David Fincher on the set of Fight Club with Helena Bonham Carter. © 20th Century Fox.

During a pause in a recent motion capture session for a commercial, a director walks over to an artist sitting at a nearby desktop computer. On the monitor a flat-shaded 3D animatic of the spot plays in a loop. One can immediately see from the animation the touch of a master visual storyteller.

After reviewing the animatic on the monitor, the director speaks in his characteristic easygoing tone. "Trim three frames from the tail of the fourth shot," he says, "and add two frames to the head of the shot before it." The previs artist makes the changes and in less than a minute is ready for the director to take another look. He seems satisfied with the changes. Another shot in the animatic catches the director's eye. "Let's reframe the shot so that the character's head is more prominent on the left." The previs artist obliges, making the changes in the scene and re-rendering it. A few minutes later, the artist cuts the new render into the animatic and calls the director over for another looks. The process continues...

Previsualization has become an important tool for forward-thinking directors. For example, David Fincher's work with previsualization roughly parallels its rise from a visual effects planning tool to a key pre-production process linking the director, production designer and previsualization supervisor. In Fight Club, the director used previs to develop visual effects shots. Later, in Panic Room, he used previs to plan complex camera moves (as well as visual effects shots) on an intricate multi-level set. More and more directors are turning to previs specialists to capture their vision for the production and communicate it to the production team. Reliable 3D graphics software, increased graphics processing power and artist expertise have helped to encourage the growth of previsualization.

Would You Like Previs with That?
Let’s be clear: previs is not the only solution available to directors for designing the production or communicating their evolving vision to key players on the production team. Previs supplements longstanding pre-production tools and methods used since the beginning of filmmaking (for example: thumbnail sketches, storyboards and concept art).

By definition, previs cannot show details of color, light, objects, tone, actors and props. Previs shines at showing moving spatial and temporal relationships between the camera and people, objects and environments. Previs allows directors to switch from a first person experiental “camera’s eye” view to a third-person analytical “God’s eye” view of the digital or physical production environment.

Ron Frankel worked on Fincher’s Panic Room. © Columbia Pictures.

As Ron Frankel, previs supervisor (Panic Room and the upcoming Terminal) and founder of Proof Inc., explains: “Previs is about planning, stage time is about execution. Previs is architecture for films. With previs, you’re simultaneously designing and engineering. When you are working with a director, you are in camera POV. You are trying to convey a full range of emotions. Then you snap out to third person, [and] you are analyzing the experiences you just created.”

So what determines whether or not a director previses a shot? The simple rule is that if it’s complex, a director should consider using previs. Complex shots include, but are not limited to, visual effects shots, shots involving multiple stunt players and vehicles, elaborate camera moves and large-scale battle sequences. Depending on the needs of the production, teams can previs everything from a single shot to the entire production, with most previs work falling somewhere in the middle.