SpornFilms &Story & Storyboards 11 Jan 2006 07:59 am
Man Who Boards
Ramblings three:
The storyboard thoughts keep growing, so I’ll keep going on entertaining myself and boring you.
Essentially, in our studio, I think we have two basic types of storyboard:
- there’s the kind which are done for clients who aren’t quite so familiar with our work and probably don’t really trust us. Everything has to be drawn, indicated, and articulated in the board, and it has to be locked down for the client. Recently, we had a client who judged the drawings at the beginning and end of each scene and judged the animated scene on the basis of the approved storyboard drawings. They also wante a lot of text under the storyboard pictures telling exactly what would happen. It didn’t make for a fun task, nor did it make for the best film in the end, but it did satisfy the client who was paying the bill.
These are also the type of storyboards that are done for overeseas studios who are going to animate from the boards. Basically, animation studios don’t trust the outsource studio and try to control everything, just as my client did of me.
- Then there are the type of storyboards which are more comfortable to me. These are more alive and flexible. The closer they are to what will be the final film, the better it is for the film and the director. But it has to be expected that there will be changes even in the best board. I like to see layouts grow beyond the storyboard; animation grow beyond the layouts, and even the coloring/compositing add to the animation. It’s all about making a successful film you’ll be proud of.
Pictured are boards from The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. The clip for this section can be seen on our main site. The storyboard for this film just fell into place. The client is one I’ve worked with for years, and we trust each other well. I can be as loose or as tight as I want, and it will work. There will minimal changes to the board once it was done, though the film kept growing in ways we couldn’t detail on the storyboard.
