STORYBOARDS - CONVINCE THE INVESTORS Orbanie Gayle

What is a Storyboard? A storyboard is a sequence of drawings which can also have written dialogue or directions to show camera movements or to explain things that cannot be drawn. Directors use storyboards to plan their shots beforehand, share their vision with the actors and therefore make the production more efficient. Storyboarding originated in the early 1900’s and was developed by Walt Disney in the 1930’s. What are storyboards used for? Storyboards were originally mainly used for animation, they were used to see a blueprint of the film and to develop the action, characters and the plot. It allows all of the production team to be on the same page and storyboards artists can bring their own ideas and personality to a production. Storyboards are used in film, music videos, animation and more, creating a storyboard also helps you to see what parts of a scene are unnecessary and cut them out, which saves you from filming footage that will end up not being used. Storyboarding for Video Games Research on video game storyboards is very scarce, there are hardly any resources available and this is most likely because the game script and prototype are more important than the game storyboard. Video game storyboards are meant to be rough sketches, however they can be done both on a computer or by hand. Although the game storyboard is not the most important aspect of designing a video game, every detail on the storyboard is essential. With video games, there are multiple ways to complete a level so there will be multiple frames on a game storyboard. The method of creating a storyboard for a video game is that you get all your ideas down in the format of a movie script before drawing out some frames. Each frame will represent a different level in the game and

should be accompanied by a paragraph or two to explain what is going on, the final frame of the storyboard should be the end goal. When constructing a game storyboard there are some questions you have to think about:

● What can your character do? ● How many characters/enemies will there be? ● Is the game multiplayer, or for one person only? ● What point of view will the player be viewing the game from? ● How does the level restart and how is the character revived? ● What soundtrack will you use in the background of each level?

Above is a part of the storyboard for the game Tree Of Life, the layout is different from the typical rectangular frames you would expect. Instead it has four columns; Shot, Image, Description/Interaction and Time. Along with a box above it for the details of the game. Instead of illustrating what will happen in the scene in the image on a game storyboard there is a section dedicated to an explanation. This is where the storyboard artist would write about sound effects and visual effects as well as shot types. Game storyboards are very different from storyboards not only in appearance but also in their purpose. With game, the storyboard shows what the player can do and the scene is already set, however, with film each frame in the storyboard is used to set the scene and to show what is going on, the action the character will take is not specified, only implied and the storyboard is also used to show movement of the camera and to represent cuts to different scenes. Storyboarding for Film The use of storyboards in film dates back to the great directors of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s,

particularly Alfred Hitchcock who started his career as a storyboard artist and worked his way up to being one of the greatest film directors with films including ‘Psycho’ and ’The Thirty-Nine Steps’. Ridley Scott is a film director and produce,

some of his films being ‘Prometheus’, ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Alien’. Ridley Scott went to art school for seven years which is why when he creates storyboards they’re always painted and drawn. After watching ‘The Art of Storyboarding with Ridley Scott’ on YouTube he says that the storyboard starts in his mind as he is reading the script and then he gets rough sketches put down as thumbnails. He said “It’s like a rehearsal for me..” which shows that storyboarding allows both the director and the actors to be on the same page and it helps the director to articulate exactly what they want the characters to do and how they want the final film to look. His

storyboards aren’t always planned, sometimes they are done while on set but other times it is planned way in advance. Steven Spielberg is an editor, screenwriter, director and producer with some of his films being ‘Jaws’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Schindler’s List’. Steven Spielberg does most of his original sketches and outlines the concepts of the film himself and whatever he can’t draw he uses arrows to notate. His movie ‘Close Encounters’ had one-thousand-five-hundred pictures on its storyboard and his movie ‘Jaws’ had four-hundred pictures on its storyboard. For a good storyboard he would spend around six months with a sketch or storyboard artist. To the left is part of Steven Spielberg’s storyboard for ‘Jaws’, the illustrations are quite detailed yet they are still accompanied with a small amount of text just incase the drawing is not really clear. Also, the storyboard artist could have used colour to make the shark stand out from the background a bit more. Storyboarding for Animation

“What we do is we edit the movie before we start production. And we use storyboard drawings to do that. We quickly get away from the written page and the script, and we really develop the movie in storyboards. A comic book version of the story. And we do it the way Walt Disney did it. We have 4×8 sheets of bulletin board material, and we pin up drawings and we pitch them to each other. To see how things flow……. I will never let something go into production unless it is working fantastic in that version with

the still drawings. Because no matter all the great animation you can do will never save a bad story. We will work and rework and rework and rework these reels — sometimes thirty times before we let it go into production. We’re really adamant. We’ll even slow the production down or stop production to get the story right because we believe that it’s the story that entertains audiences. It’s not the technology. It’s not the way something looks. It’s the story.” - John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar on storyboarding for Pixar animations. John Lasseter uses storyboards in order to develop the story behind his animations before he actually begins to create it this is because he knows the value of the actual story over the final visual elements of a production. Storyboarding allows you to see if you actually have a great story behind the imagery, rather than going through the whole production just to find out that you put lots of work into the imagery and not enough work into the story. Here is an example of a very simple storyboard for animation:

The way in which it is illustrated is very simplistic, the character is essentially a stick figure and arrows have been used to show which way the character will be moving however, the storyboard artist has also added dialogue to the storyboard to convey what they are unable to illustrate - similar to what Steven Spielberg uses arrows for. This use of dialogue along with simple imagery is effective because it makes it easy to follow and is a good place to add what kind of shot type you plan to use for the shot, it also adds in sound directions (e.g.

