UNIT 18- STORY-BOARDING
My aim for this UNIT is to gain an understanding of the purpose and use of storyboards within the creative media, as a pre-production tool used in planning and development in a wide range of productions. I will show my knowledge in my evaluations of storyboards from a film, music videos, games, and animation.
WHY DO WE STORYBOARD?
The purpose of story-boarding is to visualize your ideas before it comes to production, this makes your product stronger as you can see exactly how it will look. Storyboards are essentially the blueprints for your productions and may have you identify any problems or missed opportunities while you still can, saving money and time in the production stage.
Storyboarding is an essential part of pre-production, no matter how detailed a script or screenplay will be they can never truly translate exactly what you want from script to screen, having the storyboard strengthens production and helps with this transaction.
It is important to make sure that all members of the crew are on the same page when producing a film, music video etc. Storyboards come with specific technical details that help the crew even further by informing them of the requirements needed to shoot each shot, these include camera angles, character movements, and edits.
One last advantage of storyboarding is that it allows the director or producer to experiment with changes in the storyline, for example, flashbacks are often resulted of sorting storyboards out of chronological order to help drive the narrative, build interest and improve the product altogether.
There are many different types of storyboards that follow different formats and all come with their own advantages and disadvantages as some can:
include more or fewer cells per page
include more or less technical elements
be hand drawn, while some may be digitally illustrated.
ELEMENTS AND TECHNIQUES OF STORYBOARDS
Storyboards showcase a series of images that show the flow of the product from one shot to another, these images are what the audience will see on screen. These are shown in formats called a STORYBOARD PANEL or STORYBOARD FRAME which is represented on the screen or on paper as a box. The size and shape of the frame depending on the aspect ratio of the product. The most common aspect ratios are 4:3 and 16:9.
TV aspect ratio is known as 4:3.
HDTV is 16:9.
Standard Widescreen is 1.85:1.
There are many different ways to film a shot and one of the aspects of storyboarding is to consider what type of camera shot will be best. Here are different shots along with how they will be presented on a storyboard I will also write why they are considered.
- Establishing Shot (ES) is usually shown at the beginning of a scene to present where the action is taking place
- Close Up (CU) shots, are obviously close range views. They're often used in emotional scenes to show reactions or create intimacy. They can also increase tension, allow close views of characters or products, or accentuate an action.
- Extreme Close Up (ECU or XCU) shots are sparingly used, usually when you need to add drama or focus to an event or scene or represent some aggression or discomfort.
- Mid Shot (MS) or Medium Shot is a frame from the character's waist and up. Typically used to show emotions and reactions, or during dialogue sequences.
- Medium Close Up (MCU) is what is sometimes called a Head & Shoulders. It's basically a headshot from the shoulder up, used to focus on a character's expressions or during dialogue scenes between two or three people.
- Long Shot (LS), also known as Full Shot, is a shot taken from a distance. It's typically used to show the entire character or subject, and when you want to point something out between the subject and its surroundings or release tension in a scene. It's like giving breathing space to an event/action.
- Medium Long Shot (MLS) frames the subject from the knees and up. It's a mix between a long shot and a medium shot and is usually used when there are a group of people in a frame or you wish to show the subject's hands and expressions.
- Extreme Long Shot (ELS or XLS) is more long range and is used to establish the surrounding setting
Along with the consideration of the type of shot which will is normally placed above the frame of the shot, a CAMERA ANGLE is needed to refer to where the camera is shooting from, this helps the crew prepare for where they will need to place the camera and other equipment.
- Point of View (POV) camera angles are used when you want the viewer to understand what the character is seeing. The view can be close, mid, or long.
- Over the Shoulder Shot (OSS or OTS or also known as ‘Third-Person) is a view from behind an individual and towards a subject. It's typically used between people in conversation, and the frame has one person/thing on the side of the frame.
- Two-Shot is an angle where two subjects are both in a single frame together and usually speaking. When drawing dialogue frames, alternate between two-shots and OTS shots.
- UpShot / Worm's Eye View are angles that look up at a subject/object.
- Down Shots / Bird's Eye View are angles that look down at a subject/object.
Finally, there are camera movements that need to be placed in the description of the shot.
- Pan/Tilt. Pan is short for Panorama Shot. The camera is on a tripod and moves right or left. A Tilt is when you move up or down.
- Zoom In or Out is when you adjust the lens to view in or out, and is used to increase the significance of something. Draw arrows from the edge of the panel inwards/outwards.
