106 Chapter 5 From Screenplay to Visual plan These examples should make it clear that in order to make accurate overheads, you need to have a good sense of the layout of your location, so it's important to do your location scouting ahead of time (see Chapter 6). Because overhead scene visu- alization involves character placement and movement, overheads often reflect work accomplished during rehearsals with the actors as you work out the blocking of the scene. Also, if it's available, this can be done in the actual location, but often blocking is done in a mockup location (see page 158). Finally, overheads can also incorporate rough lighting placement ideas for each scene and electrical distribution at each loca- tion as well (see figure 18-13). I think you can see how, once given an overhead with basic camera placement and character movement, the D.P. can start to sketch in a lighting scheme for each setup. storyboards The third previsualization tool commonly used is storyboards. Storyboards are draw- ings of shots, arranged on paper in the order they appear in a sequence. Storyboards are always drawn in frames with the same aspect ratio as your camera frame. Written under each drawing is a description of the shot and the actions or lines of dialogue it covers. Usually, each frame of a storyboard represents one central moment within a single shot; however, long moving shots, which include different framings, might be represented by a number of frames. As the storyboards for Kiarra's Escape (scene #15) illustrate, the movement of characters within the shot is indicated with arrows