An overview of Bruce Block's concepts for filmmakers.

1. Block's Visual Components
Space, Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Movement,
and Rhythm
Each of these Components can have Contrast
(Difference) or Affinity (Similarity).
Contrast = Greater Visual Intensity
Affinity = Lesser Visual Intensity

2. Space
● Four types of Space
● Deep
● Flat
● Limited
● Ambiguous

3. Deep Space has more Contrast
● Depth Cues include
● Size difference
● Perspective lines
● Diffusion
● Diagonal Movement
● Shape change
● Tonal Separation
● Overlap

4. Deep Space
What depth cues are evident here?

5. Deep Space
What depth cues are evident here?

6. Flat Space has more Affinity
● Flatness Cues
● Size constancy
● Horizontal & Vertical Lines, lack of convergence
● Consistent Texture
● Tonal Affinity
● Horizontal and vertical Movement

7. Flat Space
What flatness cues are evident here?

8. Flat Space

9. Limited and Ambiguous Space
● Limited Space is a blend of Deep and Flat
Cues: Multiple Planes of Flat Space.
● Ambiguous Space is either an mix of cues or a
lack of cues. Darkness, reflections, and
disorienting camera angles often create
ambiguous space.

10. Line
● Line has the following elements:
● Quality (Straight or Curved)
● Direction of Movement (Horizontal/Vertical or
Diagonal)
● Orientation

11. Contrast of Line

12. Affinity of Line

13. What kinds of line properties are
on display?

14. How about here?

15. Shape
● The basic shapes are circle, square, and
triangle.

16. Contrast of Shape
● For Block, maximum contrast is between circle
and triangle.

17. Affinity of Shape

18. What shapes are at play in this
image?

19. How about this image?

20. Tone
● Tone is a range of brightness, from light to dark.
Tone can be controlled by art design, lighting, or
exposure. It can be used to reveal, or to conceal.

21. Contrast of Tone
● Silhouettes have very high tonal contrast.

22. Affinity of Tone

23. Tonal Contrast

24. Tonal Affinity

25. Color
● Color can be broken down into three
components
● Hue/Chroma: Quality of the color. The color of the
color!
● Saturation: Purity of the color.
● Brightness/Luminance/Value: Addition of Black or
White to the Hue.
● Contrast and affinity of color can be based on
either Hue, Saturation, or Brightness

26. Color Systems
● A color system is just a way of arranging colors. The RGB
system or Additive System, for example, applies to light-based
media, including photography and screens, and is typically
arranged by wavelength of light.
You might also hear about the CMYK or Subtractive system.
CMYK applies to pigment-based media, such as paint or print.
The old Red-Yellow-Blue system from your Kindergarten days
is a version of CMYK.

27. An RGB Color Wheel

28. Contrast and Affinity of Hue
Cool Colors
Warm Colors
Affinity of Hue can refer to all colors being the same, or colors being next
to one another on the color wheel. An image of all cool colors has a lot of
affinity of hue, as does an image of all warm colors.
Contrast of Hue refers to colors being different. Specifically, maximum
contrast occurs between colors that are opposite on the color wheel,
such as Red and Green or Blue and Orange.

29. Contrast and Affinity of Saturation
Affinity of Saturation can occur when either the image is
made of many full, pure colors or when the image is made of
many gray, subdued colors.
Contrast of Saturation occurs highly saturated elements
share the frame with desaturated elements
Affinity of Saturation Contrast of Saturation. Notice how
the contrast draws out the diamond.

30. Contrast and Affinity of Brightness
● This is basically the same as tone, only applied
to color
Affinity of Tone Contrast of Tone

31. What elements of color are at play?

32. How about this image?

33. And this image?

34. More Color Resources
● Worqk.com is a terrific resource for information
about color, color theory, and color
combinations.

35. In Summary
Contrast = Greater Visual Intensity
Affinity = Lesser Visual Intensity
● It's easy to get caught up in the abstract
details of Visual Components and Contrast
and Affinity. The idea is to control these
elements in order for your images, and
ultimately your stories, to have greater impact.