storyboarding

Stories Stories can be told in many different ways—word of

mouth, written word, movies, plays. One of the fastest, most universally understandable and information-‐rich ways to tell a story is with a storyboard.

Storyboards have been used throughout history to depict events through pictures. Even when created very quickly, storyboards can convey a wealth of information, showing a particular order of events in an interesting and easy-‐to-‐understand way. (Sova, 2006)

Storyboards

How to Storyboard? Tools

Framing & Angles

Storyboard Language

Editing

Planning

Drawing

Tips & The Rule of Thirds

Tools Light Table / Box

Wooden Mannequin

Pictures for Reference

Pencil, paper etc…

Framing / Shot Length Extreme Long Shot – ELS

Framing / Shot Length Long Shot -‐ LS

Framing / Shot Length Medium Shot -‐ MS

Framing / Shot Length Close-‐up – CU

Framing / Shot Length Extreme Close-‐up – EC

Framing / Shot Length Medium Close-‐Up – MCU

Framing / Shot Length Two-‐Shot

Framing / Shot Length Over-‐the-‐Shoulder Shot

Angles Bird’s Eye View

Angles High Angle

Angles Low Angle

Angles Eye Level

Angles Oblique / Canted Angle

Storyboard Language PAN: A steady, sweeping movement from one point in a scene

to another.

TILT: Using a camera on a tripod, the camera moves up or down to follow the action.

ZOOM: Use of the camera lens to move closely towards the subject.

DOLLY: A camera dolly is a specialized piece of film equipment designed to create smooth camera movements on the horizontal axis.

POV (point of view shot): A shot which is understood to be seen from the point of view of a character within the scene.

Storyboard Language DISSOLVE: A transition between two shots, where one shot

fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in.

FADE -‐ A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In.

JUMP CUT: A rapid, jerky transition from one frame to the next, either disrupting the flow of time or movement within a scene or making an abrupt transition from one scene to another.

HAND-‐HELD: unsteady camera – no tripod, Hand held cameras denote a certain kind of gritty realism, and they can make the audience feel as though they are part of a scene, rather than viewing it from a detached, frozen position.

Storyboard Language REACTION SHOT-‐ 1.: A shot of someone looking off

screen. 2.: A reaction shot can also be a shot of someone in a conversation where they are not given a line of dialogue but are just listening to the other person speak.

CRANE SHOT: Basically, dolly-‐shots-‐in-‐the-‐air. A crane (or jib), is a large, heavy piece of equipment, but is a useful way of moving a camera -‐ it can move up, down, left, right, swooping in on action or moving diagonally out of it.

AERIAL SHOT: exciting variation of a crane shot, usually taken from a helicopter

Editing Although editing happens in post-‐production for live action

films, storyboards function to draw up an initial plan for editing. For animation, almost all of the most important editing decisions are taken at the storyboarding phase, since there is no additional coverage -‐ animators will only draw or render what is planned in the storyboards and layout.

Although there are a few editing symbols that you should learn to use when storyboarding, Primarily you should be thinking about editing in terms of the decisions you make regarding the continuity (or not) between individual shots, their sequence and the rhythm of the sequence as a whole.

Planning Plan first. Before you start any detailed drawing of the

mise en scene, it is very important that you should plan your shots and editing in detail.

Before drawing anything, annotate your blank storyboards in pencil. Use the space alongside the storyboard to write down the shots that you want for the sequence.

Now sketch the shot very lightly in pencil -‐ use stick figures without any detail. Review the whole sequence of shots -‐ try to imagine what it will look like when filmed. Make any changes to improve the shot flow.

Drawing Whatever your purpose, your storyboards will benefit from

the confidence, fluidity, and improvements in perception brought by extensive drawing practice.

You can also get by with posing and taking photographs of artist's wooden mannequins or using 3D figure creation software such as Poser (some storyboard artists even report using Barbie and Ken dolls!)

Tips from: http://theartcenter.blogspot.com

Rule of Thirds Unless your subject is perfectly symmetrical, the screen

should never be divided exactly in half by strong horizontal or vertical lines. Instead, it should be divided approximately into thirds.

For example, the horizon (if you're shooting a corn field) should be either a third of the way from the bottom of the screen or a third of the way from the top. With the exception of titles, composition should not be perfectly symmetrical, but should rather balance positive and negative (filled and empty) space

Too Low…Too High

Rule of Thirds

storyboarding

Education

crane shot

shot fades

shoulder shot

aerial shot

framing shot length

pov point of view shot

storyboard artists

camera dolly