If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this great guest post by Marcie Begleiter and the contest details at the end.

If you don’t want to watch the video in all it’s silly glory (I mean just look at that screen grab) and just want to know who won…well, it wasn’t you.

Unless your name is Lamont Wayne. 

So congrats to Lamont, yay for Muk Muk and Olympic mitts and yay that I’m still alive and have motivation not to die before June!

Enjoy the video and hopefully I can post another one soon. With educational content and stuff.

If you can’t see the video, click through to the blog here or watch it at Vimeo here:
http://www.vimeo.com/10225639

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because I will post something useful…eventually.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

No related posts this time.

Only one birthday. Mine. Today. I’m old.

And only one contest. But it’s my first, so that’s cool.

But first a quick note to say I’m still alive.

Again. And it looks like I can only manage one post a month or so until I finish this contract that may or may not kill me.

You know you’re working too hard when you have to write “Don’t die” in your day planner. (You think I’m kidding…I actually did that. Twice.)

But enough about ‘Kid vs Kat vs Karen’. We have a guest author today! From a real author!

I’ve recommended this book before and I am doing it again. Because the new edition just came out last month. And word has it, my blog is mentioned in the resources. How cool is that? Plus it is one great book on the subject of storyboarding for live-action film.

If that’s what you want to do, get this book.

So in celebration of this second edition of  ‘From Word To Image‘ by the awesome Marcie Begleiter, I bring you a guest post by her. About a little twist to storyboarding  and pitching a film.

Then there will be some details on the little contest we’re having. I’ll give you a hint…FREE BOOK. Signed by the author. (Okay, that was more than a hint.)

Take it away, Marcie!

Visual Pitching: Storyboards on Steroids

By Marcie Begleiter
Author of From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process

Since the mid 1980’s my film activities have covered storyboarding, set decoration, art direction, prop design, graphics and even gassing up cars…basically, when a producer or director called, my attitude was ‘You need it, I’ll do it’ (within reason, of course )

The pre-viz work in particular was developed once the financing has been secured, the heads of the production team chosen and then we raced against a production schedule to complete the prep work before the cameras rolled.

But lately a particular request has arrived on my desktop that’s a bit different in character.

Visual Pitching’s time has come.

With production financing a challenge in the best of times, many a director and producer are looking to walk into meetings with more than a practiced verbal pitch. Bringing in visual research that focuses on characters and settings, presenting key frames and flipping though storyboards or even showing animatics in pitch meetings have often been a key to selling Action and SciFi films.

But these materials can also bring inspiration and an expanded avenue of communication to pitches for all manner of projects including character driven stories, romantic comedies or indie dramas.

What comprises a visual pitch?

At the simplest level, it helps to  convey the look and feel of the story and how it will be told in images. There can be references to lighting, to other classic films, to character appearance and even how the film will be shot. Key frames, what I sometimes think of as ‘storyboards on steroids’, are sometimes used to give a snapshot of particular moments of high action or emotion.

These boards are often rendered in color with plenty of detail – quite a bit more developed than the typical editorial board, but not as tricked out as a full-blown production illustration.

Balance is crucial.

Some directors wish to avoid creating a presentation which conveys a sense that all the critical decisions have been made. Some producers want the opportunity to give creative input (did I say “some”?) and being presented with an over-blown visual presentation can backfire.

Including a short scene with traditional storyboards is also an option. Especially with writers who want to direct their own material, an editorial storyboard functions as a ‘dry run’ for showing mastery of visual storytelling as well as, more specifically, editing, shot selection and pacing (if you present it as an animatic).

Spreading the word about visual pitches can be a service that designers and artists provide to ‘above the line’ filmmakers who might not be as familiar with the practice.

It can also provide additional opportunities for you to work on films before the films are fully financed. And if your key frames and storyboards help to ‘seal the deal’ it’s a good bet that the filmmakers will be back for more once the production clock has begun to tick!

About Marcie:
Marcie Begleiter is a designer and writer working in the film and motion media industries. She is the owner/founder of Filmboards, a company which creates visual pre-production material for pitches as well as production and has worked as art director, illustrator and set decorator on dozens of projects for production companies such as HBO, ABC, Tristar, and New Line Cinema. In academia she was Founding Director of the interdisciplinary program at Otis College of Art and Design and is on the Graduate faculty of the Department of Broadcast Cinema at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She also has served on the faculties of AFI and the International Filmschule in Cologne. The second edition of her bestselling book, From Word to Image; Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, has just been released.

To Contact Marcie and see upcoming events visit www.marciebegleiter.com

You can also  order a signed copy of her book, From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process by emailing marcie@marciebegleiter.com

You can also buy the book from Amazon and many fine book stores.

Thanks Marcie!

Now about that little contest…

[UPDATE: The contest is officially CLOSED. I\'ll be posting the winner soon. Thanks to all who entered!]

Marcie has graciously decided to GIVE AWAY a signed copy of her book to one of my fantastic readers!

Wee!

How do you enter? Just leave a comment on this post. You can leave more than one, but your name is only counted ONCE.

