chriswilshawATgmail.com

Is it to a voice, music or both?

Set to music or voice then all the timing is in place. You grab the audience by the sound and they won’t go anywhere until its over. There will be key points in the sound or voice and you start with them.

Just on a sketchpad, often with the page divided down the middle, you have one side for a sketch and one side for notes; eg cut, fade, this happens, that happens.. and you write timing there too, so when this is happening and for how long.

So quite roughly, as it will change, you pick the main points, draw or get a picture off the PC or out of a magazine, then write down what’s happening. – Do that for all the main points and then they should inspire the bits in between.

[So between the tree bursting out of the ground at 1m26sec and the baby boy sleeping at 1m45 you decide to have the leaves float up off the tree and fall down in to the shape of the bed with the baby on it… or something.]

Then keep listening to the soundtrack running your finger through the notepad, thinking about timing and visuals.

Continue to pad it out and expand on it until you can see the final piece.