Storyboard Background-Information

Styles, Tipps and Methods

By Saskia Petrenz
[email protected]
Contents

Introduction 3

Mindset of the storyboards artist: Who he is and what he does 4

Storyboard Styles 6

Work-Flow 8

Composition 11

Lighting and Color 12

Tips/Methods 15

Dictionary 17

Questionnaire 18

Sources 19

2
Introduction

This paper will give a general overview about storyboards, information about different styles of storyboards
and how to use them. The mindset of a storyboard artist and his work-flow will also be explained.
Additionally composition and the use of light in storyboards will be explained as well as some handy tips
and tricks. At the end a dictionary lists eventually necessary technical terms.

What is a storyboard?

A storyboard is a suggestion. It gives a possible basic setup for a scene including general camera setups and
lighting. It allows advance organization, frame by frame and shot by shot what is going to be happening dur-
ing shooting. The function of a storyboard is to indicate and illustrate all shots needed for the final product. It
does this by pre-visualizing the written word (screenplay) and its structure. Also any visual effect will be indi-
cated in the storyboard, this means that modern Special Effects Films are more demanding on storyboards.

A storyboard serves the visual needs of the director of photography and special effects team.
The director and director of photography will go over the storyboard to decide on the needed cameras/
lenses/filters/lighting equipment etc. . Also the producer, director, cinematographer and production designer
will want to see visuals and illustrated SFX (Special Effects) to estimate cost, the set up for shots and decide
on cameras, lighting and framing. Storyboards are also used to design sets by working with model builders,
miniature makers and green-screen technicians.
Mindset of the storyboards artist: Who he is and what he does

As a storyboard artist, you work mostly in pre-production and must be able to produce quality sketches un-
der pressure for various people e.g. : the producer, who estimates cost/budget, uses them for shot sequences,
blocking of the actors, camera setup and lighting.

A storyboard artist wants to sell a product and therefore needs a fast way to convey an idea. Most often these
are the ideas of others (such as the director) resulting in many changes and edits. Remember, drawing a
storyboard is a journey of discovery. This also means that a storyboard-artist can not get to attached to his
drawings, because many will, if at all, only be seen shortly and either be thrown out or changed. You have to
keep moving forward and keep your goal and what you want to express in mind. As everything else is build
upon the storyboards, they need to communicate things quickly and clearly.

If you as artist, make a bad-choice: it´s not bad at all, but sometimes it´s just time to move on.
Always keep in mind how you could improve the shot your working on. You are always making suggestions
which then are considered by the director, etc. This is the reason why a storyboard artist should know about
many other fields of filming, such as directing, film-language, character-design, lighting, composition, ani-
mation, etc. To be able to convey ideas to all the different members of a (film-) production team, it is always
handy to learn as much about all regions of (film-) production as possible. To know about many regions of
film production helps also a lot with drawing storyboards, as illustrations in storyboards require the use of
design, perspective, mood and mise-en-scene. (mise-en-scene: placement of actors within a given scene). You
should think in actions, sounds and expensive special effects (which can/will be thrown out later).

It is crucial for a storyboard artist to be able to make quick decision when approaching a deadline. You will
have to choose the quickest solution to convey an idea and therefore always keep in mind where you are
heading and how you want to get there.

Always keep the different aspects of storytelling and film-production in mind

while storyboarding.

Keep in mind that it is the concept that counts. Boldness and simplicity of execution will make the point
quicker than overly elaborated drawings. You should always try to push yourself to try to draw different sub-
ject matters as you will have to draw a lot of different subjects, and also a lot of things you will not like.

The frame (four sides containing selected subject matter) is the pictures boundary of reality and therefore
the artists boundary. As artist you pick a selected few of the millions of pictures around us and emphasize,
pinpoint and rearrange them for the use in the storyboard.
Imagine you want to illustrate a shot of a castle on a hill. What is important? The castle itself, but should you
include the dark looming mountains in the background into your frame? And what about that highway run-
ning along the foot of the hill?

Some artist swear on the use of digital media such as Photoshop for fast work. To work digitally has its ad-
vantages. You can duplicate and adjust drawings and re-use them whenever possible, as well as avoiding to re-
draw the whole scene for just one little adjustment. With the use of layer compositions you can let Photoshop
remember which layers where turned on and off, keeping your layers organized. This is also quite handy for
moving storyboards to e.g. let your character run through one frame, showing the whole scene in one draw-
ing.
 Storyboard Styles

Style can have many meanings. It can refer to a particular style of drawing, as no two artist have the exact
same style.