How do you win? I will literally print out all the comments, cut them up and pull one out of a hat. Probably on video to show it’s legit.

When is the deadline? Let’s say one month from today. March 13, 2010.

How do you get the book? Marcie will contact you by email and then mail it to you. So make sure the email address you use in the comments is one you use and check!

What do you have to say in your comment? It really doesn’t matter. But “Happy Birthday Karen” is a good choice [UPDATE: OK, that\'s kinda old now...as am I.  "I wanna book!" is good] and “Marcie Rocks the Casbah” isn’t bad either. Or even a knock-knock joke. Whatever. You won’t be judged on the comment itself (but gee whiz, have fun.)

Easiest contest ever, right? And let’s face it, I don’t exactly get hundreds of comments around here so your chances are pretty darn good. So comment! Enter! Get a signed book that’s awesome!

And if you don’t win, buy it anyway.

That is all.

You may now go about your Valentine’s Day bitterness and Olympic Games watching. (Not that I care all that much about the Olympics but…Woo Hoo Vancouver!)

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to make sure I didn’t die.

(And uh, just ignore that “related post” below. This is a different kind of contest. Oh, the irony…)

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. Why I Don’t Participate in Contests Well, I’ve taken the Aniboom Radiohead Contest banner down. I...
2. We Have A Winnah! Yes,  I finally got off my butt and made a...

It’s the long-awaited Aidan storyboard revision follow-up. With my comments and everything.

TA DA!

Since it’s been a short lifetime since I started this series, feel free to refresh your memories with the introduction post to Aidan Casserly’s storyboard he has created for his portfolio.

Then you can check out his brainstorming and thumbnail post, his first pass storyboard and my feedback on them in part one here and part two here.

Then he took my notes and made some revisions. He didn’t do every single thing I suggested and that’s cool.

Though…he should have. Because I’m, like…*ahem*…right and all. ; )

But I digress.

So now we have my final comments about his revisions. Enjoy!

(You can click on the images to enlarge them.)

Page 1

I had suggested he add a pan on the first panel of the exterior of the jailhouse and he chose not to. Which is fine. But I can’t help but notice the total lack of camera movement in the board. I think it’s done more to keep the panels “nice and neat-like”.

And I say, if you want to storyboard for animation, you’re going to have to show some camera movement and not let the template dictate your story. I see it with students too. They make their camera movements to fit in nicely within the storyboard template.

Don’t do that. Tell the story the way you need to and you dictate what the panels should look like. So what if it ends up uneven? It’s all done for the TV screen, not the paper.

Without any indication of ‘cuts’ and transitions, it’s hard to tell when he wanted to cut and when it’s all one scene. As it looks now, they all look like cuts. And I don’t think they’re supposed to be.

For actual production boards, you have to show pans and truck-ins/outs. So if you are doing a storyboard for your portfolio…to get work…add some camera movement indications when appropriate.

Page 2.

This is an area where he could do some cutting since Aidan has indicated he wished the board was a little shorter. To trim it down, I would use the last panel on page one (guard at monitors) and combine it with the second panel on page 2 (guard still at monitors and legs walk past).

Then I’d get right to the close up of the guard and him getting whacked in the head. Four scenes (and seven panels) gone.

And that pretty much takes care of page 3.

Page 4.

Even though he has added a little arrow in the second panel, I’d prefer to see that as one complete diagonal pan in one drawing. Again, that’s how it should be done for a real production board.

Don’t *not* do it to keep the panels pretty. (Have I said that enough yet?)

The composition of the character has just a wee too much space above his head for this whole scene. I’d shift the frame down a smidgen.

Page 5.

I did suggest to make the second panel part of the previous scene, but he chose not to. Again, that’s fine. But the second panel still doesn’t hook up to the first (or really the third for that matter).

So I stand by my first recommendation.

Page 6.

He added the character taking the suitcase out of the bucket, so yay for that. In the first panel, I just would have had the character bent over a bit like he was about to reach in. Now it looks like the suitcase came up out of the bucket to his hand in a way. (Yeah, yeah, I’m being picky here. Sue me.)

The fifth panel should at least have an arrow indicating him entering that scene.

Yay for little icons on the keypad!

Page 7.

For hook-up reasons, the fourth panel should have an arrow (and ideally “IN”) to show the jar enters the scene.

Page 8.

I had originally wanted the second panel to be the first one (with that “IN” arrow again). Then the first, third and fourth would all be one scene. It’s not “wrong” this way, I just think it would flow better.

Page 9 and 10.

I’m digging the laser beams. It gives another obstacle for him that wasn’t there before.

Page 11.

Well, that whole ballet thing is…uh…interesting.

Yeah, that’s it. “Interesting”. *cheeky smile*

Page 12.

I still feel that last panel is begging for some dialogue. But that’s just me.

So there you go.

I hope it was worth the wait. (Somehow I think it wasn’t…but what the heck.)

When it’s all said and done, it’s still the artist’s choice. At least for a portfolio piece.

If this was in a studio, I’d have Aidan’s hide for not listening to me, I tells ya!!

