|
NOT JUST PRETTY PICTURES. Good
storyboards are about more than pretty pictures. They
are about telling stories, selling concepts, and getting
the creative's ideas on paper. they are about helping
some guys in suits at XYZ conglomerate understand what's
so funny about a talking tomato, and why they're paying
all that money to some guys in baggy pants and Birkenstocks
to make it happen. They're about bids,and locations,and
lighting,and casting. in short, good storyboards are
about communication. Helping people who dont't know,or
who have their own or conflicting ideas, visualize the
impact of one key scene in an eight minute documentary,
or the overall pacing and interaction of the hundreds
of shots necessary to produce a feature length film. Even
more then written instruction, storyboards help all the
players speak the same language. They make bids more
realistic, directors more confident, and clients happier.
EXPERIENCE COUNTS. we all know that storyboard art
is considered a beginners job, or an over the hill job.
but more than anything else it's an experience job.
Experience that only comes with time. Time seeing hundreds
of movies, time watching thousands of television commercials.
Not just viewing today's hottest hits, CLIOs, Golden
Globes, or local ad club selections. But time with yesterdays
films, mainstream movies, art films, and industrial
films.Time on the creative's side of the drawing board,
turning ideas into commercials. time working out animation
sequences. Time presenting to clients, getting pats
on the back, winning awards, and having good ideas turned
down. Time on the set, helping boards become film, and
learning perspective through the camera's eye. Time
bidding boards, seeing scribbles turn into sets and
locations. Time at casting sessions looking for the
look. Years telling hundreds of stories inside 3x4 frames.
Being on time, wedging one more job into an already
busy schedule. Being there when the phone rings. Watching
hot rods, Formula One Racing Cars,and tall ships do
their stuff. Kids playing, studying. or catching their
first fish. Hard ridding cowboys, tomorrow's ballerinas,
and gimpy legged corner backs hoping for one more moment
of glory before the clock runs out. Experience counts
in framing that low angle shot, forcing the perspective
as our hero clings with one hand to the clock tower,
or capturing the mood of a lone cowhand under the stars,
in a scene that sweeps across half the state of Montana.
IT'S A SERVICE BUSINESS, not an art business. In
the end, the storyboard business is a service business.
Sure it helps to be competent, to have a better than
average talent for drawing, and to know which end of
the marker to hold onto. But success in this business
is saying yes, making creative people happy, and doing
whatever it takes to get the job done, looking good,
and delivering on time. With as few hassles as possible,
and at a price that doesn't break the budget. No excuses.
Then getting up the next morning, and doing it all again.
Because you want to. Because it's fun.
|
