The order of work

Words first, then faces, then pictures.

Four steps, in this order [proven]:

1. The written treatment: the brief restated, the vision, the scenes and the departments. Review it before any picture is made.

2. The faces: casting candidates, the choice, and an internal face motion test of each top face.

3. The pictures: the storyboard and department frames, made with the chosen faces.

4. The treatment presentation: reviewed on its working link (the one unsent page you review on; see Client presentations → A new link per send), then sent.

Stop at each of the four points and look at the work before going on. Explain any problem and its fix at that point, not after the whole deck is built.

Never reopen a locked decision. The concept the client chose fixed its idea, story, tone, lines and music direction. A research finding or a note that would change one of them is a decision for you to make first. It never changes the concept on its own. Research now covers only what the concept locked: casting types for that city and class, wardrobe and dressing for that place and income, dialogue drafts in the sub-dialect, the timing of comic or emotional beats, and a risk pass (see The brief and research → Research as a funnel).

Department references come after the decisions are written: two or three per department, from Film Craft winners first, then FILMGRAB and ShotDeck, each with a note on what to take and what to ignore (see References → Which layer each stage studies).

Why: treatments are written in the director's voice first; designers lay out the pictures after the writer's draft.

Sources

• Cutaway on treatment companies (article).