Visual Thinking for Filmmakers: Cinema Through Art

Book Now!

This one-day course explores the role of visual inspiration in filmmaking, focusing on how images, paintings, and artworks can shape cinematic vision. Participants will learn how to train their eye to see beyond narrative and dialogue, and instead focus on light, colour, composition, and mood. The course examines how artists construct powerful images and how these techniques translate into film frames.

Course Info

Date:

25th April 2026

Times:

10:00 – 17:30

Duration:

One Day

Fee:

275

Capacity:

Course Overview

This one-day course examines how painters construct powerful images and how these techniques translate into film frames. Through examples from cinema history, participants will discover how filmmakers have drawn inspiration from fine art and photography. A key part of the course is developing the ability to “read” images and understand their emotional impact. The tutor will guide participants in preparing for visual research as a creative process.

Course Details

The course includes a 1–2 hour guided visit to the National Gallery, where selected paintings will be closely observed and discussed. In the gallery, participants will analyse framing, perspective, and visual storytelling in still images. Returning from the visit, the course reconnects these observations to filmmaking practice. Practical exercises will help participants apply visual influences to their own work. The day concludes with strategies for building a personal visual reference library and sustaining long-term visual inspiration. The basic tentative schedule is as follows:

10:00 AM : Arrival of participants and Intro

10:15 AM to 12:40: Theory aspects and practical exercises

12:45 to 13:45: Lunch Break

14:00 to 16:00: Visit National Gallery and get first hand briefing about some art pieces

16:00 to 17:00/ 17:30*: Head back to LFS and Closing Remarks

(*The above is a tentative schedule and may change depending on any associated factors.)

Tutor

Jo Lewis

Artist, Educator

Jo Lewis

Artist, Educator

Jo Lewis is a London-based artist and educator.

Jo’s work has been featured in exhibitions in both the UK and internationally. Recent solo shows include ‘H a i k u ’, in London and ‘Espace Fluide’, in Lyon and recent group shows include at Vivienne ORberts Projects, London, The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Galerie Papiers d’Art, Paris, and SEE Galerie, Paris. She was also invited to present her work at the Drawing Research Network Conference: ‘Temporal Drawing ’1, 2023 and at the Radical Drawing Symposium held by the University of Leeds Beckett in 2024.

Her work has been commissioned and collected by individuals and institutions globally including Hermès, Royal College of Music, 22 Bishopsgate, Commonwealth Bank of Australis, Ashtead Hospital, Paris Baguette, Seoul. and the OWO Raffles Hotel, London.

Jo has worked freelance for the National Learning and Programmes department at the National Gallery London since 2002, and has been a visiting lecturer at London Film School since 2010. and Paris College of Art since 2019. A particular focus of Jo’s has been the development of experiential interdisciplinary drawing workshops for people who do not think of themselves as ‘drawers’ and are unsure what it can bring their own practice and experience. Jo regularly works with undergraduates, postgraduates, film-makers, screenwriters, students of animation and dance and with The Royal College of Music musicians and composers. Outreach projects have included a week of workshops last year at HMP Send women’s high-security prison in Surrey and a project with Age Concern in Southwark.

Film Fans Courses

| see all