Just how do you go about preparing a project?

Francis Ford Coppola, when he started work on Godfather, created a humungous hardbound folder into which went every thought he had about turning Mario Puzo’s book into a film.  He took each page of a copy of the novel, framed it within a larger sheet that he made copious notes on, and made sure that each page was secured within the folder.

And that was just the start.  He also did a breakdown for each scene, noting down its purpose, the things that were essential to get across, and possible pitfalls.  The folder grew even heavier with these added notes, as the film became more real in his head.

What concerned Coppola was getting the detail right, immersing the audience in the world that the story conjured, and his immersion in the text and what he got from it helps explain the meticulous and lavish look of the Godfather films.  I don’t know for sure, but from what I’ve seen of the trailers for Lesbian Vampire Killers, I kind of doubt they put that much thought into it, the formula for it presumably being ‘LVK = tits + comedian off the telly = lads’ night out (at the cinema) or in (with the DVD and a box of tissues)’.

Guillermo del Toro is another director famous for getting the picture made in his head long before shooting commences.  His beautifully illustrated journals for Pan’s Labyrinth and other projects contain much of the lush visual styling that characterises his films.  Ridley Scott is another obsessive, his pre-visualisations for Alien and Blade Runner making clear the scope and scale of his imagination.

All of which makes me think, what can writers learn from this approach?  It’s something I dabble in already.  One project, a horror film, has a real world setting that’s very distinctive, and my co-writer and I are contemplating pitching the project to potential partners on location.

Another is set in a mental hospital, which is very much a character in the story, so maybe finding or taking some suitable photographs could be a useful part of the process.  Having them up on the walls when I’m writing might benefit me, and could bring some of my concepts to life more readily in a pitch situation.

Or, is all this a way of acknowledging to myself that I’m increasingly thinking of myself as becoming involved in the production process, and not merely willing to hand over a script that I’ve sweated over to someone who may see it very differently to me if they like it at all.

Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard had a saying, ‘The Future exists first in Imagination, then in Will, then in Reality’.  Which may come across a touch New Age to some of you — so be it.  But in that formula is the best description I’ve yet come across for How Stuff Comes About.  And if indeed it does start with imagination, then the more detailed that imagining is, the easier it becomes to will a goal into reality.

The more detail is involved in what starts as a dream, the more convincing it becomes to at least the person who came up with the concept.  Which in turn makes it easier to share with others, in discussion and potentially using audio and visual props.  It’s like the thing with police interviews: they often ask what happened in reverse order, which trips up people who haven’t put sufficient thought into planning their alibis.  And being as there’s just as much at stake in getting a film made as a bank job, it’s worth getting your story straight for that too, right?