Assignment 1 - Storyboarding - Convince the Investors!

Assignment 1 - Story boarding - Convince the Investors!

Scenario
You are employed by an independent film studio which is seeking financial backing for a large scale movie project. Investors need assurance that the visual planning of the movie will be highly effective and so you have been given the task of preparing a visual report to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of a range of storyboards across different production contexts.

What is a storyboard?
A storyboard is a drawn representation of the artistic views and intentions of the filming crew. A storyboard is used to set out how the film will be shot before the day of the shoots, making for a more efficient production. Pretty much everyone on set will be using the storyboard, mainly being the actors and the director, as it can give them an idea of how to frame each shot, as well as the movement of their character, and how close/far they should be from the camera, in an ideal world. Below is an example of a storyboard from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It shows the collapse of the wall of prophecies, with Harry and his friends attempting to escape from the department of mysteries.

This storyboard is useful for the director, (in this case David Yates) because it shows exactly the kind of shot that is required to have the effect that they are trapped. It gave Yates a clear understanding of the visuals, and the artistic interpretation of the scene from the book to screen. For this reason, it would also be vital to the camera crew for getting the right shot in comparison to the artistic intentions.

History of Story boarding
The storyboard can be found as credited to Webb Smith, an animator at Disney. He supposedly came up with the idea of drawing scenes on separate pieces of paper, and pinning them up on a bulletin board to tell a story in a sequence.
The film that was first story boarded by Webb Smith was the Three Little Pigs, and the way that his storyboards were laid out is shown in the pictures below.

As much as the storyboard was credited to Webb Smith, it was actually George Melies who was the first person to use the storyboard for a production. George Melies storyboard was used as early as 1902, for his film "A Trip to the Moon", whereas Webb Smith's storyboard was created in the 1930's. George Melies used the storyboard, but never actually named it as such, whereas Webb Smith actually coined the term, and used them consistently.

Live Action Films that are storyboarded

In terms of live action films, one of the first to ever include a storyboard as part of the pre-production process was "Gone With the Wind" (1939). Gone With the Wind is a 20th Century "epic historical romance" film. It shows the main character, Scarlet O'Hara's survival throughout the harsh history of the US, with Civil war and Reconstruction. It also plays around Scarlet's love affairs with two different characters. This is known as the first live action film to be story-boarded, and it showed through its success how important the storyboard was, and would become in the future.

 

Nowadays, storyboards are pivotal to films and TV shows, and are used in every production from smaller, lower budget films ranging up to the high end blockbusters that are released. They include text which instructs the cast and crew, and over time have grown to be vital to ensuring an efficient production process. Below is an example of the storyboard from "Gone With the Wind" as well as a storyboard from Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010).

 

It is clear from the comparison between the two that storyboards have developed over time. One clear difference is the fact that the script has been included on the side of the storyboard. Also, around the sides of each sketch are notes which have been added for the ease of use for the director, acorns and camera operators. Each storyboard slot is split into multiple sketches, which conveys the developments that editing in films has received over many years. below is the ending from Scott Pilgrim vs the World. In the clip, you can see the inspiration that the film had taken from the storyboard, and how the director and actors used it to recreate the initial intention of the story-boarder

Films

This example of a storyboard from film is a good example of the detail that is put into modern day storyboards. It comes from Spider-Man 2 (2004), and shows a sequence between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, where they are fighting on the train. This storyboard is highly detailed, and includes every intricate part of the frame. This is critical for making sure that the artistic interpretation of the story boarder is clearly communicated across to every single crew member. This storyboard is good in the way that the illustrations clearly demonstrate what is supposed to be going on in the scene. There are clear annotations in the form of text and arrows which direct the characters or objects which are moving across the screen. As good as the storyboard for Spider-Man 2 is, it seems to be lacking in description. There is almost no information on the shot length, which may be a problem for the director and camera crew. Further issues could arise for the camera operators, as there is nothing telling them how to move the camera, or the kind of shot they are supposed to be taking. Problems could further arise for the actors here, as they is no direction to how fast they're moving, or anything relating to how they should actually perform in the scene. One more potential issue with this storyboard is that there is no clear connection between each shot (i.e. shot numbering). As much as it is just left to right, this could, as unlikely as it would be, subtract from the efficiency of the production. 

