Unlock Your Creative Potential | Understanding Mood Boards

Mood boards are an industry staple, but many entry-level filmmakers know nothing about it. Having trouble getting the ideas in your head on paper? Worried your crew isn't going to understand your vision? These are exactly the types of things mood boards help with. They guide the tone and emotional vision of your film. In this episode, Garrett discusses what mood boards are, how to approach them, and how to best get the thoughts in your head out into the world.
SITES in this episode:
Music - bit.ly/mm_soundstripe
Color Palettes - color.adobe.com
Portrait Photography - images.google.com
Let's connect - / garrettsammons
The music I use fm.pxf.io/garrett
// #moodboards #preproduction #creativity //
*This video is not sponsored and all opinions are my own. Some of the links listed above are affiliate links that I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases. Any affiliate links you use helps me create new content and costs nothing extra to you.
Welcome to Making Movies with Garrett! Learn tricks of the trade, discover new gear, stay up with filmmaking trends, dive into how I pull off cinematic looks, and so much more.

[@garrettsammons]

What do you add to your mood boards and style sheets?

[@MudbloodWizard]

Thanks for the video! I'll ALWAYS come back to this when I'm creating my moodboards. So much more important than gear videos!!!

[@thefatfashionstudent2248]

I'm not a filmmaker, but instead a fashion student, and this has helped me understand moodboarding SO SO SO much more than I already did - I've been suuuuuper struggling to figure out how to use a moodboard *as a communication tool* and this has really helped me conceptualise it! I can slap a bunch of images together and tweak them until they look visually pleasing but like, making it to use it as a tool has eluded me thus far. Subscribed! Thank you so much!!! :D

[@cammac1589]

The first 1 minute is what i'm absolutely going through, all the time. Thank you @Garrett for breaking it down and simplifying the process of building a mood board.

[@garrettsammons]

Happy to help Apurva!

[@adnanshamsi4894]

The kinda information that usually would be gotten after having spent a lot of money. Thanks for sharing it for free my man! Liked and shared. I loved your enthusiasm, kept me hooked till the end, keep it up!

[@jasonm.ashley261]

Great, practical advice that addresses problems I've had in even conceptualizing a story. Keep up the great work! This is becoming one of my favorite channels.

[@izzyavila6735]

Soooo goooood! Wuuuuahhh thank you

[@SedrickTheMCvideos]

Bro, this was awesome. They way you explained everything and simplified it really helps. Thank You bro!

[@nicoramosfilms]

16:37 wow... that last line gave me the chills. Gotta get on that mood board. Thank you!

[@Zabomusikvideo]

10:00 "I really like these colors" *looks at his T-Shirt :-D

[@Zabomusikvideo]

Longsleeve, my bad :-D awesome video!

[@garrettsammons]

I didn’t even notice that! 😂

[@Zabomusikvideo]

that's the camouflage effect :-D

[@BradleyInghamiom]

Bro, this is solid GOLD! Keep up the good work my man

[@garrettsammons]

Thanks Bradley! Glad you found it helpful. 🤙

[@jagannathmudaliyar]

Thanks for the ideas man, gave me some perspective on where to start on the ideas I have in my head, I am a photographer and a illustrator for now and hope to be a film maker in near future, just subscribed to your channel and hope to see more videos like this.

[@TechOverWatch]

Honestly i prefer this your explanatory videos cos you do a far better job than most guys on KZbin who just explain stuffs they've never done before. this is great info, thanks a lot

[@beyzaeksi6131]

My perspective has definitely changed and broadened. Thank you so much...

[@paulmisencik]

This is brilliantly communicated, with passion and clarity. Thanks for making it!

[@LottacamStudio]

really helpfull! about to create my first moodboard for a short movie. This was excactly what i needed to hear! Thanks!

[@mikicasains2309]

Crushing it Garret, thanks!!!

[@officialfadi]

This is maybe the highest quality video I have seen from a small KZbinr. Just awesome content! You really deserve much much more for that quality!

[@garrettsammons]

Wow, thank you!

[@LizzieOktambe]

You got yourself a sub with this video. Amazing. Just amazing. I’m not a movie maker but I’m a writer and I can’t wait to use your method to get my stories going. Thank you, kind sir! 🙏

[@thomasroos8408]

Thank you, this was very helpful for me to get started!

[@AnilKumar-it6hh]

Thanks man!!! It's a really brilliant video. It cleared a lot of things for me. Now all of of a sudden it's very clear and structured. Keep doing more videos on film making. Will be waiting.

[@garrettsammons]

Will do! 🤙

[@brad3682]

Found you on reddit, incredible value! Subscribed thank you

[@olivialoy4321]

this is the most helpful video I've seen in a while.

[@bidossessi]

Thank You! You just made my day!

[@hopedaniel1718]

This really helped with a school assignment of mine! I would have never thought to start with music but it worked! Once I found a few songs I thought fit the film everything else took off! Thank you so much!

[@garrettsammons]

Great job!

[@lethalinfection1060]

25 seconds in I already subscribed, love the energy

[@philemoncjose3000]

the only one video connects all other ideas

[@gguy3600]

Thank you so much for this. I was really struggling with making a mood board for my film but this really helped.

[@garrettsammons]

I’m glad you found it useful!

[@darthgoldustgamingandvlogg8674]

This guy is actually my film teacher currently

[@lakshmisiddaveer3404]

So informative and to the point, wow!

