Visual style is something that is often neglected or overlooked.  Many new writers just put the story on paper and forget about the camera altogether.  The resulting script is often just a series of locations with basic action and dialogue, which isn’t wrong, it just leaves a lot open to interpretation.

Visual style isn’t the same as tone but they should be complementary and both derive from theme.  If you want your visual style to be ‘bright and sunny’ then all the visual elements in your film should match that.  Watch a movie or TV show and consider all the elements that go into creating its visual style:

• Colour
• Type of camera
• Camera movement/angles
• Scene length
• Casting
• Wardrobe
• Setting

Colour is easy; simply suggest that a certain colour rise above the rest.  If your show is a sitcom, chances are there’s not a lot to be said about colour, but for any other dramatic piece, you can dictate the dominant colour.  When you think of visual style in movies, it’s simple to think; comedies = bright colours, dramas = earth tones, horror = dark.  What if you changed this?  What if your horror was bright colours or your comedy used earth tones?  You can suggest this through making note of the clothing, surroundings along the way or blatantly make a note at the start that your film is to be shot in washed out earth tones.  There should be a very good reason why you choose to do this.  And that reason should be to underscore your theme.

The type of camera is not for you to say, but you can hint at it through your writing.  If you want the whole thing to be 3-D, have things fly off the screen.  If you want it to be shot on handheld mini DV then write scenes with a lot of movement.  It should be obvious to the reader how this movie should be shot without you having to tell them. 

Camera movement too cannot to be literally written into your script.  Your scenes should all flow together with a certain rhythm, which subliminally instills visual style in the mind of the reader.  Take a look at your scene transitions, are they abrupt and choppy, flowing into one another, spilling over from one to the next, mostly match cuts?  How your scenes flow not just within themselves but from scene to scene dictates visual style.  Whatever you put on paper should be there for a reason.

Scene length also contributes to visual style.  Many new writers have scenes that run on far too long and start too soon.  Scenes like this drag the movie to a griding halt.  Take a look at your scenes and make a tally of how long each one is.  Are they consistent?  Is there a clear rhythm to it or are they all over the place?  Longer scenes slow the movie down, shorter scenes speed it up.  If you’re writing a Jane Austen-type period piece, you probably don’t want a lot of short scenes.

When I say casting, I really mean how you cast your film through character choice.  Characters must have distinctive voices but in any dramatic piece, all characters have something in common that ties into theme.  Pulp Fiction: they’re all quirky, eccentric, insane cartoon characters.  Gilmore Girls: everyone is a fast-talking, verbally incontinent, fairly well-behaved nice guy riddled with angst.  Desperate Housewives: crazy cartoons.  Bridgette Jones’ Diary: bumbling, messed up professionals.

Wardrobe is easy to neglect.  Why should you care what people wear?  For the most part, clothing is irrelevant but, the style of clothing is not.  You can say your character wears a sharp designer suit, but don’t get into it every time she changes her clothes and definitely don’t mention brand names or describe the outfit in extreme detail.  In The Devil Wears Prada, there are two distinct worlds: Andy’s glamorous professional world and her ordinary everyday private world; and the two do not mix, which is deliberate.  There’s a scene where Andy comes home wearing her new designer gear in her hovel of an apartment and she stands out like a sore thumb.  Same thing was done in Legally Blonde and Pretty In Pink; the main characters were made to stand out in their surroundings simply through the use of wardrobe. 

Setting your film in Las Vegas gives a different visual style from Atlantic City. Nevada desert is different from the Sahara, Chicago is different from New York.  They’re are all similar settings, but say very different things: New York says “money”, Los Angeles says “fun & frivolity”, Vancouver says “chill”, Vegas says “risk everything”.  Sky scrapers give a different visual style than the flat lands of flyover country.  In Something’s Gotta Give, Nancy Myers chose to set the bulk of her film in the Hamptons.  The whole visual style was drawn from the beach: white interiors, sandy-coloured clothing etc.  This emphasized Erica Barry’s (Diane Keaton) ‘pure and timid’ character versus Jack Nicholson’s ‘experienced and jaded’ character who was represented by dark New York City.  The two contrasted yet complemented one another.

Visual style should be inherent, not put on or forced and shouldn’t detract from your story. Study several films and TV shows to get a strong sense of visual style.  Look at your own show and think about how you want it to look.  Is it on the paper?  Ask people to read your script and tell you what film or show it reminds them of and why.