popping out of their head. This is often employed in Personification techniques, in which signers use a portion of their body to bring an object to life and show its emotions. Examples of cinematic devices Camera angles such as Straight Angle Shot or Eye-Level Shot: The individual signing faces forward, signing as if a camera were filming at the signers eye level. Cuts such as role-shifting to portray dialogue: Usually used to portray differences in characters in stories or to move from scene to scene. The signer may move their body from facing left to facing right to show this change in dialogue. Distance shots or shot sizes such as close ups: Used to establish distances between objects or characters within a story. Signs may move from framing a whole place to a specific location or object within that place. Mobile Framing or Following Shot: Mimics the movement of cameras in film. This helps set the pace of which objects or individuals within the story are moving. This technique can also be used to emphasize certain scenes within a story such, for example, using slow motion to depict an action. Lens zoom: Similar to lens zooms in film, hands move forwards or away from the audience to demonstrate an object or individual becoming larger or smaller with respect to the perspective of the story. Visual Vernacular Visual Vernacular is a form of ASL performance developed by Bernard Bragg that draws heavily on cinematic techniques. He chose the name because it uses the vernacular language of cinematic storytelling. Visual vernacular is an expressive and artistic form of sign language storytelling. The storyteller uses visual techniques such as role-shifting, facial expressions, and miming to tell a story in a visually expressive way. The use of iconic signs, or signs that look like what they represent, in combination with role-shifting and other techniques used in visual vernacular allow stories to be universally understood. Even if the story is told by a signer who signs in ASL, this story could theoretically be understood by viewers who use international sign languages, and even hearing individuals who understand no sign language. Rather than simply telling a story, a sign performer uses visual vernacular in order to become the story through role shifting and miming techniques, translating the story into the visual space. Visual Vernacular is an important tool in ASL literature, particularly in poetry that is