Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
A journey is told with a series ordered by a narrative axis, that is, by time or by a theme, that balances wide, medium and close frames and place, people and detail. The breathing frames between dense frames set up the series' rhythm, and an opening and a closing give it a frame. The same person's skin is kept consistent throughout the series by a reference frame, while different people keep their own tones.
Learning goal
From the thousands of frames that come back from a journey, you will be able to build a twelve-frame series that tells a place and a road. You will decide whether to order the series by the journey's time or by a theme, and see how this decision changes the story. Starting with an opening frame, you will place details, people and views between one another; you will balance wide, medium and close frames throughout the series. Between the dense frames you will put calm frames where the viewer can catch their breath, and close the series with a feeling or a question. You will make sure that in frames of the same person shot in different light, their skin stays the same color throughout the series, while different people keep their own tones.
The question
On the tour's last evening, your friend opens their computer on the guesthouse terrace. A week's two thousand frames are on the screen: the bakery, the market, the olive groves, the woman in the courtyard, the wedding, the ferry, the chapel, the cyclists, countless views. On the club's page, though, there is room for only twelve frames. Your friend picks the twelve frames they like most and puts them side by side, but the series stands not like a journey but like a gallery: four sunsets one after another, two portraits side by side, all wide or all close. How do you tell a journey?
Context
In the story structure lesson you built how a series places the viewer in the location with an opening frame, moves toward a peak moment and ends with a closing frame (Lesson 23.2). In the sequencing lesson you tried a frame's line, color or gaze connecting to the next, that is, the visual transition, and two frames resembling each other, the form echo (Lesson 23.3). And while walking around the town you had gathered small cues like door knockers, loaves coming out of a stone oven and peppers spread on a wall (Lesson T.1).
A travel series uses all these tools, but with one difference: a journey has its own time and its own road. A series can follow this road, or set it aside and build a theme. In either case, the twelve most striking frames one by one are often not the best twelve-frame series.
Simple explanation
By what is the series ordered?
The narrative axis is the order by which a travel series sequences its frames. The time axis follows the journey day by day: arrival, the first morning, the market, the wedding, the island, the return. The viewer joins the journey and sees things change as the road goes on. The theme axis, on the other hand, leaves time aside and follows an idea: bread and the table, hands and work, white walls and blue, or a place's mornings. Even if the frames come from different days, they are tied to each other around a theme.
Which axis to choose depends on where and to whom the series will be shown. For a club page the time axis is usually natural; those who took part relive their own journey. For a magazine or an exhibition, a theme can carry a stronger idea. The two can also be used together: a series moving along the time axis gains a rhythm with a theme repeating inside it, for example a loaf of bread at every stop.
How are the frames balanced?
Distance balance is the spread throughout the series of the wide, medium and close frames in a series, that is, the views, the scenes and the details. Four wide views coming one after another tire the viewer and make each one less interesting than the one before. After a wide view, a medium frame of a person, and after it a detail, keep the series alive by carrying the viewer's eye near and far.
This balance includes all four parts of the journey too: place, people, detail and movement. If a series is built only from views it turns into a postcard album without people, and if only from portraits, into a catalog of faces. Lining up the frames side by side at a small size and writing a letter beside each for its distance and type shows the imbalance at once.
Where does the series catch its breath?
A breathing frame is a calm, plain frame that says little, placed between the dense, crowded or emotional frames in a series: a misty sea, an empty road, the shadow of a wall, a cup of coffee. These frames don't have to be strong on their own; their job is to give the viewer time to digest the previous frame and prepare for the next. Like the silences in a piece of music, they set up the series' rhythm.
In a series, the same person appears several times in different light: in the noon sun, under a coffeehouse's yellow lamp, at sunset. If the skin's color changes from frame to frame in these frames, the viewer has trouble recognizing the same person and the series falls apart. Choosing a reference frame and bringing the same person's skin in the other frames closer to it keeps them recognizable throughout the series. But this doesn't mean pulling everyone to the same tone; different people keep the color of their own skin.
Visual evidence
From the two thousand frames, your friend first chooses sixty, then lines them up on the time axis. Their first frame is the coast coming closer to the island from the ferry's deck, that is, an opening. Then a detail, bread coming out of the bakery; then a scene, the market; then a portrait, the floury hands of the woman in the courtyard.
