Concept Art for Movies

Concept Art as Inspiration

Concept art is of utmost importance when developing a story for a film, but it is also crucial when a writer is searching for inspiration for a story. The more specific and detailed your concept art is, the more assurance you'll get that your original vision will make it to the screen intact, exactly the way YOU IMAGINED IT! 

If you happen to be an artist AND a writer, you're one of the luckiest individuals in this world, I kid you not. Read on to see how your art and writing can literally take over the world much the same as it happened with multibillion-dollar franchises like Star Wars.

Also referred to as conceptual art, this type of illustration has become an industry standard not only for movies, but also for other media such as animation, video games, graphic novels, comic books and TV shows. 

Art directors, hair and make-up artists, cinematographers, directors, and set designers all look to a movie's concept art to get a specific idea on how the film should look.

People win Oscars and other reputable awards for art direction, cinematography, and many other visual aspects of productions, so I cannot stress it enough:

Concept Art is Paramount in Hollywood Movies 

Film is a visual medium and, as such, it requires a very detailed visualization process. While a screenplay is not a novel, and it only calls for brief action description sections, it is also necessary for the screenwriter to provide a very clear picture of what will be seen on the screen when the film is shot.

This is why storyboards are drawn to depict the exact framing of elements in the screenplay. A film story is told specifically to be seen. All narrative elements in a screenplay must cater to this medium, and most Hollywood directors will commission artists to create their own concept art. 

George Lucas did in Star Wars (see picture above with Luke Skywalker rescuing his father, Darth Vader) and the rest is history. 

Another common practice in Hollywood is to adapt pre-existing concept art to fit the story. There are many public-domain images like the one below which you can use for this purpose. Greek classics, medieval paintings, and pretty much any form of illustration that is no longer protected by copyrights is available to be adapted or reimagined for your story.

Peter Jackson's visual extravaganza Lord of the Rings is said to have been inspired by classical paintings. George RR Martin's Game of Thrones reportedly drew inspiration from scenes in the Bible. Guillermo Del Toro's Gothic romance Crimson Heights featured set designs modeled after Victorian paintings. 

And there are many other visionary directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola,  Jane Campion and Stanley Kubrick, who have also drawn visual inspiration from classical art.  

A screenwriter MUST ALWAYS visualize their story in terms of moving images seen within the frame. Granted, there will be a lot of choices the director will have to make once the film is being shot, especially when the director and writer are not the same. 

Such choices may or may not include making changes to the original screenplay in order to make it conform to the overall look and style of the production.

Either way, it is the screenwriter's job to visualize the movie in their mind first and then describe their visualization in screenplay format. This is why the sources of inspiration a writer chooses for their story must focus on the visual telling of the action.

You might already know that your story will be about, let's say, soldiers fighting in Vietnam, but this alone is a very vague concept. You can't just write that your characters are soldiers in Vietnam. 

The best screenwriters are the ones who breathe life into their characters and settings by adding specific visual details to the descriptions of their characters and settings.

Using concept art as inspiration when imagining the visual look of a story is extremely helpful for any writer. For starters, you can conduct simple searches on Google images, and chances are you will find an onslaught of different visual interpretations of Vietnam soldiers to choose from. 

This exercise can be a real eye-opener in making you realize the many distinct ways an artist, photographer or cinematographer can interpret the same idea. Once you've realized that, you'll understand how imperative it is for a writer to be visually specific when developing their story.

This is not to say you have to write paragraphs-long descriptions of every single element in your movie. If you're going to do that, you may as well write a novel. The point is to be brief in your action descriptions while at the same time making sure you include just enough detail to paint a clear picture in the head of your reader.  

Google images is only one of the many extensive resources available online for you to search through to your heart's content. You can also find truly masterful pieces on DeviantArt, which offers a wealth of imaginative and unique images uploaded by the artists themselves.

DeviantArt is far better than Google images in the sense that you can contact the artist directly if you happen to be interested in actually using their art for your film. Many artists on DeviantArt will often let you use their work in exchange for a credit in the film or script.

You can also commission some artists to create custom-made illustrations for your story. Whichever way you choose to do it, do not neglect the crucial role of concept art as a source of inspiration for your story.

Getting back to the example of the Vietnam soldiers, when you conduct searches for related images, you will find a lot of different depictions and visual styles to draw inspiration from.

You might run into a post-apocalyptic version of Vietnam soldiers, or maybe even something as outrageous as Vietnam soldiers sent to space as a part of a secret government project. It's impossible to predict the massive amount of visual interpretations you will find on any given concept.

After looking at the many images you'll find, you can then start saving them to a folder in your computer specifically designated to store all the concept art you select. Once you have a decent amount of images, it's time to start using your creative imagination to consolidate the elements that caught your eye in each image.

Let's say you liked the idea of Vietnam soldiers in space, but you happened to like the costume design or backdrops better in the post-apocalyptic interpretation. Concepts and ideas are not copyright-protected. Only the actual images are. So, as long as you create something new out of a combination of ideas and concepts seen in pictures, you are legally allowed to use this new creation for your movie.

You may have loved the futuristic design of the soldier's helmets, for example. And that element alone may have sparked a vision in your mind of an entire line of outfits and accessories for your soldiers.

This doesn't mean you'll copy the exact design of the helmets, because that would be a copyright violation, but you can definitely design your own helmets and uniforms in a similar futuristic style that is reminiscent of the image that inspired you.

There are a myriad ways you can use concept art as inspiration for your movie. In certain cases, if you have direct contact with the conceptual artist or their rep, you can actually purchase the rights to an image you have fallen in love with.

Obviously, the usage rights to many images will not be available for purchase even if you do contact the artist directly. Some art is specifically commissioned for a given project, so the copyrights belong to the person who hired the artist. In such cases, commissioned images will not be available to be used on your project.

There is also the possibility that the artist created the image for their own novel, film or website, so they won't be willing to let you use their images for other projects even if you offer to pay for the rights. When it comes to these types of negotiations, you have to treat each case individually.

I recommend you do the research yourself to find out exactly what laws apply to what you want to do. Or, if you can afford it, you can also hire a legal counselor to help you make sure everything is done legally, and neither you nor the artist end up getting ripped off.

The one thing to always remember is that all images, regardless of their different copyright limitations, are freely available online for you to use as a source of inspiration.

Once you have a clear visual picture of what your movie world and characters will look like, it's time to discuss the music, an equally important source of inspiration for your movie.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT MUSIC AND ITS CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR MOVIE STORY.