Doing Previs
Previs teams typically consist of one to five people working in close proximity to the director. This team may consist of a previs supervisor plus one or more previs animators. In some cases, the previs supervisor serves as the previs animator — and may perform other tasks such as visual effects supervision. Previs teams typically use off the shelf 3D graphics tools such as Maya, Lightwave, Houdini, Softimage XSI, 3ds max and Poser, plus editing tools such as Speed Razor and Premiere.

The previs team comes on board the project very soon after the director. A typical previs session is very much like a storyboard session: the director talks and the previs team draws. Depending on the complexity of the shot and the director’s ability to convey direction to the previs team, previs update can take minutes or hours.

The previs supervisor’s first duty is educating the director about the benefits and limitations of previs. Top previs specialists try hard not to oversell previs. The previs team’s next task is translating the director’s “internal” vision of the story (or the complex parts of it) and storyboards into an “external” visual representation of the story.

Because directors can previs sequences in any order, the process allows them to revisit and tweak shots as more information becomes available. Fincher, for example, routinely works with his previs team during downtime in physical production, trimming a few of the previs frames here, adding frames there, recomposing a shot and so on. Commercial director Andrew Hardaway says: “I make a creative decision and then I put a pin in it, and then I make another creative decision and put a pin it that and so on. I work across the canvas of the project and allow the project to grow with all of these decisions associated with one another.”

In addition to providing a visual baseline for the crew, previs can also provide them with hard data (for example: camera setup information for the cinematographer, set dimensions for the production designer, motion control curves for the visual effects vendor). According to PLF previs veteran Colin Green, “Our goal is to maximize the degree to which the previs unit can be an open resource and problem solving tool for the director and the crew, and minimize the possibility that the previs unit becomes isolated and creatively detached. To achieve this we try to ensure that all the members of the team are in contact with the different departments and interact with them frequently.”

Hardaway’s step-by-step previs on a Volkswagen spec spot. Courtesy of Andrew Hardaway.

Why Does Previs Work?
And why is previs becoming such a powerful tool for directors? First, previs forces the director and his or her production team to depart the realm of the verbal and adventure into the realm of the visual. Since previs uses images instead of role-specific jargon to describe production issues there is a greater chance that crews will understand how the director’s vision impacts their areas of responsibility. Everyone has the chance to contribute expertise regardless of departmental boundaries. Of course, previs also helps directors decide what not to include in the production. Second, previs allows directors to anticipate and prepare for financial, technical and creative challenges and risks inherent in transforming the director’s vision into physical or digital characters, objects and events. This saves money by reducing on-set “noodling” while cast and crew sit paid but idle and the sun is sinking below the hills. Previs also allows directors to shoot with confidence “on the day,” by minimizing the noodling that can occur on sets.