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"With each step down the story telling  path we are asked  to become both reality seekers and reality shapers"

 In developing his masterpiece GONE WITH THE WIND David O Selznick clearly understood and immortalized the task of the Production Designer - pre-visualizing a motion picture.

“I hope to have GONE WITH THE WIND prepared almost down to the last camera angle, before we start shooting…a complete script in sketch form…and he called this process Production Design.

In 1935 Selznick raised the bar on the film pre- production process by introducing the Production Design concept. In 2002 we hope to raise it further by introducing The Illustrated Room.

 A TRANSPORT CONCEPT

THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM is intended to offer a VIRTUAL REALITY transport devise. In this new laboratory we will witness actors acting in non existent sets and non existent actors acting in real sets, and a real time audience immersed in both. It is an exciting component of the Stage To Screen business plan.

There are no architectural solutions in today's urban fabric that will house this technology. Therefore, in its early debut the current prototype is designed to operate on a traditional motion picture sound stage. It is fitting that this new design concept will be born out of a “sound stage’ invented in the 1900’s to capture motion on film. Fortunately even these turn of the century structures are "transparent" enough to support this 21^st century concept. Once launched THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM is intended to emerge as a new world theatre that will lodge itself in the urban consciousness of major cities around the world.

THE NAVIGATOR

The Navigator of this new time travel machine will evolve from today’s Motion Picture Production Designer. So what does a Production Designer do? Who are these navigators in the  journey from script to screen?

In his absence and without his architecture the actor would find himself clothed in black (if clothed at all) upon a black stage in a sea devoid of image. Everything else; makeup, costume, sets, special effects, lighting falls squarely into the realm of the Architecture Of Illusion. In part or in whole these disciplines are part of the Production Designer's mantle of responsibility.

Our belief is that we must re-invest in this concept as we move into the 21^st century. We must take new emerging literary properties and allow them to mature in an "Illustrated Room" with a Production Designer of merit at the helm. The old studio art department was heavily invested in "maturing" film properties.  Many projects lingered in the art department, emerging months later as prime candidates for feature film development.

Our premise is that the Production Designer's studio (THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM) must expand into a performance laboratory where designer, writer & director can collaborate to a greater extent in the pre-production development process.  In this process the screenplay will be groomed and become a highly sought after film property.

The ILLUSTRATED ROOM, a unique low capacity - hi impact theatre will offer pre-visualization technologies which will allow the careful evaluation of a property, before production funds are committed.

The program recognizes that this effort will enhance the value of  selected works and proposes to partner with the write-director to create a business venture that will significantly reward all of the participants. The program is designed to insure that sufficient pre-production funding, star exposure, marketing and exhibition resources will be available to enhance the properties realization as a feature film. 

THE ENGINE ROOM

 The economic engines that make up The Illustrated Room are in part:

AN INVESTMENT TOOL – As a pre-production screening room it is designed to pre-visualize and evaluate a screenplay before feature film production funds are committed. This Program will demonstrate how. Investors in motion picture properties, offered by THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM, will buy low and sell high in an exciting glamour-growth industry.

A MECHANISM TO CREATE AN INVESTOR AUDIENCE BASE – The Illustrated Room will develop a new line of film financing by attracting a subscription base of individuals.

A SCREENING ROOM ENVIRONMENT - Its sound & image re-creation technology will wrap the audience in imagery. It will be housed phase one in a motion picture sound stage and later  in its own plush screening room environment.  While very different in scale its intimate seating and rich decor will reflect its parentage as found in the great motion picture palaces of the past.

A DIGITAL PRESENTATION LABORATORY that will allow a new interface of sound, images, set pieces, actors & audience. It will prototype theatrical presentations of the future and lead the way to a new form of entertainment in the home.

A REAL ESTATE CONCEPT -  Its economy of scale will allow it to be located in the most sought after real estate locations in film capitals of the world, building a strong asset base for its investors.

 A LICENSING OPPORTUNITY- Its product line will create significant licensing opportunities driven by its film product.

             CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP - Amenities will make it a unique "film production club” for film  sponsors and film makers alike.

