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.