Introduction
In this sixth and final module, audiovisual language is approached as a process of selection and decision. Framing, cutting, arranging, repeating, showing or withholding all involve choosing between different possibilities. These choices determine what viewers notice, how they connect the images and what meaning they construct.
The video begins with a simple shared activity: a couple sorting objects between boxes marked with a heart and a skull. The same situation is then reshaped through different selections of shots and points of attention. By bringing together framing, editing, rhythm, association and performance, the module shows that audiovisual form emerges from a succession of choices rather than from a neutral recording of events.
Part of the Exploring Audiovisual Grammar curriculum, this module offers a practical exploration built around an original video and five audiovisual variations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
Understand that every audiovisual work results from a series of formal choices.
Identify what has been selected, excluded, arranged, repeated or transformed.
Analyse how different ways of filming and editing the same action affect its meaning.
Distinguish between choices involving framing, editing, sound, rhythm and performance.
Explain how a formal decision can guide the viewer’s attention and interpretation.
Watch the Video
CHOOSE Click on the link below to watch the video once without taking notes. Observe how the same sorting activity is presented five times. In each variation, what has been selected for the viewer’s attention: the couple’s interaction, the objects, visual categories, facial expressions or the creation of new arrangements? Notice what each version includes, excludes and transforms.
Watch “Video 6 - CHOOSE” on PeerTube A still from the video “CHOOSE”.
Video Analysis
One Activity, Five Ways of Choosing
The five variations do not simply show different outcomes of the sorting activity. Each one changes the information available to viewers and the way decisions become perceptible. A choice may appear as a shared process, a succession of objects, a visual classification, an exchange of reactions or an opportunity to create new combinations.
The video therefore places two forms of decision in parallel. The couple chooses what to keep, reject or transform, while the audiovisual construction chooses what to show, omit, isolate, repeat and connect. Meaning emerges from the relationship between these practical and formal decisions.
Five Variations
Explore the Five Variations Sorting as a Shared Process In a sustained two-shot, the couple takes objects from the central box one by one. They examine them, try some of them on, play with them and react to each other before deciding where they belong. The boxes marked with a heart and a skull make the alternatives visible, while the shared frame allows viewers to follow the time, gestures and interactions involved in each decision.
To observe: The sustained duration, the simultaneous presence of both characters and the way their reactions influence the sorting process.
Concepts: Long take, duration, shared frame, negotiation.
Sorting as a Material Inventory Objects are presented individually in close-up before being placed into the box. As the sequence progresses, an overhead view shows them accumulating inside it. The couple’s faces and interactions disappear, shifting attention from the emotional process of choosing to the material result of the sorting activity.
To observe: The isolation of each object, the repeated movement from table to box and the gradual accumulation seen from above.
Concepts: Close-up, repetition, accumulation, ellipsis.
Selection Through Visual Series The objects are reorganised into two visual series: first, small animal figures, then a succession of glasses. These fragments suggest that a selection has already taken place, although the sorting process itself remains largely unseen. The abrupt break in the soundtrack brings viewers back to the present moment, when the couple must decides what to do with the final object remaining from the series.
To observe: The fragmentary series of objects, the implied earlier selection, the abrupt sound cut and the return to the final decision
Concepts: Visual series, selection, ellipsis, sound cut.
Sorting Through Reactions After a brief two-shot establishes the sorting activity, alternating close-ups isolate the couple’s faces. The objects and most of the sorting gestures then remain outside the frame, while changing expressions, glances and subtle movements suggest approval, hesitation, disagreement or compromise. Viewers must infer the unseen objects and the decisions being made from the exchange of reactions.
To observe: The alternation between faces and the meanings produced by glances, pauses and changes in expression.
Concepts: Shot/reverse shot, reaction shot, off-screen space, inference.
Sorting as Playful Recombination Instead of simply deciding whether to keep or discard each object, the couple combines several of them to create temporary arrangements. Figurines are brought together, while everyday objects become supports and parts of small constructions. The sequence transforms sorting into an act of invention before the objects are returned to the box and it is closed.
To observe: The unexpected associations between objects, the collaborative gestures and the progression from selection to construction.
Concepts: Association, juxtaposition, transformation, visual composition.
What the Video Explores
Choosing what to show: Each variation selects different elements of the same activity: interaction, objects, visual series, facial expressions or playful arrangements.Choosing what to leave out: Decisions can remain partly invisible when the editing removes the sorting process, the objects or the exchanges between the characters.Choosing how to connect: Repetition, accumulation, shot/reverse shot, sound cuts and juxtaposition organise the selected fragments and guide interpretation.Choosing how to transform: Audiovisual form can turn an ordinary activity into a negotiation, an inventory, an implied earlier selection, an exchange of reactions or an act of invention.
Key Takeaway
Audiovisual language is made through choices. What is selected, excluded, ordered and connected determines not only what viewers see, but also how they understand and experience a scene.
