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lilyanimated · 7 years ago

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Super cool advices for aspiring storyboard artists!💪😍

Tabata fitcross storyboard/writing training

I would like to share with you my last storyboard method I have founded on my french forum.

I m still learning myself, I do not pretend this is the final right truth right method, but I see too much bullshits on the internet about storyboarding so why not telling my own bullshits and maybe it can help some people :)

This is a method in a wonderful world were you start from a good script, which is very rare in real life. Let’s say, use this method on your own script first. But in real productions, not everything below is really possible..

Anyway…

it is a current work in progress method. it evolve all the time because I mistake and learn a lot all the time.. everybody has a different, you must find your own. These are tools, not rules. At the end I have added some cool exercises to train if you want.

1. Reading the script carefully. Trying to understand what is really going on behind the dialogs. What do characters really want, what do they really get at the end of the sequence?

2. Writing down beside the script, what is the most interesting point of view in the sequence.. it can jump from a character to another, depending of the dial. the most interesting point of view to show can change at any second, any dialog in the sequence. please refer to my article about the movie notorious where i analyze specificly this point.

3. Do not try to illustrate the script but try to improve it. Describe the psychology of the characters in the sequence. everything in storytelling, is starting from the characters. ask yourself what is the intention of this dialog, and ask yourself how to show it in the most interesting way to show it.How to create life from the script. How to create sequence where character really have a life and not just illustrate the sequence. In general a good tips would be to add a strong context in the sequence if there is not. Be specific and concret in your description of this context. So it will be credible.

example ; 2 guys talk to each others about dealing something, selling stuff, but for some reason you know they hate each other. the dialog will be normal but how will you show they hate each others? that’s your job. that is not explained in the script. you must think about it and write it down. And then you can add a context. Like they are in the subway or they are walking in a corridor in an airport before getting a flight. Of course you can context randomly, it depends on the whole movie you are doing, but try to discuss with the head of story if the context is not clear, to add a specific one eventually.

Use your own relationships to imagine the sequence, mix with the characters in the script your own relationships or the relationship you noticed in your life experience, with people you know. Don’t be explicit of course but the more your use your own experience about people who really exist, the more you will be credible in the sequence you will storyboard.

Also use your own personal souvenirs, to create concistant sequences, with concrete details and credible moment of life.

4. Think the sequence without any camera first . If it’s useful, don’t hesitate to draw a map of the sequence, about the background, create the background and in a narrative way please, and set up where the character are and where they walk why they walk there, what they are doing in the sequence. because characters are not only saying the dialogs, they live for real in the sequence.. without thinking about any camera, think in a theater way. think scenography/stagging/blocking. think from the character ; if there is a bad guy, how he is sitting, moving, walking, behaving with other guys. is he dominating? afraid? whatever. if you can not imagine him in one picture in your head, that means you are not ready to storyboard. to learn more about scenography go to see theatre play and watch “who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf” and read this in priority https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/371193.Lessons_With_Eisenstein

- Before drawing reminding that cinematography is a langage, words and grammar, that we can call “tools” and we must use all of the tools we can and not only a few, in order to write a rich meaningful story, there is visual tools like camera moves, background design, actors actings, special effects, colors, tones, shades, natural elements like rain or wind or whatever, there is also the no moves at all , the rythm of the shots. There is also auditives tools : sounds in the cinema : the sound design of what is happening in the movie, the choose to make them noisy or not, the choose to put sounds who are not show on the screen, there is the score, there is the voices, the nuances of the voice and the tone of the voice, the silence also is a tool. The best way to learn about it is to watch a ton on movies.

Never forget you must let the characters live their life. Follow who they are. Make them tell what they have to tell. So they will be concistants.Put yourself in their head, constantly. If you don’t see the character that means he is not developped enough yet so find something interesting in him, tell yourself his story. Then come back on your sequence.

You can only create emotion if it is a genuine one. So you really have to commit into the sequence, to visualize it in your head before drawing, to imagine if it works in real life, with real people. If not you will redo cliches. This is very very important and very hard to do.

5. Draw thumbnails very quick on a notebook. on paper. vertical storyboard, annotation beside, redo them as much as you need, keep it very very rough. imagine the intention of the shot but not necessary do it very specifically.

- Do the thumbnails in that way ; one shot = one panel. 3 panels if it is a long shot with important acting. do not develop animation, you are not an animator and yes it is fancy and trendy but it is also it is useless to do animation in storyboards.

- If you can not sell your shot in one panel, if you can not sell your posing in one panel, that means it is not well thought. it is not me who say that but brad bird.

