i suck at storyboarding..

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

Tried storyboarding - i miserably failed haha

It just too time consuming, and I don't get it why to use it at all..
It took me about 30 mins just to draw one frame, and it looks stupid :hmm:

Is it even any usable for small crews? How many of you use an actual story board?
 
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I suck at drawing. Like, stick figures are beyond my capabilities. :no:

One thing I've seen done is using photos for your storyboards. Just grab some friends or whatever and set up your shots and take pictures of them. You could probably even use dolls or whatever instead of people if you had to. It's something I've thought about doing, since I'm incapable of drawing a straight line...
 
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Yea, im leaning towards taking pictures, or doing short videos with my friends, and quickly editing it all together..

and yes.. stick figures are beyond my skill as well :-D
 
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Storyboards are useful for productions of any size. I'm not too great when it comes to drawing, so often times I'll end up sitting down with an artist friend of mine to do storyboarding. When I do it myself often times I'll end up using stick figures, or basic outlines. You shouldn't be spending 30 minutes on a frame; even with no artistic talent I would spend over 5 minutes, and that's towards the long end. Just use stick figures if you have to. You say they're beyond your skill level, but you'll get the hang of it with practice.

Action figures are another fun option. A friend and I used Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and a block of wood to storyboard a bar scene with photos. I wish I could find those photos to post...
 
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I do shot lists for most stuff, and a really rough sketch/storyboard for specific special shots.

When you have a busy set and a lot of people and a competent DP, accurate storyboards are great. Without saying a word the DP can look at the shot schedule and set up the camera and light appropriately while you're off working with the actors (or "supervising" the craft service table).
 
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I think it depends upon how much money is riding on the clock.

If it ain't costing nobody nothing but time + everyone's being copacetic then screwwit.

However, if you're paying people by the job or hour then it's best you"solidify" what notions you have of how each scene or sequence should go.

Thursday morning I had some environmental conditions perfect for a short I wanted to get started on.
After I spent an hour getting my stuff together then once on site I spent another thirty minutes "testing" out a few different angles even for what I knew would be a three second bit final product.

As the environmental conditions were disappearing before my eyes, my mind ran over and over again how I've heard that studio shoots will frequently spend an hour or even hours setting up a scene with camera and lights before senior cast and crew show up on set.
And now I know why.
If I was asking a friend to wait on my dumba$$ while I fiddled with blocking, alternate camera perspectives, and set props I'd be embarassed.
If I was paying people to wait on me then I'd be "distracted".
If I was a studio producer watching my nubile director pay a score of pros to wait then I'd be concerned to livid.

So, it really depends upon what your time on set is costing you, because even if you storyboard some really tight blocking you should know different things are going to bugger even with that, but with your storyboards you might be able to skadoodle along a little faster.

Consider a running-and-gunning approach to either your shooting or even story boarding.
I know with screenplays it's common to spend every spare minute altering tiny little details that eventually don't even matter, so likewise, don't get too obsessive with the storyboards.

Scene 1 - Actor A w/ prop A stands across from Actor B. 10ft from camera.
Scene 2 - Actor B turns around. 5ft away.
Scene 3 - Actor C approaches from behind tree with axe. 50ft away.
Scene 4 - Actors A & B (10ft away) pull pistols as Actor C raises axe (30ft).
Scene 5 - Actor A shoots Actor B in the back of the head.

Just rough it out. It'll probably help more than hurt. Stick figures and all.
 
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previously i just took notes on the side of the script, and since im typically directing and camera guy - i just look at the note, and boom! the scene is in my head.. but yes, as i will be working on feature - i should find a better way..
 
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Since I'm new I probably don't know what I'm talking about but I'm going to make a guess suggestion. Since cameras wave screens on them now to see what you shot, is storyboarding really necessary? Say you do a spin kick on someone for the movie, and then you wanted the next shot to be the person just finished being kicked from a different angle. Then you can play it back and pause and look to see the position the kicker, and the kickee were in. Then have them get in that same position for the next shot. Of course I'm probably wrong, I just thought, since reviewing the position of the last shot is a good idea, anyway, perhaps storyboarding can be avoided now?
 