But it’s all good. I can only offer my opinions and whatever you choose to do, so be it. And just to be clear, in a normal Mini Critique you wouldn’t get the revision feedback.

This is just a bonus for Aidan (and you) because he’s been such a good sport. For the ripping apart his work stuff and for all the waiting stuff (oy, the waiting!).

Thanks again to Aidan for letting us watch his process and share his fabulous drawings with us!

You rock.

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Get your own awesome Mini Storyboard Critique here because the price rises on October 12th!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because I’ll write about something else (what that is, I don’t know yet).

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions Okay. So I know I was going to post up...
2. One Artist’s Process: The Board and The Critique Before I begin I just want to mention this is...
3. Making A Storyboard: One Artist’s Process I guess I kind of missed a week there,...

So I know I was going to post up Aidan Casserly’s revised storyboard a week ago and my comments on them to finish off the fabulous series of  ‘One Artist’s Process’.

Which can be found at the intro post, the brainstorming and thumbnails, the first pass storyboards and my feedback of them as part one here and part two here.

But I didn’t, did I?

I’m sure Aidan is off grumbling in the corner wondering where the heck his revision post is.

Well here it is!

Kinda. Sorta.

Unfortunately, it’s just the revisions of his storyboard. Not my comments on them. Because that crazy thing called “work” happened all of a sudden-like.

Now I’m busy as all hell for a few weeks and this is about all my feeble brain can cough up at the moment. So look back at the other posts and take a look here and see what Aidan has changed after I ripped them apart.

See if you can see why he did what he did in the revisions and if you agree or disagree with his choices. I’ll pop into the comments to give some of my two cents, but I promise I will give them their own post when I get the time.

So my apologies to you and Aidan.

But duty calls! (And so does my bank account…)

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Get your own awesome Mini Storyboard Critique here!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because I *will* finish this sucker.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions. For Real This Time I’m here! I’m here! It’s the long-awaited Aidan storyboard revision...
2. Making A Storyboard: One Artist’s Process I guess I kind of missed a week there,...
3. A Little Artist Lazy Linky-Love Post Okay, this is a cop-out. I admit it. I’m really...

I mean, can you blame them?

We’ve been following Aidan Casserly along his little journey of creating a storyboard for his portfolio. He purchased one of my fabulous Mini Critiques and is letting us all take a peek.

You can find the introduction post here and his brainstorming and thumbnailing process here.

Then It Got Really Juicy

If you look back at the previous post, you will find his original storyboards and my critique of the first half of them. All in their red-scribbled glory.

I now bring you the conclusion of said critique in more red-scribbled glory.

(Click on the images to enlarge and get a better look.)

PAGE 5

• Panel one, have him walk IN and let’s see him holding the bag.

• Don’t rely only on words for gags. This could (if a real cartoon) be seen in other languages, so use visuals to support it where you can. So adding an ‘eye’ graphic on the screen will help drive home the message here.

• Third panel. A bit more acting here would be good. How does he feel about this? Was he expecting this? Annoyed? Confident? Have some fun here with another panel or two.

• Fourth panel, have the jar come IN to shot and the screen still with eye/required message. THEN screen changes to approved (give it the before and after poses). But we can’t SEE “approved” on that tiny screen. Consider changing this to a big check-mark (that could be green in a finished film).

• Panel six, same thing. Maybe add a hand graphic. But hook it up by starting with the check mark, then it changes to this next request.

PAGE 6

• Panel one, use same shot/set up as for reaching in for the jar. Could add more acting too. Mounting frustration? Use the opportunity instead of the hand at the bag shot. But just end on him reaching into the bag (not pulling out the hand).

• Panel two, hand comes IN to shot. Two poses with the screen still with hand graphic. Second pose changes to check mark.

• Panel three, keep as is, then add another “Ha!” victory pose. Then it changes to panel 5 with your “Huh??” pose.

• NOW show panel 4. But uh…use a graphic for the message. (Good luck with that one…)

• Now REPEAT panel five’s “Huh??” pose, then add a “Grr!!” pose to it (two panels).

• Panel six kind of ruins your hammer gag. (Unless the gag was that he was going to pull a wee-wee out of the bag…but I didn’t think he was. So it kinda doesn’t work.) I’d suggest going wider with him standing in front of the door to start. Then he could turn his back to us, faking us out that he’s going to whip out HIS wee-wee. (A “zip” sound FX could be fun…but it’s the bag).

PAGE 7

• NOW do the hammer gag as is, only cropped a bit closer.

• Third, fourth & fifth panel has that perspective thing again. Even lower horizon line will help.

But from here to the end, I think could use more story help. Nothing really ‘interesting’ happens from here to the end. Shots of someone just walking (while this should be an exciting break-out) just aren’t that fun to watch.

Then the others just casually walk out of the cells. Hmm. Then it ends with what looks like a line of dialogue that isn’t included. If there is supposed to be some, add it (unless you were going to in the final version). It would be better if dialogue wasn’t needed though.

Since it’s a portfolio piece, I would play with this section some more. Can you add more obstacles for Skapula? Lasers in the room? More tricks out of his bag? Can you use more action and suspense for the final break out? Some kind of ‘time is running out’ kind of thing?

