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Creating a
unique language of metaphors and symbols for your film is a big part of being a visual
storyteller. Symbolic images help us to understand abstract concepts that cannot always be
translated into words. I use the word metaphor to encompass metaphor, symbol, motifs, and leit
motifs for the remainder of this book to simplify things.
NOTE
Setting Up Metaphors and Symbols - You can set up metaphors and symbols in your films in
two basic ways:
Universal metaphors and symbols have all been used before and everyone understands
them right away.
Personal metaphors and symbols are those you create by first presenting them and then
defining them for the audience.
Figure 2.21 I developed a leit motif using snakes and spiders to represent
unknown fears in my vision quest cave story. Ezzie's biggest fear is
poisionous snakes and spiders, and the cave is full of them playing various
archetypal roles. At the end of the story, during her shamanic journey, she
meets the King Rattle Snake and Queen Black Widow who help her to
understand her fears and give her lots of valuable information. Snakes are symbolic of
sacred knowledge, death, fear, and rebirth, which fit nicely with the story. Spiders are
known for their ability to travel between the real world and the mystical world, which is
what the character needs to do to accomplish her plot goals.
Metaphors and symbols can be used to develop plot, theme, and character in deeper ways
visually. As a filmmaker, you need to create a unique metaphorical language in your story. You
may want to practice taking different storytelling techniques in this book and seeing how you
could apply them in metaphorical ways. If you want to show character history, you could have
the character doing a metaphorical scene activity from the past, such as a martial arts meditation.
You may want to place certain symbolic objects in key scenes, like pictures from exotic travels.
The following list will help you think of ideas on where to place metaphorical activities or
symbolic objects in your story to help develop plot, theme, and character:
1. Objects/props. Household items, flags, T-shirts, games, art in room, statues, furniture
style, shape of windows, magazines, pictures, weapons, wall hangings, books,
instruments, pets, cars, people, houses.
2. Music/sounds. Background sounds, songs, atmospheric music bed, music in scenes,
street noises, weather sounds, sirens, people crying/laughing/ screaming in the next room,
weird unexplainable sounds, heaters, equipment, natural sounds, animals, event sounds.
Conceptual narrative sound design and auditory metaphors are covered in Chapter 7,
"Narrative Sound Design."
3. Color. The color of everything in the frame may mean something. Refer to the color
section in this book to explore some meanings associated with each basic color. Carefully
choose colors for everything in each scene, including for costumes, sets, lights, cars, hair
color, makeup, props, sky, fur, and weather. If your theme had a color, what would it be?
Chapter 6, "Mise En Scne for the Twenty-First Century," covers the use of symbolic
color in more detail.
4. Words. Heard in dialogue or appearing on sets or otherwise onscreen (pop-up bubbles to
indicate thought, subtitles, and so on). Posters in the background, titles, onscreen text
with background info, poems, fables, stories inside stories, signs, subtitles for slang,
graffiti, product names on packages, license plates, bumper stickers, billboards, song
lyrics, street names, character names, location, event lingo, speeches, slang, vocabulary,
dialect, cultural misinterpretations, multiple meaning for some words, word puzzles, T-
shirt sayings.
5. Sets. Location as character. What does the setting say about the mood of each scene? A
conversation in a junkyard has a different context than one at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
National monuments, natural settings (swamps, waterfalls, caves, rivers, ocean, desert),
cities with different personalities, small-town local flavor, visual themes, types of
businesses, geographical themes, amusements parks, clubs, bars, graveyards, temples,
stores, abstract interpretations of the Internet, art galleries, circus tents, fantasy places.
6. Character types. People who represent the theme or plot to the extreme (positive or
negative, even an extreme mix of the two). Costumes, stereotypes, fashion preferences,
cultural backgrounds, accents, jewelry, uniforms, piercings, tattoos, hats, clothes, masks,
T-shirt sayings.
7. Lighting. Colored lights, light sources, brightness, lighting subjects specific to metaphor.
Good characters may be in bright light, whereas evil characters may be darkly lit. Quality
of light (time of day as a metaphor). Glowing around certain characters, face-lighting
strategies to evoke emotion, source of light (sun, spaceship, flaming building) as
metaphor, spinning ambulance lighting in room to represent emergency situation.
