how visualize???

[msteinert]

Good ways to visualize is learn with screenplay gods. Movies like Metropolis, Blade Runner, Chaplin, or any actual good movie of the theme of interest are a beginning.

Study art history, photography, practice traditional draw and painting, trainning your eyes to visualize how to better accomphish some situation. This will help when you need to compose a scene, foreground and background elements, and so on. Look for books that explain production workflow, or watch at studios sites (Pixar post some material about it).

Cheers.

[Stage]

I teach filmmaking to adults, high school and middle school students. The question I get most often is, "How do you 'see' these scenes on the page the way they will look on screen?" I never have just one answer to this question because it's a rather complex topic. However, I have shown films and passed out the corresponding screenplay and the responses have been very positive. The students can see what the original intent of the writer was and compare it to the finished film. This isn't always the best way to help them visualize shots because many screenplays are deliberately vague in their descriptions to allow the Director and Cinematographer room for interpretation.

My suggestion would be to get a hold of a screenplay - shooting draft if possible - and read along while watching the film. Upon second or third viewing, you'll begin to see the "layers" of the film begin to reveal techniques hidden in the first viewing. Pay particular attention to the way shots are framed and composed - these reveal methods the Director uses to bring about setting and characterization. See if the screenwriter "hints" at these things, since he won't be calling out shots in his writing. Look for physical descriptions of characters in the screenplay and compare those to what the wardrobe and casting departments do on screen. Take notice of any parenthetical () notes in the dialogue and watch what the actors do (or don't do) with those lines. If there are any lines in the screenplay about what a character might be thinking, look for ways the Director uses lighting, sound, camera angles and visual cues or symbols to represent those thoughts. Reaction shots can reveal clues about how supporting characters feel about the main characters and vice versa. Things the screenwriter may have put in the screenplay to help guide the Director in his or her choices.

A note I try to help my students remember is that screenwriting is an "interpretative art", i.e., it's waiting for another artist to come along and reconfigure it into another form. That's why Film is consider a collaborative art, it requires many artists to produce a finished piece. Unless you're planning to write, direct, shoot and produce you're own work, don't confine yourself to writing explicit descriptions that are so rigid that no one can deviate from your "vision". Leave room for the other artists.

I truly hope that the above helped and that I didn't step on anyone else's toes with my academia!

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.