You draw and decide the composition for the last frame of the shot. Not the first. Try to find clarity, we need to understand your shot in one frame.

- Ask yourself what and why is this shot you are doing? a close up? if close up, why? what do you want to show by it? the next shot is a wild shot? why? can you or can not you fusion the 2 shot together? why?I mean, what is your point of view? why and when to put a neutral point of view and when to do a character’s point of view? To answer these questions, you really must understand what is the intention in this sequence, what is the subtext of the sequence, what is really going on, what are the journey and plot of each character in this sequence. Every sequence has to have a meaning in the whole story, to move on the story. If you don’t feel so, find it, ask your head of story or if it’s your own script, ask yourself what’s the purpose of this sequence. You can not save really a sequence who has no purpose unless you go off from it.

- All of these questions can be answer only if you watch a ton of movies , and not useless tv show. I m talking about real masterpieces cinematographic movies. so educate your cinematographic language before anything else by watching movies.

To improve a lot your storyboard, try to ask yourself about every information you want to tell in every shots, how to reveal them in the most entertaining way. Study Brad Bird ‘s movies or Hitchcock movies or David Lean movies in that purpose.

- All of these questions can be answers if you have the right intention that I suggested you to get before drawing. what is the point of view is the most important. it will lead you to what do you want to show to the audience. storyboarding is about telling the best point of view at every moments of the sequence you are doing.

6. I re draw many many pass of my thumbnails. I do maybe 5 pass in total or more if need. All the time, rewatch your sequence, repitch it to your self, loudly, try to be your own audience. I think a lot and draw very limited. black and white no fancy brush. So I can add or remove very easly pannels.

7. I redraw everything on computer then, and pre-layout everything. I m aware it is a slow method but it oblige me to think more everypass but my goal is to think without drawing and to draw directly in photoshop the right pannel of course.

- By pre-layouting I mean I draw very carefully the characters in the space and again, when I do that I m still at one pannel a shot. So I can structure very carefully the composition, the scenography , the stagging. Of course if the lighting is a storytelling tool in a shot I draw the lighting.

8. I developp my shots only after the first review with the Head of Story and the director. In order to save mine and their energy. some notes I ve took :

- By developping the shots I mean being careful with the transitions. it must be motivated by something.

- Ask yourself when to show the information and how to show it. How to reveal the info is the key. You can learn that only by watching a ton of great movies.

- Be very careful with the space of the sequence. Having a great sense of the space of the sequence is the key to move the camera in the right way.

Avoid the cut as much as possible. Always asking myself if the 2 shots could be better in one?

Rythm : slow shot and quick shot. wild and close up shot. the rythm is visual in cinema and not only about music. Think like an editor, watch video about editing, you must understand your pannels in a video mode, not illustration. Especially if you are coming from comicbook like me…

180 degree is a TOOL not a RULE. If need, just forget about it. The most important is to not loose your audience. Try to make the audience look at the same area from the last frame of your shot to the next one. That;s the key especially if you are in a fast editing mode. like fights.

BASICS EXERCISES :

1. First watch 200 movies a year, read books, History, go to theatre, travel, study anything but cinema. oblige yourself to discover new movie, any kind, any country, any period, in any context, even 30 minutes of a movie one day and the rest the morning after. Just dive into cinema and not tv show, not pure animation. I love tv show I love manga but storyboarding is about making movie. Animation is cinema. If you watch Miyazaki movie you will just be limited because this guys has watch a ton of classic movies, and read a ton of books. Same for Spielberg, I love spielberg but how can you understand this great artist if you don’t study the same things he studied? Plus cinema is about the meaning first and then the form. If we do not educate ourselves , we can not tell anything interesting, no matter what we are talented.

2. Then read some books about scenario because you must understand some tools about the langage of scenario and scenography. My perosnal reference but there is many other great of course are Story from Mc Kee and Lesson of cinema by Eisenstein . for me they are basics, efficient.

3. Analyze a lot of movies like 10 or 12 a year like I did here . It helped me a lot believe me.

I recommand to study movies from Hitchcock, like Notorious, Vertigo, The Lodger, Stangers in a train , well, every of them… Also David Lean’s movies (brief encounter, Hobson’s choice, lawrence of arabia), also Jim Jarmush ‘s Strangers in paradise, Kieslowsky ‘ 3 colors blue and Dekalog, also every Kurosawa especially Rashomon, Bad Sleep well, Yojimbo, seven samourai, akahige) Every Kubrick, Spielberg (Munich, Shindler’s list, Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T., Who’s afraid fo Virginia Woolf, The conformist, all that Jazz, Potemkin Battleship, Grapes of Wrath, Hud, Ben Hur, Midnight Cowboy, Amadeus …….