Key Concepts
The video brings together two complementary ideas. The first examines selection as a fundamental act of audiovisual construction: every shot and edit retains certain elements while excluding others. The second explores variation, showing how different formal choices can transform the perception and meaning of the same situation.
Explore the Key Concepts Selection and Editing: Keeping or Excluding Editing involves selecting shots, excluding others and deciding their order, duration, rhythm and connections. It does not reproduce everything that was filmed but constructs a particular version from a range of possibilities. In the video, the couple sort the objects while the audiovisual form simultaneously sorts the visible material.
Selection Creates Importance
Keeping a shot, gesture, object, expression, sound or silence gives it a place and a value within the sequence. Isolating an object in close-up does not produce the same effect as showing it within the couple’s interaction or placing it in a visual series. Selection creates a hierarchy and directs the viewer’s attention.
Cuts Also Tell a Story
A cut does more than remove material. It can condense an action, conceal part of a process or connect separate fragments. In the material inventory, the objects appear individually before accumulating inside the box. The discussion and hesitation involved in sorting them disappear, leaving viewers with a succession of objects and the visible result of earlier decisions.
What Is Excluded Remains Meaningful
In the sequence organised into visual series, only fragments of an earlier selection remain. The sorting itself is largely omitted, but its existence can be inferred from the succession of figurines and glasses. In the sequence of facial reactions, the opposite occurs: the people remain visible while the objects and gestures are excluded.
Editing Can Reveal or Conceal Complexity
A version may preserve the duration and interaction involved in making a decision, or it may show only selected objects, expressions or results. Editing therefore determines how much of the process viewers can perceive and how much they must reconstruct.
Key Takeaway: Selection gives importance to what remains while allowing excluded elements to continue shaping meaning. Editing is therefore not merely a technical operation but a way of guiding the viewer’s experience.
Formal Choices and Variation: Transforming the Same Action An audiovisual scene never has only one possible form. The same action can be filmed from different distances, organised around different subjects or reconstructed through a different rhythm, soundtrack and order of shots. Each formal choice changes what viewers perceive and how they interpret the situation.
Filming Means Choosing a Way of Looking
A scene is already constructed before editing begins. Camera position, framing, distance and shot duration determine the viewer’s relationship to the action. A sustained two-shot shows the couple negotiating together, while close-ups can isolate objects or facial expressions. Each approach makes certain aspects of the situation visible and leaves others outside the frame.
Variation Reveals Different Dimensions of an Action
The five versions reorganise the same sorting activity around different centres of attention: shared interaction, material accumulation, fragmented visual series, facial reactions and playful recombination. The activity remains recognisable, but each version produces a different understanding of what choosing involves.
Rhythm and Sound Shape Perception
Repetition can turn individual objects into an inventory or a visual category. Duration can make interaction and hesitation perceptible. An abrupt sound cut can interrupt a series and return viewers to the present moment of decision. Rhythm and sound therefore influence whether choosing appears continuous, fragmented, reflective or decisive.
Objects Can Be Transformed Through Association
The meaning of an object depends on how it is framed and connected to other elements. Presented alone, it becomes an item to examine. Placed in a series, it becomes part of a category. Combined with other objects, it can become part of a temporary construction or a small imagined scene.
Formal Choices Are Choices of Meaning
Choosing a form means deciding what will become perceptible: an interaction, a material result, a visual resemblance, an emotional reaction or an inventive gesture. Form does not come after meaning as decoration; it actively participates in its construction.
Key Takeaway: Variation demonstrates that audiovisual language does not simply record an action. By changing framing, duration, rhythm, sound and association, it constructs different experiences from the same situation.
Activities
The following activities invite learners to identify formal decisions, compare different versions of the same material and experiment with selection themselves. They progress from collective analysis to collaborative annotation and practical audiovisual production.
Explore the Activities Activity 1 — Same action, Five Ways of Choosing
Type: Group analysisDuration: 45 minutesObjective: To understand how framing, editing, sound, rhythm and point of view can produce different interpretations of the same sorting activity.
Materials
The Choose video
A projector or shared screen
A board or collaborative tool
The module’s key concept materials
Instructions
Watch the complete video Share initial impressions How does your perception of the sorting activity change from one variation to another? Analyse each variation
what has been selected for the viewer’s attention;
what has been excluded or left for viewers to infer;
the main formal choices involving framing, editing, sound or rhythm;
the effect produced by those choices.
Build a collective conclusion
Trainer’s Role
Help learners distinguish the initial activity from the formal choices that transform it. Encourage them to move from impressions to precise observations: What has been retained? What has disappeared? What has been isolated, repeated or connected? How do sound and editing guide interpretation?
Variant or Extension
Divide the learners into five groups and assign one variation to each group. Ask each group to answer three questions:
What is the main formal choice?
What does this choice exclude or conceal?
