Film Mood Board Template

Step 1

1. Create a blank mood board

A film mood board will serve as vital reference point for directors, helping to stay focused and inspired throughout the filmmaking process. Mood boards also help you communicate your vision more effectively with department heads such as cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, and prop masters so they can make informed decisions that call back to your vision for the project.

This is how you kickstart your mood board creation with StudioBinder. We recommend creating an overall mood board for tone and atmosphere. However, you may also want to create additional mood boards to share with specific departments. For example, you can create mood boards for various element categories such as:

• Cast
• Lighting
• Production Design & Art Direction
• Wardrobe
• Props
  
• Special Effects
• etc.

Step 2

Gather your images

Time to gather your inspiration. Look for stills from other films, location scout photos, product images from prop rental websites, location and sound stage pages — anything that sparks your imagination and helps shape the vision.

Once you have a collection of images, you can upload them to their respective mood boards in StudioBinder. This is an ongoing process. As you find more images, simply continue updating your mood boards.

Step 3

Fine-tune your images

When it comes to setting vision, consistency is crucial. Just because you may have a photo that has the right elements (e.g. location), doesn't mean it strikes the right tone or atmosphere. And in some cases, you may need to crop out the elements you don't want to focus on.

StudioBinder provides a range of editing tools to fine-tune each image. Enhance images with pre-set filters, adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, exposure, and add annotations to achieve the desired effect.

Step 4

Rearrange the images to tell a story

Arrange your images in a visually pleasing manner. Consider their layout and how they relate to one another. Don't forget to add annotations or notes explaining your choices— this will help your team understand your vision better.

You can also adjust the size of images to highlight their importance and relationships to each other.

Step 5

Share for feedback and collaboration

Filmmaking is an incredibly collaborative medium that brings together creative minds to create a cohesive vision. Enhance your collaborative process by sharing your mood board, allowing everyone to align their creativity and work towards a unified goal.

With comments, everyone can contribute and provide feedback, fostering a collaborative creative environment. You can also provide edit access to outside collaborators so they can upload their own images to your mood boards, making the entire process very fluid and engaging. Not only does this make for a richer tapestry of ideas, but it allows for collaborators to start taking ownership over their department, all while fostering (and enhancing) the initial vision you set forth.

Conclusion

Film mood board complete

Your film mood board is the visual translation of your story. It's an opportunity to share your vision with your team, keeping everyone inspired and on track throughout the filmmaking journey.

This film mood board template is one of many templates you can use. Browse all other photography templates on our mood board templates page.