Book Analysis: The Art of the Story Board

The Art of the Story Board by John Hart



From reading the first line in this book ("in saying you want to be a storyboard artist...") it is clear it is directed towards people interesting in becoming story board artists themselves as opposed to general film makers, even so there are some techniques I can take and incorporate into my own work.


Ren and Stimpy storyboard: image from www.animationarchive.org

What is a storyboard?

A story board is a linear visual interpretation of a written script and is used to aid both pre and post production teams in creating an animation, film or even a still. This preplanning can assist in camera angles, special effects, acting, essentially every visual aspect of a shoot, thus saving a production company or team a lot of time and money.


An example of how a Storyboard compares to the final production.

A short history

Early 20th century films didn't use storyboards but preplanning was still essential, sets, costumes, equipment and actors would all need to be ready on the day of the shoot and directors would have to decided where and when to film. Shots could scribbled down or memorised but it wasn't until 1930 that the story board was devised by Walt Disney studios. Eventually films used larger budgets (e.g. Citizen Kane 1941) and thorough preplanning became essential, more film makers (e.g. Welles, Hitchcock) began to adopt the storyboard to plan out keyframes and action sequences. The storyboard was needed by the production staff to ready the shoot in advance with minimal losses through waste in materials and time.


Walt Disney with a storyboard: image from www.mouseplanet.com

Using the Story board in the Narratives project

Although most of the narratives i have already shot are not linear i can still use the storyboard in post production and editing. this technique can assist in structuring and organising my work and revising it, before editing it in premiere pro. if i choose to shoot more footage i can plan camera angles, lighting, depth of field etc. in advance by drawing out my own story boards. Also if i am unable to attend a shoot i can represent my ideas in a story board and send it to a colleague and have them actualise my intentions even if I'm not there.

The Brothers Quay

Last Friday we saw a short film by the Brothers Quay called the Street of Crocodiles. The film uses stop motion to animate puppets, screws and other inanimate objets to create a dark sureal world, the piece is very experimental using different materials,various lighting techniques and shots through glass.



This film has inspired many other pieces including various videos by a band called Tool.

Tony Vs Paul

After filming today I took my stop motion stills home and showed my flat mates, One of which has an interest in stop motion. He showed me a film similar to my own work on you tube called Tony Vs Paul. The film uses similar techniques that I have used but has been greatly expanded upon.

A day filming with stills

Today I took 1024 stills with Danny and Viks for the pixelation project. We explored ideas that can only be made possible with stop motion, using techniques such as moving across space without moving the body (gliding and sliding), animated still life (chess pieces that appear to move themselves) and shifting sizes and volumes (I climbed out of a box I could never fit into and a pint that drank itself).

Narratives

I have been given my first module, titled narratives (worth 30 points or 300 hours). This module presents me with the opportunity to communicate ideas and stories through the use of multimedia. The narratives module is divided into 3 projects, the first being pixelation where still images are combined to create a moving image (i.e stop motion), later I will be looking at films (the moving image) and inter actives.
I'm currently enjoying the pixelation project as i have used similar methods before in my free time and i am building on existing ideas.

Pathways

In year 2 the courses splits into 5 pathways, animation, audio visual, inter actives, games and web design. I have a strong interest in video games and its culture although i feel I have more experience in the actual production of web design, as I have made my own web comic and various other similar projects.

Whiteboard animation and pinhole camera 1st - 7th Oct 07

During my first week at NTU I constructed a beer can pin hole camera and with the help of some colleagues created a short whiteboard animation.

The camera was made by placing a piece of photographic paper inside a beer can, piercing the can with a pin and exposing it to light. This was done by taking an empty beer can and cutting off the top with a can opener. To make it light proof a cap was made out of cardboard and gaffer tape. Finally a pin hole was made by poking the can with a pin and the increment being filled away with a mild abrasive. Now the pin hole beer camera was complete the photographic paper was placed inside under a safe light and the pinhole shutter was taped over.
To take a photo I only needed to choose a subject point the can and remove the tape for about 5 seconds, the paper is then ready to be developed in a dark room. I took two photos, one of the boot's library, which appeared to be on fire once I had developed the picture, the other of a skip outside the Waverly building.



The white board animation I made in a group of four, two German students called Sophie and Roman and two natives, Ross and myself. The film was of a box moving from one side of a tree to another by any means necessary. This was done by drawing the subjects on a white board and photographing it, this created the first frame, the next frame was made by erasing some objects and redrawing them in a slightly different position and again taking a photo. In the end we took near 100 photos, creating a film of a box drilling underground to reach the other side of the tree. I enjoyed this project the most as I often animate at home in my free time although usually with plastercine.

What i want from my course... Other than a degree

I've been interested in animation and web design long before i started my course. As well as getting a degree this course will give me the tools i nedd to create my own website for various projects i have worked on outside of university (i.e www.game-n-mart.co.uk my own webcomic, currently under construction by a friend of mine). I also made various stop motion films with plastecene before i came to university, I'd like to be able to incoprerate various animation style to create a multimedia film and present it on the internet for the masses to see.