As a creative designer, filmmaker, or photographer, what is your initial reaction to a new creative project or design brief? Do you jump headfirst into the project, frivolously creating and revising until the work is done? Or maybe sometimes starting a project so fast that halfway through you decide to scrap the whole creative process and start from scratch?
One of the best techniques I use to ease creative frustration while working on a project is beginning a project with what’s called “Pre-Visualization.” Others may call it “conceptualizing” or “storyboarding” when specifically if working on a video project. This is one step beyond the brainstorming process and a step before the creative implantation stage of any project. But what is Pre-Visualization?
Pre-visualization is when you take all your brainstorm information for a design or video project and start coming up with a creative plan. Sometimes as a creative thinker, it may seem like having a creative plan through pre-visualization puts restrictions on our creative visions but in my experience, having a plan is one of the best ways to have your creative come to life without the frustrations of something going wrong.
A real-world example of us here at Takapa Media using pre-visualization is when we work on large budget videos for our clients. Once the brainstorming idea is picked, we will pre-visualize every aspect of our video shoot. We plan out what our set is going to look like, the style of clothes the actors will be wearing, what props will be in the video, how the actors will be moving, what the lighting is going to look like, and how everything will look visually through the camera lens.
This sounds like a tedious process, especially when we’re excited to get a project moving along, but the more work you put into pre-visualization, the better the final project will turn out. Some projects have many moving parts and the more we understand how those parts will move on production day, the more seamless everything will come together. Pre-visualization isn’t only helpful for us who are creating the projects but also for the client who is paying for the project. The more they can understand the vision for the project will help them know exactly what they’re paying for and leaves no surprises for anyone in the end.
When we’re first starting out on our creative journeys, many of us, myself included, just want to start filming or designing our first brainstorm ideas right away. We figure it out as we go and sometimes say to ourselves, “well, we didn’t get what we want but we’ll fix it in post.” But at Takapa, we like to get it right the first time, so we don’t have to “fix it in post.” Through pre-visualization, we’re able to think through all the variables and cast a creative vision that can be easily interpreted into a final project leaving everyone satisfied with the end result.