8. Staging. Placement of characters and metaphoric objects inside the frame to represent
relationships. Where are your characters in relationship to each other metaphorically?
You could have three characters who form a love triangle standing around a fire to
represent a secret affair about to be uncovered. What metaphoric items surround the
characters? Are they talking while walking through a field of sunflowers or in between
cactuses? What metaphoric objects could you place between characters to show
relationships or emotional states during a scene? Two characters on opposite sides of the
frame with knives hanging on the wall between them may represent conflicting emotions.
How could you use a series of staging metaphor shots to show relationships? In Citizen
Kane, one of Kane's marriages dissolves in front of our eyes as, in a few quick match
cuts, Kane and his wife sit farther and farther away from each other at bigger and bigger
dinner tables.
9. Fables. How could you interject little stories into scenes to show plot, theme, or
character? You might want to have just pictures of parable characters or allude to them
visually through stuffed animals, statues, paintings, cartoons, or drawings on the set. Try
to think of new ways to incorporate parables visually into your films. Perhaps you could
make your own little cartoon fable to play on a TV in the background during a scene.
You might make up your own original Aesop-type fable, which the characters could
discuss, see in a play or on TV, read in a book, hear about in dialogue, or be relayed by a
magical object. In the Crying Game, the theme of how you can't change your basic nature
is developed by the characters talking about the frog and scorpion fable in each of the
three acts. The frog agrees to give the scorpion a ride across the lake, but then gets stung.
10. Symbol dictionaries. You may want to start collecting resources for metaphors, such as
symbol or dream dictionaries, to help you tap into universal subconscious visual
metaphors. Listed here are some examples of symbols and possible meanings. Record
your own favorite symbols and what they mean to you for use in your films.
Project 2.20
Pick a Color for Your Theme. Choose one color to represent the theme of your film. List five
ways to use this theme color, both on physical objects and as a metaphor.
Figure 2.22 I/O Error. In this short film by Michael Dougan, he uses the
metaphor of twin boys to show the theme of how two opposing sides of a
person cannot coexist peacefully. One boy is good, and one is evil. Triplet
actors were used for the little boys, and compositing techniques in post were used to
duplicate the adult actor who plays the grown men.
Figure 2.23 During the opening shots of Citizen Kane, we are drawn up to a
point of light as we get closer and closer to the window of the room in which
Kane is dying. When he dies, the light goes out. This is a good use of
metaphoric lighting to represent story events. How could you use a similar technique in
your story?
Figure 2.24 This symbol, worn around the neck of a character, was created
by taking an ahnk and turning it upside down to show strange religious
beliefs. The shape of a flying saucer was laid over the cross to symbolize
alien creators. How can you take two symbols and combine their meanings
and shapes to make a unique one for your film?
Project 2.21
List Possible Metaphors and Symbols for Your Film. As you go through the
following example metaphor and symbol charts, list one idea for each type of chart to use in your
film. For example, pick a symbolic animal that may appear somewhere in your story as a pet, in
a painting, discussed in dialogue, or as a character in a fable. Practice combining metaphors and
symbols and using repeating patterns to create a unique visual language.
NOTE
Combining Metaphors. How could you combine some of the previous examples of metaphors
to create new ones? Create three different combinations with explanations for what they
represent. How could you add specific colors and numbers to deepen the meaning? You could
compose a shot of a queen figure eating a fig, with two woodpeckers on her shoulder, next to a
pyramid, with lightning bolts in the background, to symbolize female authority, guardians,
psychic ability, concentrating power within, and unexpected change.
1. Numbers. Sacred geometry is universal and will help you plan story elements using
numbers as metaphors. You could have a character say he has seven (often associated
with being lucky) dreams about an upcoming event. Or use the corresponding geometry
and shapes when constructing your scenes, such as having seven colored stones on an
altar that a character uses to pray for things.
2. Juxtaposition. Show the audience one metaphor or symbol, then another, and have them
draw a third separate conclusion from the two. Chapter 8, "Preproduction Story-Editing
Choices," covers in depth ways to use juxtaposition.
