By C. Jewel Garcia
Storyboarding is the act of creating drawings of shots that will be taken when filming. It reads very similarly to a comic book, but it is not a comic book. According to Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art comic books are sequential story telling through art that take place in boxes that read from left to right and from up to down. Story boarding for the most part works in the same way.
Nevertheless, storyboarding has stricter rules about box size. Why? In a comic-book the boxes can change size for dramatic reasons, because the comic-book is the final product. In film, the film is the final product. That means everything should be giving you an idea of what will appear on the screen. Unless the aspect ratio, or screen size is constantly changing, the image size should in general always be the same. There are exceptions to this, the most obvious is if the aspect ratio actually does change but the rest of the exceptions will be discussed later.
Story boards do not have to be complicated. Often the involve stick figures. However, one thing that needs to be worked out ahead of time is proportionality for the storyboards.
Proportionality seems complicated to start, but it really is not that bad. In Perspective by William F Powell the basics of drawling perspectives is made clear. He explains there are three main types of perspectives. One-point perspective is when there is one vanishing point. An example of this is when you look directly at an object.
Two-point perspective is when there are two vanishing points. An example of this is when you look at a corner of an object.
Three-point perspective which is when there are three vanishing points. An example of this is when you are looking up at an object from a corner view.
If you are unfamiliar with the term vanishing points the are the black dots on the drawings. They serve as guide points to show where the lines in any particular drawing should go to. Using these perspective guidelines helps ensure the proportionality of objects and people are correctly drawn.
Having the proportionality of objects and people correct makes the storyboard make more sense and more importantly makes it a more accurate tool that the cinematographer and director can reference later while filming.
According to The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, affordances are, “the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used,” (9). In story boarding the affordances are the arrows. They tell us what is moving in the frame, by showing arrows usually in the frame. In addition, arrows outside the frame usually indicate the camera is moving or zooming in and out.
Notes are often used on the bottom of storyboard frames to denote important information that is difficult or impossible to see. One common note is the differentiating between zooms and dollies. Both of these usually use one or more arrows pointing in or out of a frame. This makes it difficult to tell the difference between the two, making notes a necessity. Other things can be noted including dialog.
The important thing though is the pictures convey the bulk of the story. If they do not than the story board becomes less helpful or worse the film shots that are planned do not make sense and the production team will have to wing it. This will usually end up in a poor or wasted shooting day.
It is important to recognize when you are drawing story board you are not drawing a viewpoint from a play. Instead, you are drawing a film. The camera angles are the most important part. There should be in any given scene wides, mediums, close ups, and sometimes extreme wides, and extreme close ups. Of course, there is exceptions to this. If done deliberately and carefully a scene can be shot masterfully in only one of these shot types. However, this is possible because the scene should be shot in a way that conveys the most meaning. Just as the characters should be positioned in the frame in a way that conveys the most meaning and gives the correct feeling.
Feeling in a film is everything. Do not forget that the frame does not need to stay perfectly straight. A Dutch Angle can be used to convey a feeling of unsteadiness. In more extreme circumstances a film maker may want to turn the camera on its side or upside down.
Sometimes it is important to break out of the little aspect ratio box. When this is appropriate is when you are trying to show camera movement across an area much larger than the aspect ratio. For example, when tilting to show a large object from top to bottom or from bottom to top it may be useful to draw the entire large object and then draw arrows and possibly boxes to show the beginning shot, ending shot, and direction of the camera movement. Another example is when drawing a pan shot. This would work similarly except with the motions and arrows going from left to right or right to left instead of up and down or vice versa. Finally, a similar technique could be done to show dolly movement.
The most important thing about storyboards is that they are used. Should they be followed to the T? It depends on who you ask. Nevertheless, the one thing everyone agrees on is that storyboards are an effective tool and artform that help move forward any good production.
McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics: The invisible art. William Morrow Paperbacks. https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X ]
Norman, D. (2013). the design of everyday things: revised and expanded edition. Basic Books. https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14808GB9Q76XT&keywords=the+design+of+everyday+things+revised+and+expanded+edition&qid=1655770581&s=books&sprefix=The+Design+of+Everyday+Things%3A+Revised+and+Expanded+Edition%2Cstripbooks%2C59&sr=1-1
Powell, W. F. (1989). Perspective. Walter Foster. https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Artists-Library-William-Powell/dp/0929261135/ref=sr_1_17?crid=3FAUSA8S0KI11&keywords=Perspective&qid=1655770109&s=books&sprefix=perspective%2Cstripbooks%2C73&sr=1-17&asin=0929261135&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1