- Dolly is similar to a Zoom, but the entire camera moves towards a subject or away from it. Use thick arrows to show this motion.
- Truck In & Truck Out is similar to a dolly, but the whole camera moves left to right or vice versa.
- Pan or Panning is when the camera rotates sideways in one direction, often used in dialogue scenes or when following a subject or revealing something near. When storyboarding, draw an arrow in the camera's direction.
- Track or Tracking is another way of following subjects. It's when the camera moves and follows the subject/action without cutting. It's typically used in walk cycles and is symbolized by using an arrow in the motion of direction. It can also be Hand-held or on a Dolly.
- Hand-held is carrying a camera by hand, to give to give a more natural documentary feel to a scene, typically used in police or war scenes.
- Rack Focus is when the camera focuses on a subject in the foreground and the background is blurry, and then it reverses so that the focus shifts to clear background and blurred foreground. In a storyboard, just draw where the focus starts and an arrow and rectangle where it moves to.
Film Storyboard
For my first analysis of a storyboard, I will be taking a look at the film 'Superman Returns(2006)'.
Firstly, the use of imagery is very powerful in these two storyboard frames although it seems like there isn't much going on, these two frames are informing us of so much. The storyboarding for this film was produced by Ed Natividad, who has worked in the production of many other films such as 'The Amazing Spiderman' and 'Star Wars: Episode II'. The use of imagery here is informing the crew of how they could shoot the two shots, also more or less informing how the director wants this particular shot to look, as the artist takes in notes from the director and produces these drawings. It also shows how the camera should move, we see the arrows on the corners of the frame which indicate that the camera should be zooming out but it also states how the actor will be moving on the shot. The arrow with the initial 'S' obviously stands for the characters name also "Superman swoops down toward camera" is written on the side of the frame for further detail how the character should be moving within the duration of the shot. The crew is notified with the type of shot needed for shot 111.3B with the letters 'C.U' meaning CLOSE UP. This storyboard also gives instructions on editing as between the frames we see 'shot continued' meaning that these two shots will be done in one take or if there is any editing needing to be done between these shots in post it shouldn't be noticed and feel like one continuous movement. Also in writing the numbers represent which scene and 'action' they take place in, all storyboards have these with the first number representing the scene and the second representing the shot, if there are letters added after the shot number this is normally to furthermore state that the shot starts on 3A and transition to 3B in one movement. This helps keep everything organized in stages of production, and we can see that these shots take place in scene 111 and are the 3rd action of the scene(111.3a/111.3b). Also, the crew is told that the next shot will have a cut between it and the last one we see as 'cut' is also written below the frame so they know the type of transition that will be seen.
Music Video Storyboard
Music video storyboards all serve the same purpose as any other and which is to show how the product will look shot by shot. The panels are shown in the sequence from LTR, there are no shot numbers but we can see how the video will play out and what the narrative structure of this video is. The crew can plan shooting from these panels as there are instructions and cues for movement of both characters and the camera shown in arrows in the panels shown above. The arrows with the initial 'C' most likely represents Chester Bennington (the lead singer of Linkin Park) and they point in the direction of where he will be moving on the screen. We see that there is another arrow with 'camera' in it, this is to show how the camera will be moving or reacting to the action in front of it, this illustrated direction of movement help the crew plan out the shot, how they will do it, where the equipment will be and how it is set up. There are also indications of zooming on shots shown by more small arrows on the corners of the panels. There is an instruction of a specific type of camera movement using a 'crane' shown in panel 19. The imagery is very detailed and shows how the shots should be lit, even setting a certain tone that they are going for (low key) which furthermore gives instruction to the crew of the production. There are 20 frames in this page which is an incredible amount of detail to help the crew draw out as much detail as they can frame by frame and the detailed drawings help keep track of continuity of important information from misc en scene just like the painting above the character's bed.
Video Game Storyboard
When storyboarding for a video game each frame represents a different level of the game, and the final frame is the goal of the game. Notice that these sketches are messy but this is because that storyboards for game are simply only used to brainstorm and show the general flow of the game.But there are a lot of shot description on each panel to show what will be happening so the use of imagery and how detailed the drawing themselves look may not be to the standard of the other two storyboards because in game design most of the detailed drawings are made in concept art, with that being said it makes up for this with the information it gives about movements and directional cues of the environment, 'player' and the framing.