What does it make more perceptible?
Activity 2 — Annotating Formal Choices: What Is Retained, Excluded or Transformed
Type: Collaborative annotation with Celluloid Duration: 1 hourObjective: To identify precisely how formal choices transform the perception of the same activity.
Preparation
Before the session, import the Choose video into Celluloid and add the following annotation prompt: “Identify moments when a formal choice transforms your perception of the sorting activity. First describe what you see or hear, then identify the technique used and explain its effect”.
Instructions
Introduce the activity Annotate individually or in pairs
What can I see or hear?
Which formal choice can I identify?
How does it affect my perception of the sorting activity?
Compare and organise the annotations
framing and camera distance;
shot duration and cuts;
inclusion and exclusion;
repetition and visual series;
sound and sound cuts;
point of view and reaction shots;
association and visual composition.
Summarise each variation
Trainer’s Role
Help learners move from an impression to an identifiable technique. Ask what has been shown, omitted, isolated, repeated or connected, and what the editing makes more perceptible or leaves viewers to infer.
Variant or Extension
Compare two annotations referring to the same moment. Discuss whether the formal choice produces a shared interpretation or different responses. This comparison demonstrates that form can strongly guide meaning while still leaving room for individual interpretation.
Activity 3 — Filming One Decision, Editing Several Versions
Type: Group productionDuration: 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hoursObjective: To experiment with how choices involving filming, editing, sound and rhythm can transform the same decision-making activity.
Materials
Smartphones or cameras
Tripods, supports or objects for stabilising the camera
A simple filming location
A selection of everyday objects
A basic editing application
A screen or projector for presenting the productions
Instructions
Choose an action Plan the versions
what will be shown;
what will be excluded;
which elements will receive the most attention;
the dominant rhythm;
the role of direct sound, silence or music;
the intended effect on viewers.
Film the material Edit the versions Present and compare
Trainer’s Role
Help groups avoid relying on explanatory dialogue or exaggerated acting. Encourage them to produce meaning through framing, duration, editing, sound, repetition and association. During the discussion, identify what each version retains, excludes, rearranges and transforms.
Variant or Extension
Give every group the same collection of shots. Each group creates a different version by choosing its own order, rhythm, soundtrack and centre of attention. Comparing the results makes the role of editing as an act of selection and decision particularly clear.
Further Viewing and Reading
The following films and readings extend the module’s exploration of selection, variation and formal decision-making. They demonstrate how audiovisual works construct meaning by choosing what to retain, exclude, repeat, rearrange or transform.
Explore the References Classic and Landmark Films François Truffaut, Day for Night , 1973
Frederick Wiseman, High School , 1968
Krzysztof Kieślowski, Blind Chance , 1987
Alain Resnais, Smoking/No Smoking , 1993
Hirokazu Kore-eda, After Life , 1998
Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier, The Five Obstructions , 2003
Popular and Contemporary Films Tom Tykwer, Run Lola Run , 1998
Peter Howitt, Sliding Doors , 1998
Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3 , 2010
Richard Ayoade, Submarine , 2010
Jim Jarmusch, Paterson , 2016
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once , 2022
Wim Wenders, Perfect Days , 2023
Bibliography Villain, D. (1991). Le montage au cinéma . Cahiers du cinéma.
Reisz, K., & Millar, G. (1968). The technique of film editing (2nd ed.). Focal Press.
Dancyger, K. (2026). The technique of film and video editing: History, theory, and practice (7th ed.). Routledge.
Pearlman, K. (2009). Cutting rhythms: Shaping the film edit . Focal Press.
Orpen, V. (2003). Film editing: The art of the expressive . Wallflower Press.
Gaudreault, A., & Jost, F. (2017). Le récit cinématographique: Films et séries télévisées (3rd ed.). Armand Colin.
Suggestions for Trainers
Select short excerpts in which formal decisions are clearly perceptible. Begin with a simple question: What has this sequence chosen to retain, exclude or transform?
Compare contrasting strategies: preserving a shared action in a sustained shot, isolating objects, arranging fragments into a visual series, withholding objects to emphasise facial reactions, or creating meaning through unexpected associations.
Encourage learners to connect each effect to an identifiable choice involving framing, duration, editing, sound, repetition or point of view. The aim is to demonstrate that choosing is not only a narrative theme: it is the foundation of audiovisual construction.
Conclusion
This module has shown that audiovisual form is created through a succession of decisions. By selecting different shots, sounds, durations, points of view and relationships between objects, the five variations transform the same sorting activity into distinct viewing experiences.
As the final module in the course, Choose also brings together the principles explored throughout the six videos. The six modules — CUT, OBSERVE, HEAR, CONNECT, SHOW / HIDE and CHOOSE — all involve selecting among possibilities. Understanding audiovisual grammar therefore means learning to identify these choices, analyse their effects and experiment with alternative ways of constructing meaning.