Figure 2.26 This Bigfoot biting the head off of a raven (death) could be a
metaphor to foreshadow a close brush with death or a metaphor for
overcoming the fear of death.
Metaphors and symbols are a great way to develop your character history. Go through your
character history questions and see how you could show the important points
using metaphors.
Figure 2.27 Clocks are sometimes shown going haywire when something in
the film world is out of synch. What other types of ordinary symbolic
objects or metaphors could you play with visually to show the state of your
film world changing?
Project 2.22
Use Metaphors and Symbols. Think of three ideas to show character history using metaphors
and symbols somewhere in your film.
Metaphors are great to develop the backstory for your film without having to explain everything.
Figure 2.28 This sacred Bigfoot cave has symbolic paintings on the walls
that tell the history of the clan (to develop backstory information).
Project 2.23
Backstory Objects. Choose 10 items to place symbolically on your sets to represent the
backstory of your film using the metaphoric approaches previously described.
Project 2.24
Character Trait Metaphors and Symbols. Think of three ideas to show character traits using
metaphors and symbols somewhere in your film.
Mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and intellectual states of characters should be expressed
through metaphoric and symbolic cues. An object may be present in the scene to symbolize a
character's state or the character may say something that gives us a clue.
In Transit, the Venice hotel room has clothes all over the floor, symbolizing how messed up
Emmy's life has become with Oscar. She has a black eye, too. These visual clues let us know her
character state in the scene. In the Baden-Baden scene with her husband, the hotel room is
perfectly neatwith separate twin beds symbolizing the state of their marriage. How can you
use symbols like this to show us character states in each scene?
Figure 2.29 This Bigfoot finally snaps one day during a date and punches a
hole through a tree. How could you show your characters having
uncontrollable outbursts or overwhelming emotional moments that cause
them to change suddenly in your film?
Project 2.25
Create Character States. Think of three ideas to show character states using metaphors and
symbols somewhere in your film.
Character State Metaphoric/Symbolic Image Description in Script
Someone not what he or she seems Reflection in funhouse mirrors
Wise shaman head of tribe Says he only "drinks out of ancient skull"
Person going crazy Gory disturbing art project the character is making
throughout film
Loss of life force Crops in field dying
Relationship status negative Couple fighting over the color of drapes
Lost-love memory Pendant with old picture around neck
Revenge for death of loved one Handmade knife from loved one's family
Midlife crisis Character buys Harley-Davidson motorcycle
Obsessed with food Character digging around for hidden candy bars
Scientific mindset Has vision looking into liquid inside heated glass beaker
Losing important object Dog floating down the river
Spiritual epiphany Shaves head or cuts off hair to symbolize new beginning
or mindset
Needs to control every little thing Arranging objects in straight lines
because of fear of chaos in world
Needs to feel clean in a dirty business Taking very long and meticulous grooming shower with
lots of special lotions and shampoos
Character hitting bottom Character starving in a dark messy house
In the animated short Transit, we see subtitles of what happens to the characters at the end.
When the information comes up about Emmy being missing and her body never found, an
ominous shark fin glides by the floating suitcase in the water and then the suitcase sinks. This
symbolizes foul play is involved in her disappearance; after all, sharks can eat people and leave
no clues. A puddle of blood then forms on the surface of the water, letting us know that Oscar
killed her, cut her up, and threw her body overboard in the suitcase. All of this information is
conveyed with simple text on the screen and a shark fin moving around a symbolic suitcase
covered with travel stickers from the places they had visited together.
Figure 2.30 Mutant bugs and snails in a toxic waste dump cave could be
used to show the dangerous effects of chemicals on living organisms.
Project 2.26
Create Nature Shots. Think of three ideas to use nature shots with metaphors and symbols to
visually develop information in your story.
Write a few pages concentrating on just using different types of metaphors, symbols, and themes.
As discussed earlier, metaphors and symbols are great ways to show theme in subtle ways. You
could turn your characters into animated animals or use some of your digital tools to invent new
types of metaphoric characters. What other ways can you use metaphors and symbols to show
themes in your film?