The same character drawn by two different artist. left: Butch Hartman
right: Mark Hem
It is also depended on the used technique, which can also be referred to as style. Some artist prefer pencil,
others pen and ink or markers (or digital media). The technique should be based on the needs of the project:
rough pencils used in sketches or simple line drawings are very fast. More complex art is called tone. This is
more then just sketchy line work. It is for example finished shaded pencil work colored with gray-tone mark-
ers or color.

Style can also refer to the flow of the story. Different directors have different styles, some prefer moving
cameras, others tell the story in close ups. Just look at the different flow of a Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton
film.

There are basically two kinds of storyboards:

One are image association boards or presentation boards.

They demonstrate an overall visual key and may only highlight the key action, lighting styles or color usage.
Therefore individual pictures can be a lot more detailed.Boards drawn for presentation are usually done in
large format and in color.

Jurrasic Park 2 “Getting the T-Rex of the island”

The others are narrative boards or production boards.

Those go over each shot in detail and concern each line of dialogue and action in the script. They are made
up of many, many individual drawings and are mainly done in pencil (or another fast technique). These
boards represent the vision of the director.

Jurrasic Park 1 “Raptors in the kitchen”

Feature film productions use storyboards to work out production problems and special effects. These need
more detailed storyboards than finished pencil, but the time available is often not enough to allow time-con-
suming boards to be drawn so only key-scenes and certain panels are fully drawn out.

Storyboards for television are usually production boards, with 50-70 shots needing to be drawn out in one
day there is only a certain amount of detail possible.

Animation production boards need to illustrate actions more detailed. It can take 3-4 panels to show the hu-
morous way a character chews. An animation storyboards are basically the key frames showing each extreme
action of the character.

“up” by Pete Doctor; animation production board showing each extreme action of
the character
Work-Flow

You start out with really rough sketches, which you show to the director. These scribbles may even need
explanation and are intended to give just a very basic idea of what will be shown. The director will give his
comments on these and suggest changes. With this first feedback you can go back to the drawing board to
start on the real storyboard.

Planning before starting on a sequence helps to get an idea where you want to go. Thumbnails on paper can
help a lot with this.

Its always good to start by creating Foreground (FG) and Background (BG). Indicate the loosest possible
form for background when your focus is on the main-character in
the FG/MG. You only need the BG to get a feeling of scale.
Draw the Background more clear in an establishing shot, after that,
use a rough indication until you have a change of scene. The next
establishing shot will show the BG and the characters position
within it. If you have a shot focusing on the character no back-
ground is needed.

Start out with line drawings, which are done very quickly.
Half of these get thrown away when you show them to the
production heads. Take notes on their comments and requested
Establishing shot giving a feeling for scale
changes.

Cheat to win: tracing and re-using of pictures saves a lot of time.

If time and money allow it gray-shading can be done to emphasize light and dark, depth of field, etc. When
you are dealing with design and color, keep in mind that the basic elements come first and then color is
added for visual impact where needed.
Underneath / next to frames you can write a detailed description, especially of special effects.

Storyboard artists often illustrate movement with arrows that roughly follow the path of motion of the cam-
era or subject. These arrows are usually drawn as if they were solid or semi-transparent objects in the scene
itself, using different line styles or shading to distinguish the motion paths of different subjects. Motion ar-
rows provide a more definitive sense of direction of motion than speed-lines or motion blur. Furthermore,
they can describe a certain move more clearly, having both thickness and “twist” that may vary over the
length of the arrow. Remember that arrows emphasize broad motion rather than small details and never ob-
scure important objects in the scene.
When multiple subjects move in the same general path, a single arrow may be used to represent their com-
bined motion and if the subject referred to by an arrow is unclear, the arrow
may include a text-label. This is often the case for arrows indicating camera motion, since the camera itself is
not visible. Arrows indicating camera motion typically cross or meet the frame boundary.
After you are done drawing go back to editing your shots. Ask yourself:
What can help your scenes?
Which poses may imply something better? Where might added detail help?
Why are you doing this shot, what is its purpose?

Edits on shots are often simple but have a big effects. During editing tighten up your drawings (bit of light,
shadow, detail, depth) but keep your attention/focus on the most important object.

The edited vresion gets presented again and while talking with your production heads about the storyboard
you should always keep in mind:
What is the story about?
Who are the characters and what is their motivation?
(The motivation dictates blocking and framing, the director places the actor within a given scene to convey
the action of the script.)
What do they do and say if dialogue is indicated?
Which characters are in the FG, MG, BG?
Are they in conflict with someone and with who?
Where does the conflict take place?
When are long-, medium-shots and close-ups necessary?
Composition

From here on I will give some general tips which can be used and are intended for storyboards but can also
be transferred to drawing and photography.

One tip you hear often is: Step back and look at your drawings from a distance.
This really works to keep the composition clear. Rough indications are often enough to convey an idea.
Squinting your eyes can be used similarly as details will be diminished and rough forms give you a better idea
if your composition is working.
Keep in mind that, for storyboards, you mainly don´t want beautiful, but energetic pictures strongly convey-
ing mood and action.