Maybe other guards are on the way. An alarm could go off after he smashes the panel with the hammer. Then through a series of short, inventive (or funny) events, he gets his buddies out in the nick of time.

This will be much more fun to look at in a portfolio. And show off your skills a bit more.

All in all, great draftsmanship with fun characters and a good grasp of visual storytelling. You just need to bring it more to “we’re making a real cartoon here” to take it further away from “comic-land”.

As I tell everyone who get a critique from me, it’s still your choice what to change and what to keep. These are just my professional and personal opinions.

(But of course, I’m right. *ahem*)

Pump up the ending a bit and you’ll have a solid piece to show off your great skills.

The pummeling ends here. : )

And there was much rejoicing.

This was really fun! (Well, fun for me because I wasn’t the one being pummeled.)

I hope to do more of these ‘public critiques’ because it’s a great way for others to learn, it gives some exposure to the artists and I get easy content. It’s a win-win-win I’d say.

And good news.

Aidan has already revised this storyboard. I’ll post that up next week so we can all take a look and see what he changed and where he said, “Uh uh…I don’t  think so!” to my feedback.

Thanks again to Aidan for being such a good sport.

Yay, Aidan!

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Get your own awesome Mini Storyboard Critique here!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because we haven’t seen the last of Aidan’s storyboard!

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Board and The Critique Before I begin I just want to mention this is...
2. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions Okay. So I know I was going to post up...
3. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions. For Real This Time I’m here! I’m here! It’s the long-awaited Aidan storyboard revision...

We’ve been following Aidan Casserly along his little journey of creating a storyboard for his portfolio. We saw the introduction post here and his brainstorming and thumbnailing process here.

Now we get to the good stuff.

The first pass of his storyboard and what I had to say about it in a Mini Critique.

But before we get to that, here’s his storyboard as it was sent to me. And yes, it is quite clean for a ‘first pass’. Which is fine and dandy.

But you can be much rougher at this stage of the game with your own boards.

(Click on the images to enlarge and get a better look.)

Nice, huh?

Now here’s what I had to say about it all. Keep in mind he told me to “go all out”. So I’m holding it up to professional standards and being all nit-picky and stuff.

In a Mini Critique I scribble over your board in red and then tell you what it all means. And I usually prefer to do it in audio because I think I explain myself better that way.

But we thought print was better for…you know…reading and stuff.

(Again, click on the images to enlarge and get a better look at my scribbles.)

PAGE 1

• What you really have to make clear right off the bat, is that we are at a prison. How can you drive this home visually? Try a pan in the first shot (some perspective issues here). Maybe have a far off guard looking down at the yards. Pan down to the entrance…make it more prison-y. Even a sign could help, but don’t rely on it.

• Second panel, start close on the video screens, to again drive home the fact we are in a prison. SHOW us what’s on the screens. All those bars will give us a much clearer picture of WHERE WE ARE. Simple, but important thing to establish. Then pull back to reveal the guard.

• Third panel. Is there a reason for the down shot? If it is to show the shadow of the janitor walking through the background, then great. But we must really see that shadow clearly on the floor. We aren’t now. If it’s not for this reason, I may just make this a regular medium shot on the guard. Could show us he’s bored…yawn etc.

• Fourth panel. Lower horizon line for perspective to work. Can add an arrow on the legs walking. (Unless you don’t want arrows for the portfolio. Your choice, but it could use some in places.)

• Fifth panel. You need a start pose for the guard so he hooks up to previous scene. This is where it’s too much like a comic book. You are telling a story with pictures, but you’re not making a film properly (if you know what I mean). Main thing you’re missing is start poses, hook-ups and enough panels to show the action.

• Sixth panel could add a little truck-in to give the camera a little movement and the scene a little “false drama”. The board is lacking any camera movement. Again, that “comic book thing”. You don’t want to over-do them, but some well placed camera moves will work wonders and help tell the story and set the mood.

PAGE 2

• Panel one needs a second pose to get him back to reading his magazine. Needs to hook up with panel two. Panel one and two have the guard way too similar in size and position. This creates a jump cut and should be avoided. I’d shrink him in the second panel.

• Second panel maybe have the janitor whistling, all casual-like. In the third panel, I’d dump the nose pick (till later) so it doesn’t distract our eyes from the approaching janitor. This is who we should be watching.

• Fourth panel doesn’t hook up with previous. You can start the scene just with a color card (for a split second screen time) and have him rise up FAST into the scene with mop overhead. Fast, funny and hook-up problem is solved.

• Fifth panel needs a start pose. This panel can work in a comic, but animators need to know what the very FIRST drawing they draw should look like. And this isn’t it. We need that split second before he gets whacked in the head. This could be your nose-picking pose to add a little humor to the humor.

• Sixth pose needs to hook up. He can’t be getting whacked in the head and lying on the floor at the same time. We gotta GET him to the floor. Three panels. First one is the ground. Second one, he falls IN. Third one, janitor walks IN from behind.

