First off. Why do you want or need a storyboard? If you’re just making one because that’s what people do when they make films, no, then you’re playing office.
The paperwork you need, a shot list, is helped by a storyboard, just not for all scenes.
There are times when you realize what you see in your head for a scene may not work in front of a camera. If you can see it visually on paper, you may figure out what’s missing.
Film is about montage, one shot, juxtaposed against another, creates something brand new.
Here’s a segment from our Skin Tone video.
Originally, we only intended to shoot only a two-shot of the male dancer holding out his hand to the female dancer.
But we realized in the storyboard something was missing.
We needed to convey the importance, or perceived importance of him asking her to dance, and him taking her hand, to make the final door bursting open shot work.
With a tight shot of his extended hand and her closeup, we extended the action of requesting her to dance, increasing its significance.
A storyboard starts to give you a sense visually if your montage will fulfill your vision.
What’s in our head is a different medium. It’s imbued with feeling and senses based on our own internal feelings and memories. Ones that are only in our head. Translating that idea into any creative medium that conveys the same feeling is the process we all struggle with. The process of creating a storyboard can help you get there before you get to set.
Storyboards
This is a big, cheap pad of newsprint paper I got on sale for ten bucks. I got it with this board with huge binder clips. Who doesn’t like binder clips, right?
Here’s our character. She’s walking frame left to right.
We’ll track with her. An arrow for that. I’ll mark it yellow.
She hears something. Is it behind her?
She looks ahead again, still moving, but nervous.
It’s simple. It shows me that a tracking shot could work because it conveys her change of state from calm to nervous, all in one shot.
But what if I add what she’s nervous about. We’ll cut in a shot of a window and show the sounds there.
After she walks on nervous, we’ll add another shot of the window but with a shadow of a person. Does it work? The audience sees something that she doesn’t.
Hey wait, how did you make an animatic?
This is my phone, has a camera on it, picture taken and into Premiere.
Doesn’t need to be complicated just needs to work.
But since I’m going digital, why don’t we start digital.
Digital
Paper is an awesome program on my iPad. Free but for $10 you get extra stuff.
Why I like it. Watch.
She’s walking. great. now I need to show her looking behind her.
No prob. duplicate that frame, erase the eyeball, paint in a new one. Sweet. I can add the window, move it into place. I got a storyboard. Output as pngs, into my editing software. All digital animatic. Love it
Storyboarder
But since I’m outputting from Paper to my desktop, could I just start there?
As I was working on this video, Storyboarder came out. It’s free, It’s fantastic. I am not joking. It’s clear the guys at Wonder Unit made it for their own use because it actually works.
I can draw with my mouse or a Wacom tablet. do the same things I did in th Paper app.
And, it will play them as an animatic
And export as a gif, numbered pngs for premiere, pdf etc
I Can’t Draw
But wait, I can’t draw Frank. What about me. What about my needs?
In storyboarder, they have a reference layer. Pick a shot. move it. zoom in.
Draw over it. Then lighten the reference.
Storyboarder. this program rocks
Or you could do it with your phone or stock images. Copy, paste. You’re just limited in changing the expressions which I think are important in a storyboard.
But you could just, you know, photoshop it.
Bottom line: You just need it to convey, in simple terms, what you’re thinking, what you see and feel, into a visual medium. And if that is it working for you. What shots will you need to get to do that?