Visual Writing
We think of writing as words end to end forming an exposition, but media writing,particularly television advertising, needs a visual idea. This is another layer of writing.The visual idea is what we refer to as meta-writing in earlier chapters. There is a difference between visual meta-writing and the writing found on a page of script for a visual medium whether in the mini-drama of an ad or a full length feature film. The scene descriptions contribute to a visual idea that transcends the screen moment and rests on many of those moments, hence meta-writing. It is an idea that informs and governs the written detail of the script. The dialogue, which is an integral part of the writing and exposition, is not itself visual writing but a necessary component of it. Radio ads need dialogue writing but not a visual idea. So visual writing is the idea as well as the description of specific images or shots. It needs what we will call a visual metaphor. Let’s look at an example.
How do you explain viruses, spam and computer security to the general public?AOL sells its internet service by emphasizing its virus scanning and spam blocking features. Here visual writing comes to the rescue. You need a visual metaphor. Two guys in a cafeteria line are choosing food. On their trays are a ham sandwich and a tuna sandwich. One asks the other why he would want just basic high speed internet service when he can get AOL’s high speed service with virus protection. The second guy doesn’t get it. To explain the difference, the first guy puts a dish cover over the tuna fish sandwich, then explains that going on line without AOL virus protection means you pick up loads of spam and nasty viruses. He ladles ketchup and other condiments over the ham sandwich as he describes the spam and viruses, and then asks, “Which would you rather have? AOL with virus protection,” as he lifts a plate cover from a clean tuna sandwich, “or basic high speed internet.” The other guy says, “I’ll have the tuna fish.” “You can’t; it’s mine,” is the reply as the loser is left with a ham sandwich covered with an inedible mess.
This shows us a way to visualize an abstract idea of internet security. Spam and viruses are hard to explain. Two sandwiches, one protected and one ruined by junk, works as a visual metaphor that organizes the whole communication. That kind of organizing visual metaphor is often the key to successful visual communication.So there is an equivalence between visual metaphor and meta-writing. They constitute visual writing.
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