PAGE 3

• The first panel could be a continuation from the last scene. Janitor walks in, diagonal pan UP to his face. Takes off the props, pulls off the mask as you have done.

• NOTE: Watch out for adjusting the sizes of your characters within panels of the same scene. You kind of shrunk him in the fourth panel to accommodate the pose. Don’t do that. Either start wide enough to fit it in or you need some camera adjustment. If nothing has changed, the character size MUST stay consistent throughout a scene.

• Dump the scene in panel six and just continue the previous scene with Scapula tossing the mask and walking OUT. Don’t need this scene.

PAGE 4

• Make panel two your first panel. He left the previous scene, so he can be anywhere now. So show that wide shot of him at the control panel. We see where the guard is…all is good. We know where we are.

• NOW put your first panel second. He approached the control panel, now we SEE what he’s doing in this shot. Great.

• Now on to panel three as is. You could repeat what the screens look like in new panel one, then that they are turning off here. Keep panel four as is.

• Lower horizon line in panel five for this to work better.

• Panel six – bag issue. Where did it come from? Where was it before? Don’t let the audience have this question in their heads. A quick close shot of him picking it up by the door between panel four and five could help. Like he had it waiting outside for him. Don’t leave unanswered questions like this floating around because you don’t want to deal with it. You have to.

Whew!

Well, because I’m just so darned long winded with this critique, we’ll pause here and continue it next week, okay? (Like how I’m milking this baby?)

Let’s thank Aidan again for being brave enough to put his stuff ‘out there’ and for me to pick it apart.

Thanks Aidan!

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Get your own awesome Mini Storyboard Critique here!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to see the rest of Aidan’s critique!

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Board and The Critique Continued Well it looks like people are digging watching me rip...
2. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions. For Real This Time I’m here! I’m here! It’s the long-awaited Aidan storyboard revision...
3. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions Okay. So I know I was going to post up...

I’m reposting it here along with my ‘two cents’ that will turn out to be a full blown Mini Critique of his work by the end of it.

Basically ripping him to shreds for all to see. (I kid! I kid!)

You can read the introduction post here.  I now give you his second installment. Take it away, Aidan.

************  ************  ************

Part 1: Brainstorming and Thumbnails

This is, without doubt, the best part of the entire process. I love it. I reeeeally love this part.

Now that we have our ’story seed’, we go about brainstorming. I grab a stack of paper (just junk paper, since this is a rough and messy stage). This is the part where, no matter what, you NEVER limit yourself. Ever.

Be as stupid as possible.

Any idea, no matter how irrelevant or pointless, gets jotted down. Anything. Even if it has remotely no tangible connection to the story at hand, everything matters. There’s a reason.

The minute you start thinking too much is the minute you’re screwed, because limiting yourself for any reason at this point means you’re going to have a boring, predictable result. I know you want to make the bestest story possible, but don’t go thinking that there’s only one solution to make this story a masterpiece.

Don’t think too much. Just do it.

Remember what Douglas Adams taught us: “DON’T PANIC”.

Okay, there is something I’d like to point out; I tend to be more wild and carefree with personal stories than I am with client work or studio tests. My clients tend to have a more solid idea of what they want, usually scripted, but never so concrete that I can not add any ideas of my own.

But the crazed brainstorming is still there, and is in fact essential; I can think of a couple of times when I needed to storyboard something ‘nice’ but couldn’t stop thinking about screwy ideas. The solution: jot them down anyway. It’s important to push an idea as far as possible, because you can always backtrack to the point where it works.

Seriously, I can’t stress this enough, do what that rotten dormouse said, and FREE YOUR HEAD.

Another thing I’ll point out is that my intent with this story is mainly humor and action, but even if you’re doing ’serious’ storyboarding (action, advertising, spaghetti westerns, etc) I would still go ahead and jot down every random thought.

Just because you’re not making funny-stuff doesn’t mean that you can’t explore bizarre thoughts…hey, it might just work!

[And even if you\'re doing a studio test for a funny show/movie that doesn\'t completely match your own sense of humor (but in the end you still want to match the content of the work you\'re applying for), still jot those thoughts for now. You can always backtrack later.]

So we start scribbling down thoughts in a stream-of-conscious way (for client work, when scripts are given to me I will mark down ‘beats’ with strokes/slashes to point out timing marks, then thumbnail in the sidelines), putting down whatever comes to mind.

A good deal of this stuff will never be used, but do it anyway. You’ll come up with a lot.

In these rough pages I juggled ideas, namely whether I wanted Scapula to break IN to the prison or break OUT. As you can see in one of the pages I toyed with ideas for both, and eventually decided that breaking IN had more opportunities for fun storytelling, while breaking OUT was mostly Scap running around and being chased by guards.

When a story starts to form I begin thumbnailing. There’s still nothing very solid yet, so there will be a lot of crossing this out and adding that in (see for yourself). A cohesive flow will start to form and from there I have, more or less, the ’spine’ of the story, which means I have something of a path I can follow now (even if there will be a lot of changes made).

If you can see your story starting to form from these thumbnails, that’s great. If nothing is happening, that’s also great, because you get to go back and brainstorm some more.