This is an example of a storyboard which contains each detail which is required for each member of the cast and crew to create a compelling sequence. This storyboard comes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and visually displays the sequence in which Harry and Ron fight a mountain troll in the girls' bathroom. This storyboard has the relevant detail in each sector, this time only missing the camera shot type. It has a clear and obvious illustration, which shows each shot in sequence with the last (labelled A B C and D). This storyboard also gives context to the scene that it is illustrating (SCENE 104 CONT - GIRLS BATHROOM - NIGHT). Similarly to the Spider-Man 2 storyboard, it has annotations on the actual illustrations themselves, which is useful for the actors to use. It also has descriptions of each shot to the right of the drawing. This can be used by both the cast and crew, and will increase efficiency as they will know exactly what they're doing. This storyboard is beneficial to the camera operators, as it tells them exactly what to do at each point in the scene, with the note: "As he stands, CAM rises with him". This also helps the editors when it comes to putting the scene into the final film. It tells them that they need to cut the clip at a certain point. For example, between shot 3 and 4, it tells the editor to cut after "the tap hits the wall". This helps the editors decision making, but also gives them freedom to discover how long they can hold the shot for, with it still being effective.

Evaluation

For Films, storyboards are vital to ensuring efficiency when it comes to the shooting process. They make sure that every single member of the crew is on the same page for a shot, maximising the effectiveness and quality of each shot. Without a visual representation, it could lead to on the spot decisions being made by the director or cast, and as much as improvisation in some areas work really well, it is generally best to have a clear plan of what you want to do and improvise around it rather than improvising everything. The only potential problem with story boarding is that you will need to hire a storyboard artist, which will increase cost and time for the final production. However, I personally think that it would be highly useful to spend time with a storyboard artist, or spend the money to have them working on the film, as they are vital to the creative process.

Storyboards in TV

This storyboard is a highly detailed storyboard from the Netflix Original series Stranger Things. This storyboard is essential to be easily understood, as it comes from the opening of the show. Having a good opening to a show is incredibly important, because the opening shots in a show or a film can shape the entirety of the audiences opinion on the franchise. This storyboard is useful for the cast as it clearly displays their expected facial expressions and actions across the whole scene. The notes around each frame are concise but detailed, which gives a clear idea to the cameramen of the shot type for each scene. This storyboard shows the director and cameramen that "a series of Close Ups" are required for the scene. Each frame possesses a detailed explanation of what is required from each shot, which puts the crew and cast at ease when interpreting the scenes in comparison to their scripts, shooting scripts, and their own ideas about the production.

This storyboard comes from Game of Thrones, and in as much as the detail in the actual frames is incredibly high, it might be difficult for the crew to fully grasp the concept that the artist is trying to present. There is no mention through the entire storyboard of anything for the cast or crew to actually do, how to move in relation to the camera, or how to even move the camera. Without the detail in writing, this storyboard would only really be useful for the cast, as they can use it in comparison with the script, but even then there might be a level of confusion among them.

Evaluation

Similarly to Film, storyboards are almost vital in TV, because the way they are produced is so similar to that of a film. each shot must be planned carefully, and this can be helped by the use of the storyboard. The only issue would be the hiring of an artist, which could be costly at a high level. As long as the storyboard details everything that is necessary, I would say that for a TV show it is one of the most important parts of the pre production process.

Video Game Storyboards

Storyboards in video games are vastly different in some areas to that of a film or a TV show. The main difference is that the interactions of the characters are based on the players own movement. This makes it difficult to storyboard for free-roam scenes as the character could go literally anywhere. However, by applying the same logic, it could be considered easier, as the animators behind the game can animate any camera angles and situations that they want. 

Newer video games like Until Dawn, a horror game in which you play every character in a large group, making decisions which affect the survival of you and the others, used real actors, and then used CGI suits to create the effect that they are animated as characters

in the game.

The first storyboard is from a cut scene within a game. A cut scene is a part of a video game where the characters movements are set in stone, and cannot be changed. Cut scenes are generally used to bridge between two playable parts of a game, and give the player more information about the following events of the game. The annotations are heavy on this storyboard, giving it a lot of detail, which makes it much easier to understand. A large part of RPG videogames in the modern day is the science behind each cut scene, and how it can foreshadow forthcoming events, or even just look aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, having a detailed storyboard would be highly useful.

This storyboard details a character from Fallout 3 (2008). Storyboarding a character is useful in videogames because it can give the designers and developers a deeper understanding of the character they are creating and animating. Without a character storyboard, they would be much less detailed, and each character within a video game would seems irrelevant and uninteresting. For this reason, developers will storyboard ideas for characters to keep them more detailed, including costume and props which they may have, as well as the design of their construction as a creature, if that is the direction the developers wish to take.

Comparisons

After doing research into these three different kinds of storyboard, I began to notice different aspects that fall under certain types of storyboard.

For film and TV, the storyboards are generally quite similar. The main difference being that TV storyboards are much shorter than that of a storyboard for a film. A storyboard for a TV show will be planned for a 30-60 minute production, and most film storyboards are planned for over 2 hours.

Within these storyboards, the panels are drawn to match the idea of the camera shots. Usually these are mid shots or closeups, due to the restrictions of filming in some locations without a green screen.

Within a video game, however, the creation of it comes through animation, and so the storyboard artist and game designers have full creative control over the type of shot they wish to pull off.