David Lynch is a master of cinematic metaphor. All of his films, and the TV show Twin Peaks,
are worth studying for how they handle metaphor in bold, simple, and original ways. He is
particularly good at creating personal metaphors and symbols. An opening scene in the film Fire
Walk with Me takes place at an airport (new beginnings); this sets up the whole film. A dancing
girl in a red dress comes out and does a quick pantomime, but says nothing, as the three
detectives carefully watch. Later on in the car, one detective asks the more experienced one what
the dancing girl meant. Below is a chart breaking down the metaphors and symbols of the
"dancing girl" scene. The audience would never understand the meaning of this symbolic
language unless the characters explain them, which makes the metaphors a personal creation of
the filmmaker.
The theme of the movie is that in the search for meaning, you cannot know everything and
nothing is what it seems, which is wonderfully illustrated with the use of visual metaphors and
symbols. Detectives as characters are metaphors for solving a mystery, such as solving life's
mysteries, which is part of the theme of the film. Theme and metaphor are often tied together
very closely in visual stories.
This scene is interesting because of the original use of metaphors and symbols. If the film would
have started in an office with the detectives talking about the case, it would have been flat,
uninteresting, clich, and boring. The startling use of personal metaphors in this film pull us into
the story, much like a puzzle we need to solve to understand what is happening.
NOTE
Write Down Your Dreams. If you have problems remembering your dreams, just tell yourself
before you go to bed that you will remember them and keep a notebook with a pen nearby so that
you can write them down as soon as you wake up. You may even want to tell yourself to dream
that night of certain themes or questions to see what comes up. Write all dreams down even if
they do not make sense, because they might reveal their meanings later. Sketch any cinematic
elements of dreams next to the description if you have time.
Many of us have developed a personal system of metaphors and symbols from life experiences
hidden deep inside our subconscious, and these often show up in our nightly dreams. Maybe
whenever you dream about playing chess, you are having to think strategically about changing
some situation in your daily life. You may want to keep a dream journal and get a sense of how
your mind thinks about metaphor and symbol, which you can then work into your films. The
more you write down your dreams, the more you understand how you personally think in visual
symbols and metaphors. Dreams can often help us find new ways to communicate visually on a
deeper subconscious level, to show emotions or situations that may be hard to explain with
straightforward dialogue or action.
Films are like puzzles and people like to try and figure things out in their heads. What was
"Rosebud" a metaphor for in Citizen Kane? This is the dying Kane's last word at the start of the
film, and the rest of the movie is a search to discover who or what Rosebud was about. Film
geeks continue to argue about the true meaning of "Rosebud" whenever the subject comes up.
How can you put a puzzling aspect in your film to make it more engaging? Can you ask some
type of visual question or create a visual puzzle? In Memento, the main character is trying to
figure out who killed his wife, which gets pretty messy and confusing because he cannot
remember anything for more than 10 minutes. Polaroid pictures serve as the metaphoric puzzle
pieces this character uses to try and put his past back together. The answer to both these film
puzzles are still not very clear even by the end of the films. Sometimes it is more interesting not
to solve everything for the audience and let them figure it out for themselves (or continue to
question).
NOTE - Definition
Hermeneutic The search for meaning. This popular philosophy comments on how humans
search for meaning in films. Watch for this idea and see how each director handles it differently.
NOTE
Create a Puzzle in Your Film. Think of some way to twist your plot around a mystery or puzzle
for the audience to solve. Review your favorite films that have puzzles and add the techniques
used to this list. A good approach is to begin near the middle or end of the story and figure out
some reason to go over what happened. You might use a detective interviewing someone about a
crime, an old person thinking about her life, a reporter interviewing someone, a character
reflecting back on his experiences through old photographs, a character telling his story in a
voice-over, or present a mystery to be solved.
A character cannot remember something, but A mystery event, crime, or situation needs to be
she is trying to find out what it is by using solved.
visually metaphoric clues.
Key character says something puzzling and One character is trying to find out the truth about
then disappears. someone/something that is not what it appears to
be.
The character is displaying puzzling The character is trying to understand a strange
behavior, which is discovered to be situation. The character is in such a setup,
connected to a past and forgotten trauma. alternate reality, or dream.
The character finds a strange object or Use multiple story lines, different character
information he has been tracking down. POV's, or characters intersecting at key points.