SPONTANEITY and IMPROVISATION are key here. Get loose. Explore.

Chug some caffeine and have fun…I really, really, really love this part of the process.

************  ************  ************

Cool beans.

Thanks Aidan.

I’m not going to critique his story or thumbnails at this point because he has already sent me the first pass of his storyboard. So I prefer to dig into that.

But Aidan has many valid points about the brainstorming process here. I also want to remind you that this is for his own project with his own characters. There is lots of noodling and experimenting to be had when it’s an original story like this.

As he said, the process can be a little different if it’s studio or client work.

I don’t write notes on the script. I don’t let my mind go to crazy, wild places if I know it’s a waste of time for a particular show.

I just read the script a few times, let it sink in for a while, procrastinate as long as possible, then start to thumbnail straight away from beginning to end in a raging panic.

Yes, I’m kidding.

Sorta.

And the process can be different if you’re not Aidan. Or me.

I’m a huge believer in the thumbnailing process. Yet I know many board artists that dig in and loosely rough their drawing out on the large panels right off the bat. You will have to find what works for you. There is no right or wrong way to plan out a storyboard.

(But thumbnailing really is the right one *coughcough*.)

So what did we learn this week?

• That letting your mind go wild in the brainstorming stage is a good thing.
• That thumbnailing is a smart thing.
• That “bestest” is not a real word.
• And that I had to Google “Douglas Adams” because I’m an uncultured slob.

Stay tuned for next installment where we see the first of his storyboards and I really let Aidan have it. Mwah, ha ha!

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Get your own awesome Mini Storyboard Critique here!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to see Aidan’s first pass storyboards.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions Okay. So I know I was going to post up...
2. Making A Storyboard: One Artist’s Process I guess I kind of missed a week there,...
3. One Artist’s Process: The Board and The Critique Continued Well it looks like people are digging watching me rip...

I guess I kind of missed a week there, didn’t I? Oh well.

I’ve been tackling a whole whack of pain in my shoulder that is tendinitis, but could be worse than that. So if I wasn’t up all the hours of the night writhing in pain, I was trying to sleep on the couch propped up with pillows for a week.

Not the makings of much creativity, I’ll tell ya that. And I couldn’t tolerate sitting in front of the computer at all.

But after much Ibuprofen and much ice, I’m now mobile. And can finally dress myself without screaming. Yay.

Anyhoo, we’re going to try something neat here.

A very whacky and all around nice-guy reader of mine, Aidan Casserly,  has started a series of blog posts on his own site about the process of making a storyboard for his portfolio.

Then he bought a Mini Critique (smart boy) because he knows how valuable feedback can be. He wanted my permission to post my feedback on his blog which I had no problem with.

But then I thought it could be cool to post it on my blog too. Partly for the great learning experience for you and partly for the easy content…me being a lazy ass and all.

Kind of like a ‘live feedback’ dealy where I’ll post his post here and add my two cents along the way. It will about the storyboard process in general and about his work specifically where appropriate.

What a brave soul he is.

So here’s Aidan’s first post from his blog. I’ll add a bit more at the end.

************  ************  ************

Let’s Make A Storyboard! Now!

So far I’ve been using this blog to post boards from my archives (and there’s a LOT), but because I’ve been looking to make some new storyboards I thought I would take you all along for the ride and show how I go about making these things.

This is going to be something I will post along the way, so if you want to comment or throw your own feedback in there this will be the time!

Where Does It All Begin?

It begins with an idea. Doesn’t have to be the greatest idea in history, just a spark to get the creativity going (as the brilliant Barron Storey taught me, “If you don’t have a good idea, a stupid one will do”).

The tricky thing with boarding a short story, something that can be used in a portfolio or whatnot, is not taking on too much at one time, so I’ll put off boarding Moby Dick for now.

My main goal is to board a scene, just a short but well-done sample for my portfolio.

I want to keep it to about 48 boards (6 boards on 8 pages, or 8 on 6 if space permits);  some of my recent stories were only about 24 boards each, but let’s have more room to play.

The Story:  Scapula, a supervillain, breaks into a high-security prison to release his evil friends.

That’s it.

I’ve done two Scapula storyboards previously (HELPLESS and THE SINISTER MONSTER DOOM LEGION VS. RANDY), but this time it isn’t going to be a huge story, or even a full one.

Let’s see what we can do with just a scene or two.

************  ************  ************

Thanks Aidan.

Stuff to keep in mind is that the story is his own original idea, and the characters are also his own. He is also doing this just for his portfolio.

This can be a different experience than working for a studio with their characters and working from a script on a deadline. Your mindset may be a bit different and your stress level may be lower. Just saying. : )

And it’s going to bug me to high heaven, so I’ll just say it: 48 PANELS,  not BOARDS (sorry Aidan). I consider (and pretty much every animation studio too) each individual frame a PANEL and the whole thing put together, a BOARD or STORYBOARD.

Just wanted to get that clear and to give Aidan his first jab. Hee hee. (He may be regretting this already.)

