box
but when the
clerk at the liquor store says he must
buy something before he's able to get
change it sets off a chain reaction of
events which ends in michael douglas
smashing the store up in a very
cathartic expression as i think many of
us have felt frustrated
at certain systems around us especially
systems of corporate greed his actions
now aren't just
smash up the store
they are actions based on a moral a
theme and an idea underneath it just
standing up for my rights as a consumer
characters themselves
can also be
a metaphor now what do i mean by that
well let's go for an extreme example
listen to them
children of the night
what music they make
vampires are such a brilliant metaphor
they literally can represent so many
elements of the human psyche from
violence and fear the fear of mortality
and
evil how in which we can represent this
driving force this craving for
immortality with
evil it's almost like the original
creators of vampires
wanted to say that immortality itself is
wrong
[Music]
so how can you go about finding out what
visual metaphors are going to work in
your film well i believe the key is to
take a look at the characters and what
are they going through what are the
characters feeling and what do you want
the audience to feel in each scene now
don't jam pack your film
with millions of visual metaphors
because then it's just going to become
almost too laden too heavy with ideas
and you're going to lose the audience's
attention really try to focus on one or
two
in a scene or across a series of scenes
and maybe even one major visual metaphor
that we keep coming back to almost like
a plant and payoff across your entire
story
if you are still very confused or maybe
you've got a whole ton of ideas i would
really recommend using the pixar
creative process so what is the pixar
creative process well quite simply it's
a way of actually coming up with
surprising ideas so what you're going to
do is going to get a piece of paper
you're going to talk about at the top of
the piece of paper
this is what my character is going to
feel and this is how i want my audience
to feel whilst watching it and now
you're going to write out 10 ideas ten i
did say ten now the first idea first
three ideas probably are going to be the
most obvious
visual systems to create that feeling
for both your
character and your audience but now the
further you go into it the more you
stretch your mind to come up with
connections the more likely you're going
to come up with an interesting idea bad
ideas are not exempt from going on the
list in fact get them out of your head
so you no longer head up on the bad idea
and even if you think in your first idea
you found a brilliant idea
still do the 10 because you may be very
very surprised surprise [ __ ] i
guarantee you if you take the time to
add visual metaphors to your films they
will become more unique and more
enjoyable for your audience
if you've ever used any visual metaphors
in your films i'd love to know what did
you do how did you do it and do you feel
like visual metaphors enhances films if
you want to take your filmmaking to the
next level don't forget to check out my
cinematic language 101 course up here
and down below to help you master your
cinematic language