Daniel Gregoire (l), Steve Yamamoto, Anupam Das, Colin Green, Brian Pohl, Chris Edwards, Ron Frankel, Laurent Lavigne and VFXWorld editor Bill Desowitz. All photos courtesy of Nicki La Rosa, Art Directors Guild.

Last year, I was approached by Production Designer Alex McDowell (Watchmen, Bee Movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) to moderate a roundtable discussion he was organizing about previs, to be held at The Art Directors Guild and sponsored by the ADG & ASC Joint Technology Committee. Naturally, I was thrilled to participate in the Dec. 15 event, and proceeded to work out the details with ADG President Tom Walsh and Nicki La Rosa, the tireless ADG Technology Coordinator.

The panel participants turned out to be a who's who of previs stars: Daniel Gregoire & Brad Alexander of Halon; Brian Pohl & David Dozoretz of Persistence of Vision; Colin Green of Pixel Liberation Front; Ron Frankel of Proof; Chris Edwards of The Third Floor; Steve Yamamoto of Unit Eleven; Laurent Lavigne of Versailles; Anupam Das of EA; and Rpin Suwannath, who worked on the first two Chronicles of Narnia movies and has now made the transition to directing the upcoming feature from Walden Media, The Lotus Caves.

Rpin Suwannath has made the transition to directing from previs with the upcoming feature, The Lotus Caves, an adaptation of the John Christopher fantasy novel.

Unfortunately, McDowell, who serves as co-chair of the ADG Technology Committee, couldn't make it due to a last minute change in the Watchmen shooting schedule. As a result, I tried to focus as much attention as possible on the role of previs as a design tool since this was an ADG-focused event. Besides, as many of our VFXWorld readers already know, McDowell strongly believes that previs is a central tool in the change from traditional linear production into a centralized, non-linear virtual production space, and that there is a need to remove the separate distinction between pre-production, production and post. And, so, the central question becomes: How can previs be used to educate producers into a new global filmmaking mindset?

However, the roundtable wound up addressing a number of fascinating topics and concerns about the role of previs and how it can be improved. So, what I thought I'd do is provide a brief snapshot of this unique exchange among colleagues and competitors. The first part consists of an overview while the second part, in keeping with GDC next month, will focus on Das' game-related comments about his work at EA.

Gregoire, whose most recent project is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and who refers to previs as "the wild, wild west," discussed the current state of previs: "We're all using 3D software that's at a high enough level to compete with visual effects studios. We're all trying to push the medium forward in terms of being able to interface with a visual effects house or with a production design team, the visual effects or the special effects people... the stunt guys, everybody else in the production.