Screenwriting is a visual medium. We know that. We’re taught that. We preach that. But how often do most screenwriters take a step back and ask themselves, “Am I actually writing visually?”
To make an immediate impact on whoever is reading and considering your work, your screenplays need to make the script reader feel as if they are watching a movie unfold as they read. This is one of the most underrated aspects of screenwriting — writing a visually cinematic script where these three elements pop off of the page:
- Visual Description
- Structure of Scenes and Sequences
- Creating Pacing that Feels Like a Film Editor’s Touch
It’s not about being overly poetic with your descriptions (quite the opposite, actually). It’s not about taking huge risks with structure — swinging for the fences to shake things up for the sole purpose of swinging to the fences to shake things up (it all has to serve the story). It’s not about being overly busy with intercutting scenes. And it is not about directing the script by being overly descriptive with camera angles, lenses, filters, camera movement, etc. That’s the director’s job.
It’s about telling a visual story on the page. To accomplish that, you need to learn how to trigger cinematic visuals in your head before you type a single word.
What Does Triggering a Visual Mean?
When we talk about triggering visuals, we’re simply discussing ways to to think cinematically before you even start writing.
The most successful screenwriters have trained themselves to see the movie unfold in their mind’s eye first. They develop skills to tap into imagery, rhythm, and sensory detail before any words are typed.
That ability doesn’t always come naturally though. Sometimes, the images just aren’t there. You know the story. You know the characters. You know the plot points, twists, turns, and reveals. But when it comes to describe what’s actually happening — what we should be seeing on the screen — your mind can lock. Or, even worse, your mind can fill with vague, generic placeholder action.
If that’s you, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Even the most successful screenwriters face times when they’re trying to visualize their cinematic stories.
Triggering visuals is about being proactive and breaking through those inevitable walls all screenwriters hit.
With that in mind, here are three easy, effective, and proven ways to trigger the visuals you need for your screenplays. These screenwriting practices can help you elevate your writing and unlock your cinematic imagination so you can write the best possible visual screenplay that triggers the imagination of the reader to instantly see your movie. If you can accomplish that, even the most otherwise routine cinematic tale can make an impact on industry decision makers, bringing you that much closer to them saying, “We want to make this film.”
1. Watch Movies with a New Pair of Eyes
This isn’t about copying or stealing, although even the greatest screenwriters and directors directly pay homage to what has come before them by offering their versions set within their stories. But this process isn’t about that. It’s about calibration.
Watching Movies Under the Same Genre as Your Story
When you watch movies in your chosen genre — really watching them with a keen eye — you start to pick up on the visual language that defines that specific genre space.
- Horror movies thrive on negative space and the anticipation of what’s just outside the frame.
- Romantic comedies (Rom-Coms) tend to live in brighter and more poetic imagery (love at first sight, meet cutes, etc).
- Thrillers are all about misdirection and timing.
- Action flicks are all about set-ups, disruption, and the kinetic actions and reactions that follow.
- Mysteries are all about placing visual clues to lead or mislead the audience.
- Dramas are all about staying on the emotions of the characters and presenting them in near melodramatic form.
Watching movies in the same genre as your story helps you pick up on the unavoidable general guidelines and expectations of the genre. When you become educated in those genre elements, you can also more easily subvert those expectations to make your script stand out more.
Genre movies have that invisible grammar, and learning that language helps your brain fire in the right direction when it’s time to write your own genre scenes.
Don’t Watch Movies Like a Fan — Watch Them Like a Director, Cinematographer, and Editor
You don’t want to just lose yourself in the story like you normally would for a casual movie night. This is homework (or a work trip to the local movie theater). When you’re watching movies to trigger visuals for your screenplays, ask yourself questions like:
- What are we seeing in the opening shot, and why?
- How does this scene use visuals to create tension, emotion, humor, etc?
- What does the camera know that the characters don’t?
- What are the setups and foreshadowing moments for eventual reveals, twists, and turns?
- How are transitions used? What’s the visual flow from one scene to the next?
The goal isn’t to outright mimic. It’s to absorb.
You can become a director, cinematographer, and editor to trigger the proper visuals for your story. The great thing about this process is that you can do that with the magic of your imagination. You can direct, shoot, and edit a scene however you would like.
