Advice From The Editor
On storyboarding

When you’re going to start making a film, there’s always stuff that needs to be done.

First, there’s the script. Scriptwriting is something we’ll talk about in (hopefully) future articles, but for right now, keep in mind that a script is usually something that you need when doing storyboarding, and by usually, I mean always. As in “dear god, what in heaven’s name are we supposed to do without one?” This can be done, but it results in either a really horrible film, or a film that critics will be talking about for ages.

But, it will be discussed in later articles hopefully. However, since this is my first article (and I’m pretty much an amateur with this, so please bare with me folks) I feel as though there are a few things that I want to address before anyone says anything. First of all, this is ONLY advice, not guidelines. Following this advice and using it as a primer for filming a movie is like using a flashlight to light a scene. It’ll help, but it’s not a good idea to use it as the only source.

Second of all, I take time out of my busy day to write these so this is a hobby more than a job for me. I’m also a writer and am currently working on writing a novel of my own. If these articles seem a little sporadic, then that might be the reason why. As Yoda once said “Control! Control! You must learn control!” which in this case, you should take to mean that you must be patient for me to write these. Control your urges to beg me for more because it might take a while for me to get these to you.

Lastly, the topics of these articles that I will be writing are be directed by YOU! That’s right, you folks get to pick the topics that are written. These can range from choosing characters for your play/movie to actual directing of the film’s actors and actresses itself. Now, if its adult films, I have no experience there and you are on your own there buddy. I’m not even going to try and help you there. Heck, I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I had to do an advice column for adult films.

But, now that we have the baseline rules out of the way, let the advice begin! Now storyboarding, for those of you who don’t have all of the film in its cans, is the graphical and oftentimes drawn representation of what a project will be like. With that being said, lets get down to the advice.

It’s okay for it to be incredibly poorly drawn – I’ll admit it right now, I’m a horrible artist. Writer? yes, but an artist? The best I can hope for is a stick figure. The reason why I say this is because making a beautiful picture for just one shot in a storyboard is like sculpting a beautiful statue and then hitting it with a sledgehammer. It serves absolutely no purpose. So if you’re going to do a storyboard, make a rough sketch of what you want in the film or how you want it to look. However, if you need something very specific like say, the way a sword is going to look or a monster, then drawing an elaborate picture is necessary.

Storyboards are fun for the whole family! – When I say this, I mean to say that movies are not the only place where storyboards can be used. When the first storyboard was created, it was done for a cartoon done by Disney way back in the 1940s. For you people bored enough to actually go and find out what the heck it was, it’s on Wikipedia. I don’t trust the site all that much, but I do use it for research and such. Besides, it’s fun to see what new stuff people are going to say on there. But what I’m trying to say is that storyboards were first created to make cartoons. however, these days, storyboards aren’t used for just movies anymore. They can be used for businesses. An example of this would be introducing an idea for a product such as a new toy/computer/invention/insert your own item here

Also, with the induction of the world wide web, they’ve been used to create websites. Don’t believe me? Ask some of the site directors here. They’ll tell you that the layout of deviantart was designed using storyboards (I’m assuming it was, which means i don't know, but I am pretty sure it was).

Along with businesses and websites, Animatics, or special effects for those of you who film with the lenscap on, are getting into using storyboards. Now, why would special effects people be using storyboards? Well, I like special effects, especially things that go boom, but when you see a mistake like someone hanging from wires when they go flying through the air from an explosion, it kind of dismisses the realism of it. Which is why these days, storyboards are used by special effects people to time things right, for camera shots to shoot the monster, and not the fat hairy legs of the guy wearing the monster’s head. This brings up the next bit of advice for everyone when making storyboards.

Going from paper to print – when you’re finally finished drawing the storyboard, you might want to add something to it afterwards for when you’re going to be filming things. For animation, this can be done for voices, music, and sound effects. The same goes for live action films. The audience might get a little bored after a while when seeing a person frightened of the big bad scary monster behind the camera before you switch to a shot of the creature itself. This way, you can time things so that the audience has people waiting with baited breath for the monster behind the camera. Watch the lord of the rings storyboard on the special edition dvd to see what im talking about.

Alright, now what comes after three again? – My dad use to work for a computer company way back in the days when disco was king, lava lamps were all the rage, and – most importantly – when computers read cards instead of programming code. He use to tell me of the days spent in front of a terminal, having to put a card in and then out, in and out. Of how boring it was and that it was worse than watching paint dry.

Anyways, the point I’m trying to make with this is that when those cards fell or, heaven forbid, that a good wind blew them out of your hands and scattered them, it would take hours getting them back in order unless you had them numbered. These cards would often range not just in the hundreds, but sometimes in the thousands.

This point I cannot stress enough. If you’re going to draw storyboards, number them so that way, if you lose all of them, you can at least put them in order again. I know it seems pretty simple, but really its not that hard and doesn’t take too long.

Really, that’s about it folks. Keep these last tidbits in mind though.
- You aren’t just creating a storyboard for yourself. You’re making one so that you can show others what you want to do, and have them give their input on what should be done. This way, you can have them give their ideas on how a person should look / the way a creature should move / how the soundtrack should sound / where people should be in a movie. I think you get the general idea
- You don’t need a large space for a storyboard, you just need a space. A lot of you might be thinking that you need an entire room devoted to nothing but storyboards. Not true. You just need a place put them up. This could be a wall, a dartboard, a table, the floor, anything you can come up with. All you need is to be able to show them to people.
- Need a storyboard paper or too lazy to make one yourself? Go google for them! They’re out there people, all ya need to do is find them.

So, with all of that being said, I do believe that brings an end to the advice column for storyboarding. I wish you all good luck with movie-making and may the force be with you, always.


~angelofyang
Editor/Writer *dAFilmSpot