I’ll be posting up the next post in his series on Monday, so you don’t have to wait too long for that one. It will be about brainstorming and thumbnailing, so look out for that!

Should be fun.

_._._._._._._

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email for the next instalment from Aidan.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. One Artist’s Process: The Revisions Okay. So I know I was going to post up...
2. So You Want to Be a Professional Storyboard Artist, eh? I couldn’t help it, I’m Canadian. This is an introductory...
3. One Artist’s Process: Brainstorming and Thumbnails Here’s the second post in the little series I’m doing...

Before I get to the meat of this post I just want to point you to two great posts from Christine Kane.

No, she’s not an animator or anything. She’s a blogger and a musician and all around creative person and pretty cool woman.

I don’t know her or anything, but I read her blog. She’s a great inspiration for the creative type who wants to follow their passion. Sound like you?

Since a lot of you may be going back to school or just starting college, I thought these two posts would be a good read. They totally fit in with pursuing an animation or film making career, being an artist and more.

Give them a read (after you read me of course).

Creating College: 5 Things I Wish I Knew as an Undergrad (part 1)

Creating College: 5 Things I Wish I Knew as an Undergrad (part 2)

_____________________________________________

Well, this is the fourth and final post from the series What’s Wrong With Your Storyboards. The fourth point I mentioned is bad labeling. I wrote:

If you numbered the scenes wrong. Wrote ineffective action notes. Have lots of spelling mistakes. Put the wrong name on some dialogue. All that kind of stuff.

Now labeling would be quite a long and detailed read if I covered everything. So I’m not going to cover everything. Because as a post subject, it’ll probably bore you to tears.

But I am working on putting together a nice guide about the whole labeling thing. So if you want that information, you’ll be able to get it.

Then I won’t be boring you to tears against your will.

So I’ll just touch on a few things here to help you out. And I’ll try to be entertaining.

Maybe.

Everybody get out your fabulous and free storyboard templates to follow along, shall we?

BTW, Is anyone else having problems downloading the Thumbnail Template? Let me know in the comments. Thanks a bunch.

Now, today I’m only going to talk about the areas I highlighted in yellow. Which are the Dialogue and Action Note boxes. Because besides the actual drawings, these are pretty important.

First, a few general pointers:

1. PRINT YOUR NOTES. Do not write in long hand. Your writing may be hard to read and look like chicken scratch. Don’t make people decipher your crappy chicken scratches. It’ll tick them off. Print. Neatly.
2. LABEL IN CHUNKS. Labeling and writing out the notes can be a drag. And tedious. If you save them all till the end, you’ll start to go buggy and make more mistakes. Label in nice little chunks. I usually label what I did that day. 20 to 25 pages at a time is nice. Save your sanity and your hand by NOT saving it all till the board is complete.
3. DO ONE THING AT A TIME. While labeling your nice little chunk, do all the numbering, then do the dialogue, then do the action notes for the whole section. Don’t do everything for one page, then everything for the next page and so on. More chances of screw ups. Concentrate on one area at a time, then move to the next area. Like an assembly line. Henry Ford was on to something. (Google ‘Henry Ford assembly line’ if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about).

Now onto the specifics.

The DIALOGUE box

All you write in the dialogue box is the character’s name who is speaking and what they are saying. Like this:

KAREN

That is my name and this is what I’m actually saying.

Nothing more. Don’t write what the character is thinking. The audience doesn’t get to read these notes so that’s useless. The drawings and acting should show us what they’re thinking, remember?

Just the dialogue from the script and that’s it. You can sometimes add some emotion to help the dialogue by putting it in brackets under the name. Like this:

KAREN

(deadpan)

This is some really boring dialogue. Who wrote this crap?

If you’re working from a printed script, you can either write them by hand or cut it out and tape it down right from (a copy of) the script. I like doing that because it cuts down the possibility of making a spelling mistake or forgetting a word.

Get the idea? Not much else to say about dialogue.

The ACTION NOTE box

The action notes should not tell the story. The pictures should tell the story.

The action notes should tell us what’s in the picture. And to label any camera movement and all that. So answer these questions when writing your notes:

• WHAT is the shot? Close-up, wide shot, over-the-shoulder?
• WHO is in the shot? Use character names, not just ‘he’ or ’she’.
• WHERE are they? Give the location and if it’s day, night, dusk etc.
• WHAT is/are the character(s) doing? Not thinking…DOING. Describe it briefly using simple language. No slang. The guy in China might not know what ‘freaks out’ means exactly.
• ANY CAMERA MOVEMENT. If there is a Trunk-In or Pan, it must be mentioned in the notes and labeled properly. I’m not going to get into that now though. (Sorry, too long).

It really doesn’t have to be long and complicated. Here’s what I would write for this image.

Ext. Backyard – Morning

Wide shot on Fido approaching tree.

No big deal, huh? It really doesn’t need much else. Let’s try another.

Ext. Backyard – Morning

Close-up on Fido smiling in relief.

You don’t need to write a book.

Just the facts ma’am.

Like the other posts in this series, this is *far* from a complete labeling guide (it’ll come though!). But I hope I helped with one of the more important parts of labeling…the notes.

