| abstract
| - The audience of a movie will know only what they can see and hear. This means that nothing really exists in a movie unless you can see or hear it (because if it does, you're going to have to explain why it was Behind the Black). As a result, a kind of accepted audio-visual shorthand has been created over many years, to help the audience understand what they're looking at and what's going on. Tropes based on this phenomenon include:
* All-Natural Gem PolishGems are naturally shiny and pre-cut so that the audience can recognize them.
* Age Is RelativeCharacters who are more competent will also look older/more mature.
* The Air Not ThereYou can't see air; therefore, it does not exist.
* As You KnowThe characters already know this exposition, but the viewers don't, so it has to be stated onscreen.
* Audible SharpnessIt's easy to tell when a blade is sharp because it makes a "sharp noise."
* Beeping ComputersComputers beep so that you can tell they're doing something.
* Behind the BlackAnything that's offscreen is invisible.
* Bishonen LineThere's only so many weird tentacles and extra eyes and such to add to a character design before they all blend together. At that point, if you want to make a clearly visible transformation, you have to remove all those weird features and go back to a humanoid design.
* Briffits and SqueansStationary images have to do something to represent motion.
* Bullet SparksBullets spark when they ricochet to make it obvious where they hit.
* Calling Your AttacksYou can tell this guy is using a special attack because he's shouting the attack's name while he's using it.
* Cartoon CheeseCheese is always immediately recognizable by a distinctive shape and color.
* Chainsaw GoodChainsaws are flashy and make a lot of noise, so they must be really powerful.
* Concealment Equals CoverIf you can't be seen, you can't be hit.
* Convection, SchmonvectionFire and lava are only dangerous if you touch them directly.
* Convulsive SeizuresIf a character has a seizure, the writers will make it the most visible kind of seizure.
* Cower PowerYou can tell a character is terrified by their exaggerated cowering.
* Culture BlindThe audience probably doesn't know about foreign cultural norms, so the characters will be clueless as well.
* Do Not Touch the Funnel CloudIf you don't touch the visible part of a tornado, the most it can do is whip your hair around a little.
* Dramatic StutterA clear, auditory representation of a character's shock.
* Editorial SynaesthesiaNon-visual senses like smell and pain have to have some form of visual representation.
* Ermine Cape EffectFancy clothing is an easy way for us to tell which characters are royalty.
* Every Bullet Is a TracerBullets leave visible trails in the air to make it easy to tell which way they went.
* Exact Progress BarEverything has a progress bar, even if it logically shouldn't, so the viewers know how close it is to being done.
* Extreme Graphical RepresentationComputers use flashy, unnecessary graphics.
* Flash of PainYou can tell a video game character just got damaged because they briefly flashed a different color.
* Fluorescent FootprintsWhen you're tracking someone, their trail will glow brightly so the audience can see it too.
* Frickin' Laser BeamsLasers behave in unusual ways that make them more visible.
* Half-Identical TwinsFraternal twins need to be (nearly) identical too, or the audience won't recognize them as twins.
* He's Dead, JimThere will always be an obvious cue so we know the exact moment when a character dies.
* Highly-Visible NinjaNinjas are stealthy, but they can't be so stealthy that the audience doesn't know they're there.
* High-Speed Missile DodgeAs long as you don't touch the rocket, you'll be okay.
* Hollywood DarknessIt's dark, but not so dark that we can't see what's happening.
* Hologram Projection ImperfectionHolograms have little flickers and static effects and such so that it's obvious they're not real.
* Kung FoleyPhysical blows make loud noises so the audience knows when someone gets hit.
* Laser HallwayA type of security system that is conveniently easy to see.
* Laser SightSnipers use laser sights so that the audience can tell where they're aiming.
* Luckily, My Powers Will Protect MeIf it's not visually obvious that your superpowers are protecting you, you'd better state it explicitly in dialogue.
* Made of IronThe audience can't feel the character's pain, so the character won't be incapacitated by what should be serious injuries.
* Mid-Air BobbingWhen a character is bobbing up and down, you know they're floating in the air and not just misaligned with the background.
* Morphic ResonanceWhen a character shapeshifts, there are visual cues that make it easy to tell they're the same person.
* Motive RantIf the writers want the audience to know the bad guy's motives, he has to actually explain them at some point.
* Narrating the ObviousFor the benefit of the audience, having characters narrate events that should be extremely obvious to them.
* National StereotypesHow else will you know that it's foreign?
* No Peripheral VisionThe camera doesn't have peripheral vision, so neither do the characters.
* Not the Fall That Kills YouAs long as you don't splat into the ground, you'll be okay.
* Offscreen InertiaAs long as a character is offscreen, it's assumed that they continue doing whatever it was we last saw them doing.
* Offscreen TeleportationOffscreen characters are in a sort of limbo that allows them to reappear wherever they like when they come back onscreen.
* Outrun the FireballAs long as you can escape the visible blast, you won't be hurt by the invisible shockwaves that would tear you to bits in real life.
* Power GlowsPower is represented with a highly-visible glowing effect.
* Psychic NosebleedA strictly-mental injury is represented with the more-visible effect of a nosebleed.
* Puny ParachuteParachutes are small enough to fit on the screen.
* Radio VoiceYou can tell the voice is coming from the radio because it's slightly distorted.
* Repeating So the Audience Can HearWe can't hear the other end of his telephone conversation, but that's okay because he'll repeat it back for us.
* See No Evil Hear No EvilIf it isn't visible, it isn't audible either.
* Soft WaterWhy shouldn't water be soft? It looks pretty soft!
* Some Kind of Force FieldA visible disruption effect in the air, usually with appropriate sound effects, accompanies a force field.
* Sounding It OutA character reads something out loud for the benefit of the audience, even though there's nobody else around to hear.
* Space Is NoisyThere is sound in space because the viewers want to be able to hear what's going on.
* Stock Visual MetaphorsAn index of visual shorthands that help the audience understand what's going on.
* Technicolor ToxinPoison is brightly-colored so it's easy to tell that it's poisonous.
* Tertiary Sexual CharacteristicsFor obvious reasons, you can't just display a character's genitalia, so you've got to find some way to make it clear who's a boy and who's a girl.
* Theatrics of PainActors exaggerate pain for the benefit of the audience.
* Traveling Pipe BulgeWhen a character is traveling through a pipe, the pipe will bulge to show their location.
* Viewer-Friendly InterfaceComputer interfaces are designed for the viewers watching them on TV, not the characters who are actually using them.
* Visible InvisibilityThe audience needs to be able to see what an invisible character is doing.
* Voiceover LetterWe can't see the actual text of the letter, so instead we hear a voiceover of the person who wrote it.
* Voices Are MentalIf characters swap bodies, their new body will talk in their old voice so that you can tell it's the same character.
* Walk in Chime InA character just entering the set has somehow heard what the characters already there were talking about before they walked in--the audience knows, after all, so the characters should too.
* When It Rains, It PoursThere's no point in having it rain so lightly that the audience can't even tell it's raining, so if it's gonna rain, it rains a lot.
* Worm SignWhen something is tunneling underground, you can tell where it is because it will displace dirt or break floorboards on the surface.
* X-Ray SparksYou can tell he's being electrocuted because his skeleton is showing through his skin. A lot of these violate Real Life physics because Reality Is Unrealistic. But Tropes Are Not Bad. Remember, this is in consideration to the audience, so if you're looking for realism, go check out naturalism, aka Slice of Life. The Rule of Perception is the whole reason Foley artists and sound mixers exist. Related to The Coconut Effect, in that the Rule of Perception is often what causes the initial drift away from reality.
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