THE MISSION - AN EPILOGUE

YESTERDAY

For a thousand years architecture was the holy grail of story telling. It carried messages to the people in its stained glass, its frescoes and its sculpture. It adorned itself, in its Egyptian temples, with hieroglyphics. The frescoes and sculpture of the Vatican provided the faithful with "required “reading”

At the turn of the 19th century architecture turned from this ancient path and gave up its role as  “a visual story telling wall”. Overnight the images that had been painted on its walls and embedded in its windows moved to a new surface, the motion picture screen.

It is not coincidental that this great historical shift occurred at the very moment that the film camera and specifically the motion picture camera came on the scene. After thousands of years architecture would shed its literal story telling responsibilities.  The motion picture picked up the baton with ease and with a light step. Its technology far better suited to creating greater and greater story simulations through the creation of imagined space and time.

In a historical instant the baton was passed from the heirs of Michelangelo , Raphael and Leonardo to a band of creative youngsters who called themselves Art Director’s (and later Production Designers). These were the young men that took up the responsibility to become the visual navigators seeking out  "Look Of The Movie",  navigators on a journey form script to screen.

NEXT STEPS INTO THE FUTURE

The task of this new theatre is to create a new kind of  transportation machine; a  laboratory where idea meets architecture, a transparent environment that relies on  new world illusions growing out of digitally driven technologies.

What will be studied in this laboratory are more flexible and transparent ways to discharge light and create illusions that support the story telling process.

KEY POINTS

1.  PARTNERSHIP - The program recognizes that this effort will enhance the value of the selected work and proposes to partner with the writer-director to create a business venture that will significantly reward all of the participants. In time the program will become a residency where aspiring film makers can avail themselves of, sufficient production, marketing and exhibition resources in their quest toward the realization of their film projects.

1a. THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM will buy and sell in the motion picture screenplay market. It will buy low and after a unique development program, sell high to industry leaders.

2. THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM will attract industry leaders to this screenplay birthing process, presenting to them a new dimension in film development, licensing, production, marketing, distribution and exhibition technology.

3. Ultimately, The ILLUSTRATED ROOM, will (annually) select 4 quality screen plays (in treatment format) from a nation wide submission base of hundreds of submissions. These will be rendered in a new presentation format and presented to the film production community.

4. While differing in scale, The ILLUSTRATED ROOM will be consistent with the traditions of the great Hollywood Motion Picture Palaces of the past. It will be appointed in "screening room" luxury.  Low capacity and intimacy are the objective as ticket sales do not fund the project.

5. The opening phases of the project will debut these prototype theatres in major film production centers e.g. Hollywood, New York, London, Rome & Tokyo.

6. From this effort, a body of highly sought after screenplays will emerge. The licensing of these properties will produce a significant return on investment to its subscribers-investors.

7. Through this approach Funding Partners will be able to avoid the traditionally high risk aspect of motion picture financing until the property has gained investment recognition in the entertainment community.

8. Stars, motion picture producers and distributors, as guest members of the Illustrated Room, will be exposed to these properties in a unique multi-dimensional format and encouraged to participate, license & develop these properties in the feature film marketplace.  

9. AS A MARKETING TOOL THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM  is the ultimate development laboratory for films in pre-production. No other technique will better resolve a films potential in the marketplace.

10. UNIQUE MEDIUM - Traditional theatres (both stage and cinema) are designed to present finished software (plays & films) to an audience. The Illustrated room is designed to pre-visualize a film while it is being evaluated as a film candidate with its audience being a financial entity participating in the development of the property.

13. MEMBER-SUBSCRIBERS - member-subscriber’s will participate In a series of presentation evenings, gallery showings and celebrity cocktail parties where they will meet with Hollywood celebrities and funding partners through the course of the year.

15. CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP - Its corporate club amenities will make it a unique "film production club" for film sponsors and film makers alike.

16 THE ILLUSTRATED ROOM will provoke the architecture of a film by visually challenging its balance, structure and motivation. It will establishes realistic budget and scheduling projections.  By requiring that a full visual rendition of the film be created by applying writing, designing, cinematography and directing skills before that film is scheduled for pre-production.