Compose according to the final products aspect ratio (depending on screen size). A composition works very
differently at different ratios. It can be a good exercise to draw the same frame at several ratios to understand
the effect aspect ratio can have.

Add a grid to get you perspective clear and add reality, cheating is allowed and especially when working digi-
tally an extra layer with a grid can really help.

Place you characters compositional pleasing. You should never divide a

composition evenly in two.
Way more interesting is using the rule of thirds and placing the object of
main focus at one of the intersections.

Also pay attention to geometric forms as well as lines and their effects.
(Ovals keep attention, lines guide the eye of viewer).
Using a frame, for example created by filling the corners of a frame with
branches of trees or other simple foreground elements, centers the focus of
the viewer inside the picture plane.

For more information on the use of geometric forms in composition visit:

http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/Petteri_Sulonen/Geometry_in_Composi-
tion.htm
Use of the Rule of thirds (red grid)

Also keep in mind the line of action: gestures of a figure and its actions should always continue in the same
direction they started even if there was a cut to another scene.

A good example is that in “The Lord of the Ring“ by Peter Jackson, the main characters are always walking
from the left to the right to underline the feeling of traveling in the same direction.
Most viewers will not notice this consciously, but if you ignore continuity they will nevertheless notice that
something is “off ”.

The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, by Peter Jackson
Lighting and Color

It is really important to keep your light-sources in mind and not change them half-way though a scene.
There are three sorts of light you will have to consider mainly:

The key-light is the primary light, shining directly on the focus of the scene.
It can shine directly on the subject or for dramatic purpuses can be moved to one direction.

It is accompanied by a fill light which is used to reduce shadows and also called reflective light.

The third is the back-light which is coming from behind the subject and is used to separate the actor from the
background. It is also called hair-light as it often creates a bright shine in the actors hair.

Also keep in mind that where there is light, there is shadow. Every object light rays fall upon casts a shadow.
You can draw figures just by indicating the play of light and shade shaping the object. Depiction of shadow
and light gives the object three-dimensionality and can strongly affect the mood of a scene.
Also, do not forget that light does not only cause shadows but also reflections.
Without light there would also be no color.
Color is not the most important factor in storyboards but can be used to accentuate. Full color storyboards
are more expensive and less used, color will be mainly found in presentation boards.

It is important to understand the psychology of colors and the different meanings of their hues as well as
intensities and the use of various filters can have.
Check out the GamFusion filter on gamonline.com to see the complete line of color-filters available to the
cinematographer to set the mood of a scene.

There are some basic guidelines which are generally accepted:

Comedy is light, Tragedy is dark.
Light colors are “happy” dark colors “sad”:
-yellow: cheerful, optimistic, summertime, etc
-blue: cool, can donate to depressing scene or night-shot
-red: danger (extensively used in films)
-green: calm, environs forest

There are whole books about the meanings of colors and how they change when you change intensity and hue
of a single color, but this paper will not go in depth about this. There are lots of websites offering information
on this topic, for example: http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html .

It is good to know that the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) can be used to mix into the secondary col-
ors. (Therefore each color can be mixed out of those three.)
To get shades of gray you simply mix black and white. Colors can be “grayed-down” to reduce/soften their
effect. Safe the strongest colors for the strongest images, the peak moment in the script, and use especially red
with care. Remember to not give it all away at once but to build up tension.
 Putting a color dash off-center, or a color spot in a predominantly gray scene can give a visual punch and
punctuate the object of interest. This is used with great effect in Sin City.

“Sin City” (2005) by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

But most modern films are in color, storyboard-artist can save money by executing storyboards in black and
white with the added dimension of gray shadows.

grey-shaded storyboard by Ruth Tay

Tips/Methods

In the following section I will give some tips and methods that I picked up during my research. They fit in
several categories and are something to keep in the back of your head while storyboarding.

Use gestures to tell the story, draw verbs (actions) instead of nouns (names of things).

Don´t stiffen up your pose, think in diagonals.

Try a dozen different ways to compose a scene.

Film says always one thing at a time, and everything in the scene has to relate to that one thing.

If you are storyboarding an action/battle scene concentrate on the establishing shots showing where the ac-
tion takes place. The action itself will be made by choreographers.

Use blur to imply action,movement, energy and/or zoom.

Don´t get hung up on designs while storyboarding. The creatures and

sets will be designed by specialists. Develop a shorthand for the charac-
ters. Make them distinguishable without drawing too much details. Eyes,
mouth and weight are important and are enough to show emotions.