[@karlee7120]

THIS IS FREAKING GENIUS 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@readingbetweentheframes]

Great passion and clarity. Thanks for this very helpful!

[@garrettsammons]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lobomgmt4956]

Seen this video 4 times. You da man!

[@garrettsammons]

It helps me on every project I do!

[@ernestmagnifico]

Amazing video! Thanks. I hope this pulls together my creative ADHD!

[@charlesverdon1846]

Thanks for sharing!

[@AndreCostaco]

So much value dude! Thanks

[@garrettsammons]

Happy to help!

[@136bluemoon]

This is the best help ever!! Thx!!

[@garrettsammons]

So glad you found it helpful!

[@emendymedia]

Wonderful resource. Using this for teaching my Level 2 Media students how to create mood boards and ideas. Thank you!. UK

[@garrettsammons]

Happy to help Mikey!

[@olehklymenko3985]

Very useful, thanks!

[@sixtyoneosix]

A MASSIVE THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!

[@garrettsammons]

So glad you like it!

[@krishnapemmanaboiyidi]

Beautiful video brother ✨

[@ClaimedParadise]

so helpful thank you !

[@paulasojo4657]

AMAZING. Thank you!!

[@garrettsammons]

You're so welcome!

[@dianabrown9757]

Bless I am writing a book and what you have said has inspired me dx

[@aleefarshad]

Thank you sir!

[@valentinahentschke3800]

Thanks for this helpful video! :)

[@garrettsammons]

Happy to help Valentina 🤙

[@shradhachonkar1638]

Damn ! I love you for this

[@joserangelve]

Awesome video. Really useful!

[@garrettsammons]

Glad you think so!

[@tamarap07]

Thank you Garrett

[@garrettsammons]

You're welcome Tamara!

[@iseetheWAYVision]

THABK YOU hope this helps me with creating my body of work

[@kerwinfernandes9583]

Thank, you Garrett, that was some great advice that can be put to practice. God bless you and your family abundantly always! 🙂🙏🏻❤ Do I have Creative ADD? 😂 Heard that term for the first time and will research it. Cause I have been trying to make music for almost 2 decades now and have never really been able to finish tracks.

[@neoray10]

I was looking forward to see the moodboards u created ,

[@garrettsammons]

That’s a cool idea! I might put an example up on Instagram.

[@antwanyarbrough6485]

this is million dollar game... I cant believe you only have 7,000 views on here. Thank you a lot boss, I'll be the 1% to put your knowledge to work.

[@garrettsammons]

I love to hear it Antwan! Happy it helps

[@johnfranklin6999]

Garrett, I'm in the process of developing my first real Board for a future photo shoot and much of what I was missing is covered in this vid. Fantastic work dude! Appreciate the time and effort you put into this; connections to music (SoundStripe) and color are just what I was needing to add. Hope your Instagram link is current; may have to reach out to get some constructive feedback.

[@garrettsammons]

Right on John! Glad I could be of some help. Best of luck to you on your shoot.

[@jeffsubrabas]

How about a moodboard for product? Love this vid. Want more of it

[@yanglinart5864]

Great 👍

[@dprovisuals1890]

Actually orientation of place and time then light is the first things we perceive when waking up

[@Rob-nb6zi]

Can you clarify the fourth step? Are you collecting still images with interesting framing, or short video clips? Are you focusing on framing primarily or on other elements as well? BTW, this video contains some of the best advice I’ve ever seen for creating mood boards.

[@garrettsammons]

Happy to help Rob! I don’t worry about video clips as much as I am focused on collecting frames that have the composition I’m looking to replicate.

[@WolfikCZ]

can i open my eyes already ?:D

[@haileyni6008]

Lmao

[@mikefei6934]

Love your sharing

[@Idoeyo]

your the best kept secret and ill share with my friend Athule

[@STRYKEITRICHTV]

Nice Haircut!

[@garrettsammons]

Thanks!

[@beatrizmota9672]

Ganda gajo

[@jamalfaris6192]

who comes first..storyboard or color moodboard, is there a software that does both, storyboarding and color the shots

[@garrettsammons]

I don't think there's a software that does both internally. I do color before storyboards as I like the color to influence the overall visual of my image.

[@nitaql8974]

First one 😁

[@sylvesteruchia5263]

I still don't know what a mood board looks like , would've like an example or something.

[@waynepayne864]

theres something about ur vibe thats like... i can imagine you being an angry/bad boss of a start up company idk i cant put my finger on it. edit: ok i just watched a bunch of other explainers on mood boards and their vibes are even worse. everybody has a weird vibe of trying too hard to look modern. so i guess this ones that that bad because the information is actually well explained.

[@DanielleDeutschTV]

Why do you just say "and here's a good color palette I can use for the main guy" without explaining why you think it's a good idea for that with the emotion/or story you have in your head?

[@garrettsammons]

Great question! I think I would have gone into that level of detail if I were giving an example of an active project I was working on. Since this was just an example, I didn’t have deep reasoning off the top of my head. That said, there are a ton of reasons art directors pick color palettes. Could be emotional tone of the character, color theory behind what the subject represents, leaning in to the overall look of the rest of the film, etc. Pixar has put out some awesome BTS stuff on there colors and shapes choices in their art direction. I remember seeing a TED Talk about the movie Up and a short clip from Wall-E on the subject.

[@misterdotme4971]

Can we talk?🔥💯🙏🏾🎨✍🏾

[@sachinbarnwal2889]

This title looks like AI generated but this video is 4 years old ☠️