Acquiring Visual Literacy
One of the things that steered me in the direction of visual storytelling was the fact that I come from a working-class family. My mother and father weren't well educated. They were second-generation Italian American. There was no tradition of reading in the house, no books. Of course I read in school.
I was a sickly child. I had very severe asthma, and I couldn't play sports, so I was taken to the movie theater and the church. Along with the films, I saw a lot of television shows. I was acquiring visual literacy at that time, though I did not understand that it was happening.
I loved books. But it took me years to really learn how to read a book -- in other words, how to live with the book, how to read a few pages, savor it, go back to it. I was much more open to whatever visual codes were hidden in films. What I mean by that is the storytelling of cinema through the use of the camera and the use of light, actors, and dialogue -- all the literature of the screenplay translated through the images.
The stories were wonderful in the films, but it was also the way of telling the story. As a young person, I started to wonder, Why is the way of telling the story so interesting? So what I began to do -- particularly because the films were on television and sometimes shown in repertory theaters around the city -- was, I would go and see my favorite parts again and again, and slowly but surely I began to memorize these visually, and sometimes I would make up my own visual interpretations.
I kept seeing the films again and again, and as I began to know a little more about filmmaking and what cameras did, I was beginning to understand that there are certain tools that you use and that those tools become part of a vocabulary. And it is just as valid as the vocabulary that is used in literature.
Why Visual Literacy Is Important
Acquiring Visual LiteracyOne of the things that steered me in the direction of visual storytelling was the fact that I come from a working-class family. My mother and father weren't well educated. They were second-generation Italian American. There was no tradition of reading in the house, no books. Of course I read in school.I was a sickly child. I had very severe asthma, and I couldn't play sports, so I was taken to the movie theater and the church. Along with the films, I saw a lot of television shows. I was acquiring visual literacy at that time, though I did not understand that it was happening.I loved books. But it took me years to really learn how to read a book -- in other words, how to live with the book, how to read a few pages, savor it, go back to it. I was much more open to whatever visual codes were hidden in films. What I mean by that is the storytelling of cinema through the use of the camera and the use of light, actors, and dialogue -- all the literature of the screenplay translated through the images.The stories were wonderful in the films, but it was also the way of telling the story. As a young person, I started to wonder, Why is the way of telling the story so interesting? So what I began to do -- particularly because the films were on television and sometimes shown in repertory theaters around the city -- was, I would go and see my favorite parts again and again, and slowly but surely I began to memorize these visually, and sometimes I would make up my own visual interpretations.I kept seeing the films again and again, and as I began to know a little more about filmmaking and what cameras did, I was beginning to understand that there are certain tools that you use and that those tools become part of a vocabulary. And it is just as valid as the vocabulary that is used in literature.Why Visual Literacy Is Important
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