They bring the four sunsets down to a single frame: the reverse view frame of the faces looking at the sun in front of the chapel. Between the wedding and the market they put a breathing frame: an empty village road in the morning mist. Lining up the frames side by side at a small size, they write a letter beside each: W, M, C. Seeing three close frames one after another, they put a wide frame in place of one.
The club's dark-skinned cyclist appears three times in the series: on the slope in the noon sun, at the backgammon table in the coffeehouse, and in front of the chapel at sunset. In the coffeehouse frame her skin has shifted to yellow, at sunset to orange. Your friend takes the sunset frame as the reference and brings the two frames closer to it; the cyclist is now the same warm brown in all three frames, while her freckled friend keeps her own pink tone. The series closes with a misty frame of the island moving away from the return ferry.
Common mistakes
Common mistakePicking the most striking frames one by one and putting them side by side.
The series looks not like a journey but like a gallery. The fix: choose a narrative axis and order the frames by it.
Common mistakePutting frames from the same distance or of the same type one after another.
The viewer gets tired. The fix: balance wide, medium and close frames, and place, people and detail, throughout the series.
Common mistakeLeaving the skin color as it is in frames of the same person shot in different light.
The person looks like someone else from frame to frame. The fix: choose a reference frame and bring the same person's skin closer to it, while keeping different people's tones.
Summary
A journey is told with a series ordered by a narrative axis, that is, by time or by a theme, that balances wide, medium and close frames and place, people and detail. The breathing frames between dense frames set up the series' rhythm, and an opening and a closing give it a frame. The same person's skin is kept consistent throughout the series by a reference frame, while different people keep their own tones.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will build a twelve-frame story from the frames of a trip or a day.
- Choose sixty frames from a trip or a day, then decide on a narrative axis: time, or a theme?
- Order twelve frames with an opening and a closing; write the letter W, M or C beside each frame, look at the distance balance and add at least one breathing frame.
- If a person appears more than once in the series, choose a reference frame and bring their skin in the other frames closer to it; keep different people's tones separate.
Check yourself
- Does the series read like a gallery, or like a journey?
- Are wide, medium and close frames spread in balance throughout the series?
- Is the same person recognizable and the same color in all the frames?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Narrative axis | The order by which a travel series sequences its frames: the journey's time or a theme. |
| Distance balance | The balanced spread of wide, medium and close frames throughout a series. |
| Breathing frame | A calm, plain frame placed between dense frames in a series that lets the viewer catch their breath. |
Mini quiz
1. What is the difference between the time axis and the theme axis?
- A) The time axis follows the journey day by day, the theme axis follows an idea
- B) The time axis contains only views
- C) The theme axis contains only portraits
- D) There is no difference between them
2. Why can four wide views one after another be a problem?
- A) Because the files get bigger
- B) Because the colors are spoiled
- C) They tire the viewer and each one looks less interesting than the one before
- D) Because the opening frame is lost
3. What is a breathing frame's job?
- A) To be the strongest frame of the series
- B) To give the viewer time to digest the previous frame and prepare for the next
- C) To open the series
- D) To show only people
4. How is the skin of a person who appears several times in the series kept consistent?
- A) All the people are pulled to the same tone
- B) The frames are turned black and white
- C) Nothing is done
- D) A reference frame is chosen and the same person's skin in the other frames is brought closer to it
Answers
- A — One makes the road's time the series' backbone, the other a thought.
- C — Repeating the same distance locks the eye to a single range and the series flattens.
- B — A calm frame separates the dense frames like a silence in the rhythm.
- D — The reference frame keeps the skin that changes in different light belonging to the same person.
Summary card
- The most striking frames one by one aren't the best series.
- Narrative axis: time, or a theme?
- Distance balance: wide, medium, close; place, people, detail.
- Breathing frames set the rhythm; an opening and a closing give it a frame.
- The same person's skin by a reference frame; different people in their own tone.
Bridge to the next lesson
On the return ferry, when your friend opens the laptop they see a warning on the screen: one of the cards can't be read. The two days on the island are on that card; they had thought of backing it up but never got around to it. Their heart races. How do you protect your photos while traveling? The next lesson takes up setting up a backup routine on the road using cards, the cloud and the laptop together.