Sunday, April 03, 2005

Storyboards

As we get nearer to our production date, I've been working on storyboards. In a previous post I showed a photo of me getting dizzy from glue fumes while cutting and pasting the storyboard photos. Here's more info on how I'm doing it.

First, I simply started shooting storyboard photos with my digital camera, using actor stand-ins. I shot each picture from where I want to place the video camera, so the scene is more or less blocked the way I want it.



What I do next is print out contact sheets of the photos on my color printer. The contact sheet holds about 12 photos (each about 1-1/2" by 2") and then I cut them out. I printed out my script with about 8 blank lines between each camera shot, and then I glued each appropriate photo to the script. The extra blank line space is perfect for additional notes.

That's my storyboard.

It's very simple, and looks great to the actors and crew, which makes the whole thing work better. They'll understand EXACTLY what we want before we even get to the set. It'll save a lot of redundant direction to the cast and crew.

3 comments:

Cherry Moon said...

OooOOoh! Storyboards put everything together before anything really happens, eh?

I'm worried about your intake of glue fumes. LOL Can I suggest an adhesive that is not only safe to inhale, but is long lasting, sturdy, CLEAN and archival safe? (I'm an avid scrapbooker, so this is my most favorite tool)

http://store.scrapbook.com/jv-hmdp9273.html

CT Bob said...

Is that the same stuff they use when you get a new credit card in the mail, to stick it to a letter-sized paper backing? That same stuff that you can easily peel off the paper?

If it is, then yeah, that would be perfect! I like the idea that I'll be able to move the photos around from scene to scene if I want. Thanks for the info.

And yes, we use a storyboard as a visual blueprint for shooting the actual video. That way we can set up the cameras, actors, and everything with minimal guesswork; and it also helps us visualize the movie during the planning stage.

Cherry Moon said...

Yep! That's the stuff! You have to make sure to get the non-permanent glue, though. I'm always picking up photos and moving them around on my pages, so the temp glue is perfect for me...

I've seen the whole storyboard process on dvd's in the extras section... it's interesting!