Moodboards and references

Member lesson

The moodboard that is actually a brief

Lesson 2 of 10 in Moodboards and references.

Lesson

A moodboard turns into a brief when a crew could work from it without you in the room. Most boards are built to sell a feeling to a client, so they are edited and coherent and slightly seductive. A crew's board has a different job. It removes ambiguity, so it is annotated, technical and frequently ugly, with arrows and measurements over the pictures. A later lesson in this module covers the client's board and keeping the two in step; this one is about the working board, the one that has to direct.

An ink drawing of a photographer and a set builder studying a small board of four photographs, each crossed out with a large red X.
An anti-board shows the crew exactly what the shoot must avoid.
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Check what stuck

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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “For the crew. Annotated, ugly, specific.”

    • Archive
    • Channel
    • Dead reference
    • Working board
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “For the client. Fewer images, one feeling, no contradictions.”

    • Selling board
    • Structural reference
    • Identity reference
    • Studio library
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “What it must not look like. Usually more useful than the board itself.”

    • Style reference
    • Anti-board
    • Reference rights
    • Project board

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