In the first panel we see that everything is labelled, even the background but this panel establishes what will be the 'player' as the rocket is seen labelled with that title. The next panel shows a lot of information on how the level will proceed from the first, there is a line pointing down with 'motion' next to it, which is meant to show that the motion of the player will be going up but since the format of the game it will actually be the background moving giving off the illusion that the player is going into space but they will stay in the same co ordinates on frame till the next panel. We also see meteorites with arrows curling to show that in this level they want obstacles for the player to overcome, but adding more detail into the environment by making the meteorites spin. They are more obstacles established by the next frame we see three rockets labelled 'enemies' and three arrows designated to each 'enemy' to show where they will be moving on the shot. The next shot we are even given information on the duration of the level shot, so they know that in the production of the level they have to program that this shot will be '2 minute' long. All these little arrows give more depth to each panel which in turn helps the game designers visualize their game, so it is a very productive storyboard and does it's job very well. The format of this game doesn't seem to be three dimensional and the aspect ratio of the game looks to be 4:3 so it will be most likely be produced to look very retro. There are no signs of transition cues on this storyboard but goes don't really have transitions from shot to shot as the player moves from one to another through the motion that the player chooses to move.
Throughout this work I have analyzed different ways that the production of different media products are planned in a visual way through the use of storyboards. The music video and the film storyboards are drawn with the aspect ratio of 16:9 this is probably done to make the product look more professional and also it is because the pre production crew will have an idea of the media platforms that the product will be seen on, more than likely in this world of technological advances these productions will be shown on a streaming service such as Youtube or Netflix or on a television. The only one i found that gave any description of the type of shot is the film storyboard this is more than likely to do with the reason that in games the shot rarely changes and the character is position in the same area throughout the game. Also the level of production is different for each products along the different platforms and include more people and resources, a film will cost more to make than a 2D game so every detail needs to be planned merely perfectly so that the budget of the film isn't being wasted and they save time throughout the production of the film and the same rule applies to the music video storyboards.
But in conclusion all storyboards do there job, some may seem to have more detail drawn into their panels but the use of imagery fits the type of production.
Video Game Storyboard
When storyboarding for a video game each frame represents a different level of the game, and the final frame is the goal of the game. Notice that these sketches are messy but this is because that storyboards for game are simply only used to brainstorm and show the general flow of the game.But there are a lot of shot description on each panel to show what will be happening so the use of imagery and how detailed the drawing themselves look may not be to the standard of the other two storyboards because in game design most of the detailed drawings are made in concept art, with that being said it makes up for this with the information it gives about movements and directional cues of the environment, 'player' and the framing.
In the first panel we see that everything is labelled, even the background but this panel establishes what will be the 'player' as the rocket is seen labelled with that title. The next panel shows a lot of information on how the level will proceed from the first, there is a line pointing down with 'motion' next to it, which is meant to show that the motion of the player will be going up but since the format of the game it will actually be the background moving giving off the illusion that the player is going into space but they will stay in the same co ordinates on frame till the next panel. We also see meteorites with arrows curling to show that in this level they want obstacles for the player to overcome, but adding more detail into the environment by making the meteorites spin. They are more obstacles established by the next frame we see three rockets labelled 'enemies' and three arrows designated to each 'enemy' to show where they will be moving on the shot. The next shot we are even given information on the duration of the level shot, so they know that in the production of the level they have to program that this shot will be '2 minute' long. All these little arrows give more depth to each panel which in turn helps the game designers visualize their game, so it is a very productive storyboard and does it's job very well. The format of this game doesn't seem to be three dimensional and the aspect ratio of the game looks to be 4:3 so it will be most likely be produced to look very retro. There are no signs of transition cues on this storyboard but goes don't really have transitions from shot to shot as the player moves from one to another through the motion that the player chooses to move.
Throughout this work I have analyzed different ways that the production of different media products are planned in a visual way through the use of storyboards. The music video and the film storyboards are drawn with the aspect ratio of 16:9 this is probably done to make the product look more professional and also it is because the pre production crew will have an idea of the media platforms that the product will be seen on, more than likely in this world of technological advances these productions will be shown on a streaming service such as Youtube or Netflix or on a television. The only one i found that gave any description of the type of shot is the film storyboard this is more than likely to do with the reason that in games the shot rarely changes and the character is position in the same area throughout the game. Also the level of production is different for each products along the different platforms and include more people and resources, a film will cost more to make than a 2D game so every detail needs to be planned merely perfectly so that the budget of the film isn't being wasted and they save time throughout the production of the film and the same rule applies to the music video storyboards.
But in conclusion all storyboards do there job, some may seem to have more detail drawn into their panels but the use of imagery fits the type of production.
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