4. Having good skills in drawing facial acting, posing, but very important, pushing skills in layout : drawing characterss in space is the most important. having a great sense of perspective, lense, space is essential. So training in layout is a great great idea.

Don’t be lazy about learning cinematography or if you are, don’t pretend it is good enough.. don’t be self satisfied to draw funny cartoon. or if you are, that’s allright but don’t pretend you are doing cinema and you are humble. Cartoon and cinema are not the same level of standards. Learning the cinematography of japanese anime is a great essential key but not a goal, not enough, it is nothing compare to live action cinema. If you want to stay on league 3, that;s totally fine, but don’t pretend you are as good as league 1 please. I m still learning a lot everyday, I am not at all satisfied of my own level believe me. But I improve all the time because the more I learn about storytelling, the more I know that I know nothing. Watching a ton of old movies is the key, learning from the best directors is the key (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Lean, Spielberg, Kieslowsky, Wrong Kar Wai, Kurosawa..) . Cinema must be your hardcore drug addiction.

cool training exercise :

Introduction of a character.

3 weeks. 10h a day, 6 days per week.

Analyze, writing, storyboard, 25 shots maximum by sequence.

- First week : study 5 introduction of character in your favorite movies. Good or devil character. make the list of what is going on in the sequence : What his clothes tell about him. What about his physical acting? How he react in front of a difficult situation? How the others character behave and react from seeing or interracting with him?

Introduction fo character I recommand to study :

- Hud in the movie named HUD :)

- Shindler list (Shindler, the nazi chef too eventually)

- All that Jazz (the main character)

- Indiana Jones in the first one

- Terminator 2 (terminator, Sarah Connor, t300)

- Amadeus (Salieri)

- Midnight Cowboy (the heros and his budy Dustin Hoffman)

- Silence of the lambs ( Claris)

Don’t analyze the sequence like describing what you see, but try to understand what are the tools used in this sequence to tell the story. In other words, it is like telling the ingredients in the cake and not describing the appearance of the cake.Open the body. don’t look at the body.

By example : Pirat of Carabean : Jack Sparrow is proud of his shity boat falling appart into the sea, act like a captain no matter what, never panic, never feel ashamed, other character are surprised and don’t know what to say. He is wearing old pirat clothes, extravert style, . All of this details introduce an extravert guys, who does not care about what people think about him, who is free and confortable with himself no matter what. Every elements are used to introduce him. His behaviour from a difficult situation, the behavious of the others character seeing him, his clothes, his environment, his acting…

Two last weeks : storyboarding: only prelayout thubnails, no clean. Do two storyboard. one about the intro of a protagonist, one about the intro of an antagonist of a movie. design them draftly. One of the intro of the character must be made without the character itself at the beginning. like people are talking about him, or we can see news paper whatever. but the guy must appear at the end of the sequence. Find an interesting context for these intro. How a character react in a certain context is a way to introduce him. How he evolve with others is a context. How he looks like how he behave, his accessories, his hair, his clothes is a context too of course.

Another cool training exercise :

during 2 or 3 weeks: Imagin a sequence between two characters who meet after 6 month of not seeing each others. They used to love each other but did not talk about it 6 month ago. They missed the other. In the current time the meet again, put them in a context where they can not talk really deeply, only small talk, bullshit dialogs, like on of the other is a seller in a store (coffee shop), or they meet in a train station, or they meet in a loud big party with a ton of other people, or they meet while they both have a new girlfriend boyfriend, or only one of them has got one etc. So play with the bullshit dialogs, and show the subtext of this relationship, the reality of it, through the eyes , the tiny settle facial expressions. At the end they split again, but you must show their mixed feeling. Through their eyes, or through an action they do, through an iconic tool, a color, anything you want who can be a good symbol.

You can not do that kind of exercise if you don;t watch a ton of movie and study them first. I really do not recommand to do them without spendind a lot of time to study movies. I recommand to study movie full time during 1 month minimum. I suggest to read my study of Notorious.

Another cool exercise:

A man surviving in the hostile nature during 3 days. No dialogs at all. It can be a airplane crash, or he is lost any reasons. Ho he survive, show his life. The cold, the warm , the starving, how he gets the food but more than that, show his journey. What is his story. Why he is here, what does he miss? Is he lonely? is he afraid? is he focus on surviving? strong or weak? Tell the story you want but show something real.

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