Where do you put the camera when half the squad is already inside and the rest are still coming through the roof?
For this keyframe I placed it on the ground, close enough for one operator to fill almost the entire right side of the frame. His attention is somewhere beyond us. Across the room, a second figure is looking the other way. Between the two of them, we can see all the way to the arch at the back, where three more figures are moving towards us.
The sketchbook pages show how much of that decision happens on paper. In the blue thumbnail, one figure is barely more than a circle and a shoulder behind the darker silhouette. In the green sketch, the gap between the figures opens up. That gap became important in the finished composition. It gave me room to show what was happening deeper inside the building while keeping the viewer close to the action.
The hole in the roof gave me daylight and rain in the same part of the frame. Against the pale concrete you can just make out the operators descending. Lower down, the rain catches the light against the dark arch. Look closely at the floor and you can see the loose end of a rope curling beside the squad. It connects two moments in the same image: some of them have landed, others are still on their way down.
That’s what I can bring to a game pitch or a cinematic in early development. A team can put this frame on the table and discuss a specific shot: how close the camera feels, how much of the location we need to see, and what the audience might only notice on a second look.
Have a scene in development? I work as a freelance concept artist on cinematic keyframes and narrative environments. Get in touch to discuss your project.