Another way to work with metaphor and theme is to play back and forth between negative and
positive manifestations throughout the film.
Different characters often represent different perspectives on the same theme. If you are doing a
theme on loyalty among gangsters, you could have one super-loyal gangster, one who is playing
two different crime families against each other, and some people who go back and forth between
loyalty and disloyalty. What happens to these characters shows us your theme. If the super-loyal
character gets rich and the two-timing one dies horribly, loyalty is a good thing. If the super-
loyal gangster gets killed and the disloyal one wins the big prize, loyalty is not important or is
even a bad thing in your film world.
NOTE - Definition
Project 2.27
List Positive and Negative Theme Charges. How could you have different characters or
situations represent positive and negative sides of your theme?
The main character in Kafka's Metamorphosis wakes up one day as a cockroach. How can you
play with transforming your character types to showcase your theme better? Digital tools and
animation techniques make it easier to turn characters into bugs or other metaphoric creatures.
Harvey is a 10-minute short film from Australia with a character that is literally sawed in half
(3D effect) looking for his better half or ideal relationship (a great use of visual metaphor with
digitally enhanced original character design). How could you use DV effects or 2D/3D animation
to metaphorically show your characters in a new way?
What type of metaphor can each of your characters represent in your film world? What do the
characters do for a living, how do they dress, what kind of cars do they drive, where do they
live?
Themes sometimes represent best dreams or worst flaws. Who is destroyed? Who grows? What
special quality in the protagonist helps him achieve his goals? In Lily and Jim, both main
characters want a relationship, but both of them have pretty ineffective communication skills
(worst flaw and theme).
The theme, or unspoken moral message of the story, needs to be carefully handled. You must
make sure the audience gets the theme on some level, but not be too preachy (a delicate balance).
Metaphors provide a great way to communicate theme while telling your story visually.
You can use existing metaphors or create your own original visual metaphoric language for your
film. Suppose that you are doing a film on the theme of greed. You might have all the really
greedy characters wearing green, talking about money, clinging cash registers in the background,
characters using greed-type slang such as "time is money," people in the background chasing
blowing dollar bills, or a lead character counting his money as he delivers his lines. The best
approach for developing visual metaphors and symbols is to create a list of possible ideas and
then see which ones you can play with without being too obvious or preachy.
Write a few pages about how to show your theme using a unique set of metaphors and symbols.
Project 2.28
Showing Theme. Think of five symbols or metaphors to show theme in your film.
The opening shot of the film Memento shows a fresh Polaroid picture as it develops. It takes a
moment for viewers to realize that the film is rolling backwardthe picture is becoming less
clear the longer we watch it. This is a great visual symbol for the theme of the way we
reconstruct memory and how what we remember fades and changes over time. This whole film is
told backward in short memory bursts because the main character can remember things for only
10 minutes at a time. Polaroids are the way this character keeps track of who people are and what
he thinks is happening. The opening shot tells us a great deal about the character, plot, and theme
in a stunningly original visual metaphor that is both simple and deeply complex at the same time.
When you really understand your main characters, metaphors, and theme, it is much easier to
develop the events in your story and write your script. Building up original characters is like
creating new beings in the world who start to take on a life of their own inside your imagination.
Creating strong metaphors and themes will make your story deeper and help you choose visual
designs that fit the ideas you are presenting.
Figure 2.34 Ezzie stole a video cell phone from a camper and likes to crank
call the speed dial people and scare them with her big furry face and
ferocious roar. Sometimes during the film, she calls different people on the
phone and asks for help or advice, or does something silly. This helps show
a connection between the Bigfoot film world and the human world. A
Bigfoot using a video phone could be interpreted as a metaphor for the way
technology is trickling down into the masses and changing our lives in
unexpected ways. This idea could be used as a subplot device in an
animated series where the character steals a different phone each week and
talks to a new cast of speed dial people. How could you incorporate a unique digital
storytelling approach in your film as a symbol or metaphor for theme? Maybe your
character could consult his PDAplaying DV video clips you create to show a higher power
guiding him through the story. What other digitally enhanced gizmos could you use to tell
us a story in a new way?