Storyboard Lecture Notes — Film Appreciation

What is a Storyboard?

  • A film storyboard is essentially a large comic book of the film
  • It is called an illustrated screenplay
  • It is created well before the film is shot to help film artists visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur.
  • A storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera lens.
  • The general public have recently become more aware of storyboards due to DVD special features.

Why use Storyboards?

I. Communication

  • The purpose of all Art Forms is the basic communication of ideas to its audience
    • Film is a visual medium. Therefore, films should communicate visually.
    • Storyboards allow film artists to communicate with each other through visual means
    • Storyboards allow film artists to study icon and metaphor and how they can be used to communicate ideas.
    • Due to the fact that storyboards are pictures, it allows artists to communicate beyond the confines of verbal language. This is useful when a production is being filmed in other countries with multiple languages.

II. Production

  • To save money, films shoot out of sequence (the order that scenes appear in the final cut of a film). Storyboards allow artists to visualize the entire film, and thus plan shooting schedules.
  • Seeing the entire film in a type of blueprint, allows film artists to know how many shots will be filmed at an exact location. This reduces the number of set ups and strikes in a given location.
  • Actors can use the storyboard to follow a through line of character development.
  • Technicians use storyboards to preplan designs of sets, costumes, and props. It is also used to scout locations.
  • Storyboards allow several filming crews to shoot simultaneously.

The Storyboard Process

  • Producers are solicited to read the screenplay, and if the script creates interest, a “pitch” meeting is scheduled.

  • The Pitch

    • The writer of the screenplay pitches, or discusses, their script to a group of producers.
    • An illustrator is hired to draw specific shots of the potential film on to paper to allow for visual communication (Pictures are often more exciting than just words).

  • After the pitch is successful, a team of illustrators are hired to create the full illustrated screenplay (they now draw the entire screenplay into pictures).

  • This tool is then used for pre, actual and post production.

Brief History of Storyboarding

  • The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney studio during the 1930s1930s.
  • The first complete storyboards were created for the 19331933 Disney short "Three Little Pigs".
  • They evolved from comic-book like "story sketches" created in the 1920s1920s to illustrate concepts for animated cartoon short subjects.
  • The idea was to draw scenes on separate sheets of paper and pin them up on a bulletin board to tell a story in sequence.
  • One of the first live action films to be completely storyboarded was "Gone with the Wind".
  • Storyboarding became popular in live-action film production during the 1940s1940s, and grew into a standard medium for pre-visualization of films.