The aesthetics of the visual form in Bahram Tavakkoli’s films (analysis of three movies: Walking in the mist, Here without me, and Yellow shallow sky)

The visual form of a film is the construction of visual elements. This framework is used to advance the story, giving meaning and conveying insight and feeling to the film. In film, there are techniques and rules for arranging visual elements. These techniques are not changeless and fixed laws, but they change according to a film structure or director’s style. This research is intended to generally study visual structure in films and in particular, Iranian films. Bahram Tavakkoli is an excellent example of this study because his works belong to the stylish part of Iranian movies. The main reason for this study is gathering a proper knowledge of visual elements in film. This research uses a neo-formalist approach for studying the visual form. It means that it emphasizes the dynamic structure of the film which becomes complete by the audience. Neo-formalists emphasize the importance of the form in film, and they believe it is something ordered, and rule based. Every element of this structure must be in relation to other elements making a construction. Even the meaning of a film is part of this structure. Form and meaning are intertwined, so we cannot separate them. Neo-formalists also emphasize on the audience’s perception system. They think all attendees have inner perceptive systems which help them to gather data from films. Any formal structure cretaes some expectations for the audience. So viewers, dynamically participate in perceiving, analyzing and memorizing data and information they gather from films. We can see this dynamic structure in Bahram Tavakoli’s films. By concentrating on the point of view, time and space, using shallow depth of field, telephoto and wide-angle lenses, high and low key lighting, low saturated colors, changing hues and subjective spaces, Bahram Tavakkoli gives his story-telling process, a stylish visual characteristic. The first step of this study is analyzing the meaning of form according to neo-formalistic approach. Then the relations between visual form and story structure will be analyzed with Boris Block’s theory of Visual Structure. It suggests that a film divides into three separate parts; Exposition, conflict, and resolution. Exposition is part of a film in which characters and spaces are introduced to the audience. In conflict, there are struggles between protagonist and antagonist. Resolution is everything that happens after the climax. Also, every film has some important points, like the beginning of the crisis and the climax. All of these parts and points have their visual characteristics which are described in this text. After setting up a theoretical base for analyzing images in film, we study Bahram Tavakoli’s films. There are three films that we review; A Walk in the Fog (2010); Here without me (2011); The Shallow Yellow Sky (2013).