‘Add music soundtrack & sound of water splashes’ and ‘whistling’) and it is in chronological order so we are able to follow the sequence easily. However, this storyboard is very basic and it doesn’t include any transitions or camera movements. So what is the difference between storyboards for animation and storyboards for (live-action) film? Firstly, with film storyboards the characters don’t have to look exactly like the actor who will be playing them, it is enough to differentiate them by basic info e.g. a

bald character or a fat character. However, in (traditional) animation it is important that the character on the storyboard looks like the character given to the storyboard artist on the model sheets, the reason for this is that animation studios usually animate the character exactly how it is drawn on the storyboard. Secondly, when storyboarding for animation there are many more frames than a live-action storyboard, this is because in live-action, the

actors are able to control the majority of their actions, therefore only the beginning, end and any specifically key scenes in between need to be storyboarded. Unlike animation where the characters are not real, so every key action they do has to be storyboarded and then in between action has to be added when the storyboard is being animated so that the action can flow smoothly. Lastly, another difference between storyboards for live-action and animation is that in live-action, in one scene, you can have a variety of shots, all in one location and one period of time, on the other hand, in hand-drawn animation whenever there is a new shot, it is considered to be a new scene. To the right is a storyboard from Jurassic Park, done by storyboard artist David

Lowery. It has small captions, briefly describing what is going on in the image and the direction in which the characters are moving, this is also done with arrows, coming out of the frame. In this storyboard, not all the frames are the same size and as well as arrows, parts of the characters are also coming out of the frames, the storyboard is in black and white which can get slightly confusing as it’s hard to differentiate between the different characters. However, the fact that the frames are laid out in chronological order, and that there is a short explanation for it, makes the storyboard clearer and easier to understand. Storyboarding for Music Videos and Adverts Storyboarding is an invaluable tool for designers, and it is extremely effective when it comes to both music videos and adverts. It is a way to encourage the director to visualise their early ideas and for them to get the finished product perfect. ‘Blind’ is a company behind many music videos and adverts that we see on television, such as, adverts for Microsoft, Starbucks and music videos for Justin Timberlake, Coldplay and Gnarls Barkley. Blind’s ultimate goal is to design something to make their clients happy. Before you storyboard it is important to know what to storyboard “It doesn't matter if you design the most beautiful storyboard images ever. That work will be ineffective if it doesn't advance the story in an interesting way.” Blind say that before you storyboard you have to know what to storyboard which is why they ask a lot of questions, ensuring they have all the details to make the finished project exactly how the client visualises it - they ask the client what they want and what they are specifically aiming for, before summarising all of this. Here is a storyboard for One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” music video:

There are at least sixty frames on this storyboard, all drawn out in detail to illustrate exactly how the director has visualised the video to look. The storyboard artist has used arrows to show camera movements on some of the frames. This storyboard is in black and white although storyboards can also be in colour, which would be more effective as it would stand out more from the grey background. The

layout is in chronological order, so it is a continuity edit, all the frames are the same size so there is no confusion about what order the frames go in, the way the storyboard is drawn

makes it very clear, you can differentiate between the different band members as they all have different features.

Above is a storyboard for an advert that combines animation with real life. It was an advert for Owens Corning Roofing. Blind’s creative Director, Greg Gunn, had to work closely with Owens Corning and Doner to combine the real world with the pink panther, an animated character. Below is the storyboard for the advert, containing dance choreography, fight sequences and they also had to think about the cinematic ways in which they would present the action. From the storyboard it is clear that they have thought about different shot types, you have wide, establishing shots, as well as close-up shots and mid-shots. In the twelfth frame, we can see an arrow has been used to show the direction in which the Pink Panther is going, all the frames are accompanied by a small amount of text, which

ensures that whatever is happening in the frame is able to be understood and tells us what shot types, cuts and edits will be used. The language of storyboard Storyboard artists and directors will often use specific language to describe what they want a shot to look like, the storyboard artist will then depict this shot type or camera movement on the storyboard using arrows as shown in thiese examples found on http://www.storyboardthat.com: Pan, which is a steady horizontal movement from one part of a scene to another;

Tilt, which is when a tripod is used to so that the camera can follow the action up or down,

Zoom, when the camera lens is used to move closer to or further away from the subject.

The language of storyboard also consists of different shot types, such as; A long shot, which usually has the whole subject in it, meaning you are able to see everything, whether it’s a character or an establishing shot of the location. A mid shot or medium shot, this will usually cut a character off around the middle of their body. A close up, which is usually used to show a character’s emotions, most likely to be from the chest or shoulders and upwards. An extreme close up which is used for dramatic effect, and can sometimes involve just the eyes of the character.

To conclude, you cannot go wrong with an investment in storyboards as they allow you to explore your idea and try it out before actually deciding to start the expensive an extensive process of actually creating the film only to find out that time, money and effort has been wasted. Also it allows everyone on the production team to be on the same page, they are all able to understand your vision.