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# Storyboards First: How We Pitch a Film Before We Shoot It
- URL: https://fabricatedcrime.com/blog/storyboards-first-how-we-pitch-a-film/
- Published: 2026-11-08T21:05:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-08T21:05:12.000Z
- Description: Mary Horsepower and Roller Suzie exist as concept reels, not footage. Here's why we build the tone first, and what we're honest about.
- Author: Crew
- Tags: Process, #Import 2026-11-08 21:03

Two of the films in our lineup, **Mary Horsepower** and **Roller Suzie**, don't have a shoot date yet. They do have concept reels. This post is about why.

## The problem with a script and a dream

A script tells you what happens. It doesn't tell you what it *feels* like: how fast the cuts are, how loud the desert is, how bright the rink lights get when the starlet loses again. Producers, cast, and crew all read a script differently. A reel gives everyone the same picture to argue about.

## What's in the reels

**Mary Horsepower** is the story of a western woman who discovers a muscle car in the desert. Out of her time, she learns to drive it and goes on an existential road trip to figure out what her own life means.

**Roller Suzie** follows an 80s roller derby starlet who suffers the first of many defeats and has to face ageing in a fringe sport that she loves.

Both films are in development. Writer and director are still to be announced, and we're assembling the cast.

## How we make them

The previews are assembled from AI-assisted storyboards. We use them to explore tone and pacing: framing, rhythm, color, and music cues. We say so plainly on each film page, because we think audiences deserve to know what they're looking at. A concept reel is a sketch. It isn't a promise of final visuals, and it isn't a substitute for the people who will actually make the films.

Principal photography is a separate stage, with real cinematographers, real stunt coordinators, and real roller skates.

## What a reel is good for

- **Pitching.** It's much easier to explain a western about a muscle car when someone can see the car.
- **Casting conversations.** Actors can react to a world, not just a page.
- **Cheap mistakes.** If a scene drags in a storyboard, we find out for free. If it drags on a shoot day, we find out for thousands.
- **Finding collaborators.** Some of the best conversations we have start with someone saying "I'd shoot that."

If you want to be one of those people, tell us about it through [Join the Heist](https://fabricatedcrime.com/?ref=fabricatedcrime.com#contact).