Who comes up with the visuals?

[SunnyDuc]

Hi,

Currently wrestling with the dialogue for a 2 page political speech (first page locked in and still playing around with second page).

My question is, is there someone who's job is to come up with the visuals to match the words?

Can I just forget about what the visuals are and purely focus on getting the words right? up until now I keep worrying about what the visuals are for the words but maybe there is someone else who can quickly come up with visuals for the words? If so what is their role called? I love the really arty stuff on vimeo visually...especially where the concepts just flow naturally unlike getting slammed in ones face via television ads..

Have booked in for a basic introduction course to the whole film making process in 10 days but I can't wait that long for this question...

Thanks

David

 

[Brooksy]

Well, you asked a whole lot right there. When you are starting with the script you should only be focusing on the story. It all starts with the written word. Even the greatest cinematographers, who only deal with the visuals, will state that the story has to be good first before anything else can be done. If you are thinking visually during writing your story is going to suffer. There are some movies out there where if you watch them you can tell when one scene was pretty much based around one shot that the writer thought would look cool. Usually those are pretty bad scenes if not the entire movie is bad.

Once the story is written then the director, who ever that may be, would work with a storyboarding artist to come up with how he/she wants the shots composed and cut together. Maybe even you bring in the Cinematographer during that process for input. I can't say for sure because I only know the way I do it. I am not sure how it works in Hollywood. I am a striving cinematographer, so I normally get the script and do all the storyboarding myself. Not sure that it entirely proper.

Usually, I believe, the cinematographer then comes up with a look for the film to match the tone that the director has discussed with him during pre production. He also comes up with a plan on how to shoot the shots that the storyboarding artist has put to paper.

So that is how I believe it is all done and how I would do it as a writer. But I definitely wouldn't worry about the visuals while writing it. Make the word good and the rest will fall into place.

 

[PaulGriffith]

Well, a speech is different from a script. It's for a commercial or is someone standing and giving it with video behind him?

I suppose whoever is producing it gets the final word visually. Though most commercial (advertisement) scripts do list specifically what you see on screen.

 

[SunnyDuc]

Thank you for the input Brooksy & PaulGriffith, it's a big relief knowing I can completely let go of the visual side to the director/cinematographer.

There won't be any visuals behind someone talking, just visuals with a voice and other sounds and music if required.

Awesome!

Thanks

David

 

[rogypro]

Whenever i am writing a story, if i think about the shots, it somehow slows me down and makes me think a little more realisticly. To me that's bad because as i think on how difficult the shot will probably be, so i change my story to have an easier shot. "
If i focus on just the story, on the other hand, i let my mind wonder where ever it wants to go, and when it comes time to start planning and framing the picture with story boarding, i try to figure out how to maintain my story with all the complicated shots.