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harmonica44 said:
Since I'm new I probably don't know what I'm talking about but I'm going to make a guess suggestion. Since cameras wave screens on them now to see what you shot, is storyboarding really necessary? Say you do a spin kick on someone for the movie, and then you wanted the next shot to be the person just finished being kicked from a different angle. Then you can play it back and pause and look to see the position the kicker, and the kickee were in. Then have them get in that same position for the next shot. Of course I'm probably wrong, I just thought, since reviewing the position of the last shot is a good idea, anyway, perhaps storyboarding can be avoided now?
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That's not at all the reason storyboards are even used. You create storyboards to plan out how the scene will take place. They force you to visualize the shots and think about how everything comes together. It also allows you to convey this to other crew members. If you're creating the scene on set without planning things out ahead of time, it's quite possible issues will arise that you haven't considered. Even if everything goes perfect, you'll still be spending far more time trying to convey what needs to happen to your crew. Creating storyboards and planning out your shots will save you an immense amount of time on set.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Since cameras [h]ave screens on them now to see what you shot, is storyboarding really necessary?
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Story boards are pre-planned shots on paper to share rather than the images locked away in your noggin.

storyboard640.png


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storyboard.jpg


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I think one of the biggest storyboard impediments is that nube illustrators try to make d@mn cartoon cells out of each little window.
Uh... No. Don't do that. You're just wasting time - even if you could do them "quick".
joker-graphic-novel-20081017014635660_640w.jpg
 
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Those are some really, really cool examples. Storyboarding is something I would hope to avoid with my own film scripts though. I just think I'd be be terrible at it, but then again I suppose I'd want to try it first.
 
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barnaclelapse said:
Those are some really, really cool examples. Storyboarding is something I would hope to avoid with my own film scripts though. I just think I'd be be terrible at it, but then again I suppose I'd want to try it first.
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I strongly urge you to not avoid it. Any set I've been on without storyboards it's been obvious other pre-planning has been avoided as well.
 
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SinEater said:
I strongly urge you to not avoid it. Any set I've been on without storyboards it's been obvious other pre-planning has been avoided as well.
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Seconded.


Here's the deal, I acknowledge and respect that there are all sorts of different "levels" of filmmaker professionalism.

GIGO = Garbage In. Garbage Out.
INESCAPABLY, the more effort that is put into the craft the better the product will become.

As a nube rook myself it's clever and perhaps wise to "just tinker" with some ideas, see what comes natural, and get some silly sh!t out of our system.
It allows us to just dismiss cutting criticism as "it was an experimental piece"!
Fine.

But at some point each of us begins developing this nagging notion that if I use better ingredients I can make a better pizza... er... filmmaking product.

Intro increasing levels of STRUCTURE to our former off the cuff approach.

Nebulous intuitive story vomiting becomes classified and quantified with various adherence and divergence from established story structures, eg monomyth, three act, Syd Field, Blake Snyder et al.

You begin to deliberately draping your story craft over structure, such as this three act I've fabricated.
20110720StoryConstraints-Compact-1.jpg


Handheld shakey cam in SD goes to docu cam and tripod pans in HD.
Then we DIY sliders, dolly tracks, and shoulder rigs.
Start building a prop inventory.
Upgrade our editing software and hardware suite.
Find an audio guy with a boom pole.
And then you know you've really started some real sh!t, especially when you're now asking other people to invest time and attention into your sophomore level hobby.

Story boarding not only allows you speed up your 100%-in-your-head off the cuff beyond experimental craft, it forces you into a professional mentality of respecting the time others CHOOSE/ELECT to spend with you rather than spend or invest it elsewhere.

So, maybe for a thirty second bit with you and one other cohort it doesn't make sense to spend time story boarding.

But if you have three peeps performing multiple roles (with mutiple dedications and skill levels) for a >three minute piece (and you know you're gonna spend at least an hour on set for every eventual thirty seconds of final product)... then you might wanna consider scratching out some blocks to communicate to everyone "Hey, let's not dick around and get this sh!t bagged and tagged ASAP, purty please"?

Guys that like to shoot sh!t may become soldiers that provide a scary force to reckon with.
Some soldiers become leaders of others to increase force strength through organization of mutual support.
Some soldiers become logistics experts planning howTH is everyone going to get what they need to do their job most efficiently.

Same thing.
It's part of the process.
Like wearing a monkey suit... er... suit & tie to work. It doesn't make the work go better, it just forces us to adopt a certain mentality of professionalism that both benefits us and allows us to measure and gauge the professionalism of others, subordinate, (supposed) peer or senior.
 
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But if you have three peeps performing multiple roles (with mutiple dedications and skill levels) for a >three minute piece (and you know you're gonna spend at least an hour on set for every eventual thirty seconds of final product)... then you might wanna consider scratching out some blocks to communicate to everyone "Hey, let's not dick around and get this sh!t bagged and tagged ASAP, purty please"?
Click to expand...

whooha! nice reply!
sir, i ll get those storyboards out now, sir! ;)
 
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"They force you to visualize the shots and think about how everything comes together."

ding ding ding!

In most cases the finished movie almost exactly follows my stick figure storyboards. It's the process that makes you sit down and really visualize the entire movie from start to finish in your head.
 
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I think story boarding is fun. Haven't really had use for what I did but its fun for thinking how a scene would play out. If you suck at drawing just use little symbols or letters to denote where each player is and where the cameras are. Star wars would be shitty if there were no story boards. In fact a lot of movies probably would've sucked it they didn't do at least a little.
 
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