Synopsis:
PREVIS is an ode to the slippery reality behind a cinematic finish. 

In his latest short film, director Ruaidhri Ryan and cameraperson Alex F. Webb take to Los Angeles to commission acclaimed storyboard artist Janet Kusnick to sketch their unconventional reality: the transatlantic journey to commission her storyboarding skills. The concept unfolds into a poignant exploration of how we observe ourselves through the eyes of others, and the very origins of these expectations. 

PREVIS reminds us that the most iconic images from cinema, the ones that remain eternal in our mind’s eye, were carefully constructed to be that way. The film centres on Janet Kusnick, a storyboard artist whose own life experiences are perhaps more compelling than the movies she works on.

However, unlike the movies, real life is rarely arranged by design or in sequence. We stall, wobble, and collapse. We make mistakes and have to lean on others. Who’s to say that these moments should be left on the cutting room floor? 

Ryan shows us that cinema isn’t an ungraspable mirage. He exposes its architecture to dance in the negative space. Breaking the grid so we can glimpse through its cracks, revealing therein how the magic is made, and who makes it. By leaving parts of the narrative blank, a space is opened up for those who are instrumental in cinema to be part of the story itself; as heroes, as villains, as themselves.

In PREVIS, no gap is ever empty, it’s a window of opportunity.

Text by curator, Georgia Stephenson