“What Does It Look Like?”: On the Use of Intermediary Images in Egyptian Film Production

Abstract

This article examines the use of intermediary images in the process of commercial film production in Egypt. Without being integrally part of the film product, intermediary images play a vital role in mediating interactions in the production process by anchoring the filmmakers’ multiple and sometimes conflicting representations of “the film” in visual proxies. Focusing on scouting work in two recent Egyptian films, Décor (2014) and Poisonous Roses (in postproduction), I draw attention to the way in which intermediary images allow filmmakers to imagine some aspects of the film‐in‐the‐making while mitigating their mutual misunderstandings.