Body-language alone can convey a mood or feeling without many details

needed. Explore the possibilities of your characters: sketchy drawings
are good!
Depend the number of poses your drawing on the feeling and impor- blurr indicates movement or zoom
tance of the shot.
If the character is in the foreground / you have a close-up shot, add a bit of tone/shadow to make its emotions
clear.
A blink of the eyes often proceeds a point of view shot.

Dust-clouds and shadows reinforce ideas and give interaction with environment

When using reverse angle shots stay with hero so the viewer can identify with him.

Play with the values of opacity to create depth.

Particles in the air make further away objects seemingly disappear in the mist.
You can use black transparent cropped layers to indicate camera movement.

If you have a moving POV keep in mind to remind your audience where your characters are and where they
go.

Keep consistency and continuity in mind, e.g.: connect shots and stay consistent with shadows.

The punch-line (e.g. climax of a joke) can be drawn more elaborate, as it is the most important moment in
the script. This can be toned/colored and just generally be prettier.

While illustrating action keep in mind that lots of body action requires few close-ups (close up for dramatic
purpose, use scarcely), while a highly emotional scene can gain a lot by using more close-ups concentrating
on the feelings of the actors.

Think about what you want your audience to know, questions create tension and focus the attention of your
audience because they want to know the answers.
For example “Implied action” is an image with no movement, but the unspoken concept of movement. Imag-
ine a scene where a killer threatens a victim with a loaded gun, then the scene cuts to black. The audience will
imagines the further movement of the gun, e.g. that the victim gets shot, but will be left in the dark if this is
what really happened.
On the other hand, “Overt action” is an image with specific movement to convey the point in the story. Imag-
ining the same scene: The killer would extend his arm and shoot the victim. The audience knows exactly
what happened to the victim, no questions arise.
Dictionary

-Computer Graphics Imaging (CGI): imagined and executed scenes or elements created on computer and
often combined with live action film.

-Special and Visual Effects (SFX/VFX):interchangeable term to indicate effects that are not real. These effects
can be computer generated or live-action elements shot against a green-screen

SFX-definition (dictionary of television and film):

Any visual action, image or effect that cannot be obtained with the camera shooting in normal operation
directly at the action and which requires prearranged special techniques or apparatus added to the camera,
action, processing or editing.
Special effects include contour matting, multiple image montages, split screens and vignetting, animation,
use of models and miniatures, special props (break-away-glas, furniture), simulated bullet wounds, injuries,
explosions, floods, fires and any mechanical or visual effect weather created on location in the lab during
processing or in editing in post-production.

-POV (Point Of View): The attitude or outlook of a narrator or character in a piece of literature, a movie, or
another art form.

-Reverse angle: A shot from the opposite side of a subject. In a dialogue scene, a shot of the second partici-
pant.

-mise-en-scene: placement of actors within a given scene

-vanishing point: one or two points on the horizon line to which all converging lines will recede

-perspective: the art of representing on a two-dimensional plane what the viewer perceives as having three
dimensions

-orthogonals: the lines that lead to the vanishing point(s)

-elevator effect: our eye-level, horizon line and vanishing points move as we do

-forced perspective: making the foreground objects seem larger and background objects seem smaller by
creating them out of proportion to one another. This creates greater distance in the shot
Questionnaire

For evaluation purposes I would be happy if you could answer these few questions and email me your an-
swers to [email protected]

Thank you.

Did you learn something new from this paper?

Was the information presented understandable?

Is the information helpful for your storyboarding?

Would you recommend this paper for someone who wants to learn about storyboards?

Where the illustrations clear/understandable and did they fulfill their role as example?

Any comments? (E.g. What other aspects of storyboarding should be discussed? Where should be more or
less information be given? … )
Sources

“Conceptual Storyboarding Storytelling and Struggle with Derek Thompson”

“The Art of Storyboarding – A filmmakers introduction” by John Hart

“Creating Characters with Personality” by Tom Bancroft

“Directing the Story” by Francis Glebas

“Schematic Storyboarding for Video Visualization and Editing” by Dan B Goldman, Brian Curless, David
Salesin, Steven M. Seitz (University of Washington)

A “real life” example of a storyboard “The Golden Compass” by Chris Weitz (you will need to scroll down a
bit):
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/833/833839p1.html

Extra information:

Different kinds of shots explained (e.g. estbalishing shot, close-up, high-angle, etc.):
http://filmandtvtvac.blogspot.com/2011/04/shot-establishing-shot-long-distance.html

Effects of lights:
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/studio-lighting-advice---part-3-setting-up-your-lighting-4779

More information about lighting (portrait lighting):

http://www.professonalphotography101.com/portrait_lighting/lighting_names.html

http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Home_Main/Tips_Projects_Exchange/Learn/Photo_Tips_Techniques/Ad-
vanced_Techniques/Lighting.html