Have you ever sat down with your script, ready to break out your shot list or draw storyboards, and then you draw a blank?
It’s like writer’s block for directors.
Figuring out what your film should look and feel like is essential to the director’s responsibilities. Yet most of us rely on watching movies and remembering tidbits. Or we obsessively watch the same movies over and over until we’ve internalized every angle, every camera move, every blocking choice. (I'm looking at you Fellowship of the Ring)
That’s a silly way of being a director.
This week I want to talk about building the habit of gathering cinematic inspiration:
- Why you need to take an active role in your viewing experience
- How it can speed up your visualization, storyboarding and shot listing
- The best tools for finding great movie stills
Building this habit creates a resource that becomes more powerful the more you use it. Once you build it, and consistently keep adding to it you have a tool that will stick with you for your entire directing career.
Let’s roll.
How to become an active viewer
Full transparency: I’m not the biggest movie buff in the world, or the greatest film historian. But I do love watching films and TV shows for the joy of it.
Some interference from the inner filmmaker is inevitable, but being able to watch something and enjoy it as a fan is the best gift you can give yourself as a film lover.
I don’t want you to lose that.
What often happens with filmmakers who know how the sausage is made so to speak, is we start criticizing what we’re watching. We analyze rather than enjoy the film.
This can easily become a negative spiral, and all of a sudden you’re not having as much fun watching movies. Before you know it you’ve gone from film lover to film hater.
Not cool.
What I want you to do instead is preserve that inner film lover for all it’s worth. When you watch something, let yourself be fully immersed in the experience. After you’re done watching I want you to turn on the inner filmmaker. Think back on moments, shots, scenes you think were cool, well-done, or sparked an idea.
This is what you need to write down. Forget about the criticisms and focus on the good stuff you still remember after the movie or show is over.
And don’t just do this for movies. Do it for photography, art, architecture, real life moments, you name it. The sources of inspiration are endless and you never know what’s going to spark something down the line.
If you do this consistently over time you’ll build a database of inspiration and ideas that will support your directing career for decades to come.
How to build your inspiration collection
This leads us to the next step: where do you keep all this inspiration, so that it’s handy when you need it?
The short answer is, whatever makes sense for you. There are tons of approaches I think could work:
- A dedicated notebook (or closet full of notebooks eventually)
- A note on your phone
- A photo album
- A database
- Cardboard boxes stuffed with index cards
There’s no right way, but I’ll share what I do.
I like organizing and managing my knowledge digitally, and over the last few years I’ve been using an app called Notion. I gather inspiration, track my tasks, file receipts, as well as many other things (like writing this newsletter for instance.) I like it because it’s flexible and let’s me organize things in my own way.
It’s also searchable, which helps me find things when I need them.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into this subject I recommend checking out this article and video from productivity expert Thiago Forte on the 4 Notetaking Styles.
Another tool I love to use when putting together inspiration for my films is Shotdeck (no affiliation.) Shotdeck is a collection of over a million shots from 6000+ movies. It’s a rabbit hole worth diving down, especially if you’re brainstorming the look and feel of your film. I find that where I start and where I end up is often completely unexpected. I often emerge with a list of movies I want to watch based on the images I’ve just discovered.
Having this kind of resource at your fingertips makes communicating your vision to your partners much easier. When you can describe a look, or a framing choice or a mood with an image or a series of images it’s so much easier to get on the same page as the person your collaborating with.
Speed up your visualization, storyboarding and shot listing
I’m a shot list guy. Mostly because my drawings suck.
But whether you shot list, draw storyboards or communicate your vision and shooting plan to your cast and crew in a different way, having your library of cinematic inspiration will make this process much faster and more enjoyable.
Just the fact that you’ve been collecting this inspiration gives you a head start. It means your mind is already thinking like a director. If you spend some time with your collection as well, look through it, find connections, you’ll be even further ahead.
Whenever I’m shot listing I always start with the story and the characters and try to find my way of telling the story through moving images. I’ve found that it helps me to have a stack of ideas for my visual approach before I even start writing out my shots. It gives me an anchor point to refer to and check myself against.
If I get stuck I’ll spend some time looking through my inspiration database or on Shotdeck, searching for similar situations. I find that I’ll get new ideas and new perspectives that help me get unstuck and figure out how to cover a scene.
