THE STORYTELLER

Pre-Visualization and Visual Screenwriting

 

• Animation • Visual Screenwriting • Storyboarding • Concept Art • Pre-visualization

 

 

 

Film is a visual medium. It is a show and tell process; the less verbose your dialogues, the better the experience and engagement for the audience.

 

Once the outline is ready, sourcing visual references and starting the process of visualising the film and its characters will help drafting the screenplay more effectively. The language and tone of the script must reflect the genre and pace of the film. The reader must see the film play out when reading the script. This is possible only if the writer is able to visualize the film when writing it.

 

Various visualisation tools can be applied based on the nature of the material to maximize the writer's grip on the palette of the film. If the director is on board at this early stage, then it's that much better to already bring their vision to the film.

 

With every draft and session the visual elements can be locked in and applied across various departments with the involvement of the heads; the cinematographer and production designer playing the most important role in finalising the look. Depending on the genre, the complexity of the visual boards and concept art will vary.

 

"Seeing is believing."

 

If the film is a romantic comedy, of course, the involvement of this stage of development will be minimal. On the other hand, if it is a thriller or an action film, then this would be a very critical stage in the development of the film. In either case, the more prepared you are with the look and sequencing of shots, the better your productivity on the set.

 

It is a great investment and the returns are manyfold: the visual development phase is far more effective as a pitching tool than just a synopsis, outline, or screenplay; you have a superior product in your hands to start with; your planning and execution during the production phase will be that much more effective; the post production phase, depending on the nature of your film will also run far more smoothly, because you'll have engaged the team early on and the shots have been planned so there are not many surprises in the box.

 

All in all, this process is not optional, and the more you rely on it, the better your command on the material.