Watching movies before you write your script helps to educate, inform, and inspire that inner director/cinematographer/editor. The screenwriter in you can then take those inspiring visuals through your inner-filmmaker eyes and translate an overview for the script via your scene description and scene structure.
2. Write in Your Head Before You Type a Single Word
Okay, you’ve taken the time to fill your creative mind with possibilities. You have plenty of visuals to work from. Now it’s time to use all of that information to apply it to your own writing.
But keep your fingers still. It’s not time to start typing yet. It’s time to start writing in your head.
What does that mean? Most of the writing a pro screenwriter does happens before their fingers touch any keys. This is the process of visualization.
How can you possibly describe what is happening in the movie if you haven’t seen it in your head first? Screenwriting is not just about writing:
Jane walks into a room.
We need to feel those visuals. Those visuals need cinematic touch. And they need context in the form of tone, atmosphere, story and character relevance.
Jane opens the door slowly, creeping into the darkness and shutting the door soundlessly with skill. In her other hand she holds her 9MM SIDEARM, finger on the trigger.
That example may be 10% too poetic, or it may be just right. The point is that the script reader needs to feel the visual. For that to happen, it has to be real. It can’t be a generic and boring placeholder.
The only way for you to write like this is to see the visual and see the scene before it’s written. You accomplish this by writing it in your head first. You use that filmmaker eye and write the visual moment in your imagination before you type a single word.
This process goes well beyond single-scene writing as well. Take the time to visualize as much of your story as you can before you start writing.
Visualize a Movie Trailer Version of Your Script
Start by visualizing a movie trailer for your story. Go watch movie trailers and see all that is revealed, which is usually the character in their ordinary world, then them facing a conflict, then more shots of added conflict, and finally the ending. Yes, you create a movie trailer in your head that ruins the end of the movie.
When you do this, you can see how the main elements of the three-act structure of your story work together. And then you can adjust accordingly.
Then Fill in the Visual Story and Character Gaps
Once you have a general trailer visualized, it’s time for some more visualization.
- Go on drives, walks, runs, or bike rides and let your mind wander — but in an organized way. Work from the beginning of your “trailer” and then create scenes that connect from one act to the next.
- Keep doing that as you daydream during work or school breaks.
- Even better, take some time before you go to sleep to visualize the next big scene or sequence. It’s proven that your mind will continue that work “behind-the-scenes” once you go to sleep, helping you to wake up with new ideas and visuals to apply.
Take a month or so (not too long, mind you) to visualize your script to the point where you can see, at least in broadstroke form, up to 75% of your story.
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When you’re getting to specific visualization needs while writing specific scenes during your actual writing/typing process, another way to trigger visuals is to rely on the other senses beyond sight.
Here’s a breakdown of how to use senses to trigger visuals:
- Sight is the obvious one, but you can be specific to what kind of sight elements are needed. Is the light harsh? Is the space cluttered? Why is it cluttered? Is it dark enough to hide unseen threats? Is it light enough to reveal all when they walk through the door?
- Sound is just as powerful. What is the soundscape of the scene? A slow drip from a leaky faucet also works to trigger visuals. Off-screen noises trigger the imagination.
- Smell is underutilized. We’re not talking about creating a smell-a-vision experience. Leave that to the theme parks. But a character’s reaction to a smell can trigger visual behavior that you can use. A grimace. A shocked hand covering a nose. A sudden gag. These are effective visuals you can use, all triggered by the presence of smells.
- Touch and Movement. Think of what a character is physically doing and how that behavior reveals the mood of the scene. If a character fidgets, traces a finger around a wine glass, or tugs at their collar, these choices suggest something deeper in a more cinematic way.
- Environment. What’s in the background? What are the textures? Dust hanging in sunlight? Rain pelting a car windshield (which could also be a sound)? You don’t want to over-describe, but you can choose one striking visual that pops and reveals tone, atmosphere, mood, set-up, etc. One great visual cue can say so much more than a whole paragraph.
In conclusion, if you’re struggling with a scene and staring at a blinking cursor, trigger a visual.
In the end, if you can truly see the movie unfold visually, so can Hollywood.