FRAMING THE SCREEN

This is an editorial design for a BA dissertation on the visual storytelling effect of theatrical structure in film.^①

Visual design is a powerful method that can alter what the audience perceives from the screen, and reverse the primal hierarchy of the two media. So through this dissertation, I analyse the effects which can be achieved by using a theatrical device and display the potential of visual storytelling in cinema.^②

The current study of visual storytelling focuses on design marketing or the early cinema in design. So this dissertation is a suggestion to pursue the contemporary development of visual grammar in cinema and how it has adjusted over time. Through two films, [Synecdoche, New York] and [Anna Karenina], this dissertation explores the full potential of visual storytelling.

These two films actively use theatrical techniques to convey various information visually to the viewers. For instance, we can view what the “stage” represents and what method the director chooses to employ on the screen differs in both movies. Thus in these films, theatre works not as a historical and cultural predecessor of the cinema but as a storytelling tool whose prior status is shifted. This deployment between the two art forms suggests how their interaction will alter eventually.^③-⑦