Three guilds agreed on a single definition of previs in 2009

The picture

On 30 September 2009, a Los Angeles press release announced the Previsualization Society, a non-profit formed by the American Society of Cinematographers, the Art Directors Guild and the Visual Effects Society to carry forward a joint ASC-ADG-VES subcommittee on previsualization. Co-chaired by consultant David Morin and Proof founder Ron Frankel, the subcommittee had just finished a task nobody had settled in a decade of previs work: a formal definition of the term, plus a ruling on its spelling. As Variety's report on the founding puts it, the subcommittee 'had to hammer out everything from a definition of previs to the proper spelling of the word,' settling on 'previs' over 'previz.' The agreed definition, reproduced in full in the Society's own founding announcement, calls previsualization 'a collaborative process that generates preliminary versions of shots or sequences, predominantly using 3D animation tools and a virtual environment,' letting filmmakers 'visually explore creative ideas, plan technical solutions and communicate a shared vision.'

What the documents show

The two accounts corroborate each other closely, because fxguide's piece reprints the Society's own release while Variety adds independent framing. Both name the same founding roster: Ron Frankel of Proof, Chris Edwards of The Third Floor, Daniel Gregoire of Halon Entertainment, Colin Green of Pixel Liberation Front, and David Dozoretz and Brian Pohl of POV Previs, with Autodesk named as charter sponsor. Variety adds that previs had relied on an 'I know it when I see it' approach, and that the definition makes two points: previs is a process, not a product, and it is not confined to one production phase. Neither source describes the Society's later activity level, so this entry is a founding record only.

What it is allowed to decide

A shared definition is not an image, so the decision-class ladder does not apply to it directly; no class 0-6 approval rides on a vocabulary agreement. What the record establishes is Provenance: the term's origin, its authors and the date it was fixed are documented and attributable to a named subcommittee. It does not establish Auditability in the technical sense the framework means, since a definition cannot be reproduced or versioned the way a render can; that authority belongs to individual previs deliverables, not the word itself.

The disclosure label

Labelled in the site's own format: a 2009 professional-society definition of previsualization, unable to support any decision class on its own; holds Provenance, since its authorship and date are documented in the founding release; does not hold Auditability in the technical sense the framework applies to artifacts; dated 16 September 2026; asserted by a previs historian summarising the subcommittee's own report.

• Does a project's use of 'previs' rely on this definition, or a looser, house-specific meaning?
• Who wrote the specification a given previs deliverable is actually judged against?
• Has the organisation that coined a term stayed active enough to update it as tools change?

The 2009 definition did not settle what previs may decide on a production; it settled what the word means when a studio, a guild or a client uses it, the more modest but longer-lasting achievement.