So go through your storyboards, ask those questions and check those notes people!

Until next time.

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email so you don’t miss more tips.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. What’s Wrong With Your Storyboards. That’s not a question. I’ll tell you what’s wrong...

This is the third point I made in the post ‘What’s Wrong with Your Storyboards.’ That point being bad cutting.

But ‘bad’ is such a strong word, so we’ll say ‘poor choice’ of cutting.

The reason I don’t want to use ‘bad’ is because the samples I’m going to show are from one of the cool people who took me up on my free story consulting offer of a few weeks ago. And I don’t want to call anyone whose work I critique, “bad”. Because it wasn’t.

This brave soul is Fred Chung. He sent me some storyboard samples of his original stories. We then had a great webinar meeting and dug into his work. He came away with some solid feedback and (hopefully) some helpful advice to make his storyboards stronger.

So what better way to give a lesson than to use real world examples? Because let’s face it. Fred is not the only person making these kinds of cutting choices.

Trust me.

In the ‘What’s Wrong with Your Storyboards.’post I wrote:

This can be a gray area. Is a bad cut, a wrong cut? Yes, sometimes it is.

I’d say the closer in similarity two shots (cutting to each other) are, the more chance you have of it being a bad cut that must be changed. If it creates a ‘not for dramatic effect’ jump cut, it’s wrong.

Say you have a wide shot of three people and you cut to the next shot of the same three people and that shot is just a little closer, you probably have a jump cut on your hands. Change it.

Now I’m only going to get so far in this post. There can be so many variations of improper cutting in the world (I don’t mean just you Fred!), that I could write a book. So I’m going to show you two examples of one kind today. This subject can continue in the future when I see a good example pop up, OK?

Makes for easy material when I’m feeling like a lazy ass too.

Let’s get to it!

Here’s where Fred had placed a cut between two of his scenes.

This is a very common choice that I would label more on the ‘wrong’ side of things. Cutting from a 3-shot to another 3-shot can be risky business. Especially when the characters have remained relatively the same size with similar silhouettes as you can see illustrated below.

If the silhouettes are so similar when you cut, the characters will ‘pop’ or ‘jump’ to the new pose and it creates weirdness. Kind of a “Huh? Wha? What happened?” in your audiences’ head.

The characters change ever so slightly, yet the background changes more. It goes from a straight horizon line to a diagonal one for seemingly no reason. Another jump. Another “Huh? Wha?”.

The first thing I would ask (and you should ask yourself) is, “Did you really need to cut at all?”

Since the shots are so similar, I can safely bet the answer is, “No.”

So don’t.

Stay there and just continue to pose out the action. Or make some other choices if that tells the story better. Maybe starting on a 2-shot of the girls on the left is better. Then the girl with pony tails could walk in. Or keep the 3-shot and cut to a close-up.

A very rough rule of thumb for people just starting out (and this is *not* a steadfast rule by any means) is the more you vary the shot choice from cut to cut, the less chance you have of ‘bad cutting’.

So a 3-shot to a 3-shot is risky. But a 3-shot to a close-up isn’t. Or a 3-shot to a 2-shot isn’t. The more variation in the number of characters and shot size, the smaller the chance of a ‘jump’ in the cut.

Kinda make sense? Here’s another one.

That’s a little sequence with two cuts. We have a 3-shot to another 3-shot, then to a 2-shot. I wouldn’t say these cuts are ‘wrong’ but there are probably better choices.

The first is still a 3-shot to a 3-shot. But it is different than our first example because the size of the girls does change. Since they are in the same position and only their sizes change, it does create that ‘pop/jump’ again. They ‘pop’ bigger and smaller respectively. Not the best choice.

So here’s a quick and easy solution (because we dig quick and easy). The best way to ‘dump the jump’ is to add a close-up.

Ahh, the close-up.

Nothing cures awkward cutting better than the good old close-up. (Unless of course your whole storyboard is made of 90% close-ups…then for shame! But that’s a whole other problem.)

So we have our 3-shot. Then we cut to the hook-up pose of pony tail girl.

Then we pose her out. She gets sad, she leaves. (FYI – that S/A means ’same as’ the previous background. A real labeling time saver.)

Her exit is missing in the original scene even though I think he intended for her to completely exit the frame. But show it with the word ‘out’ and the arrow (at least in TV animation boards).

Then we can cut to this 2-shot of the other girls and all is well in the world. Again, in the original board, these girls would have ‘jumped’ as well. They would suddenly get bigger but with their full bodies in both shots. That is a recipe for a jump cut as well. Too similar.

So there you have it.

And I just scratched the surface.

Please don’t consider this ‘the complete guide to cutting’ by any means. But I gave you a taste of one problem and I hope you learned something. That’s all I can hope for, right?

Let’s give Fred props for letting us all learn from some of his work, shall we?

Thanks guy.

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to see if I pick on anyone else in the future.

© 2007-2010 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

1. What’s Wrong With Your Storyboards. That’s not a question. I’ll tell you what’s wrong...
2. Making A Storyboard: One Artist’s Process I guess I kind of missed a week there,...