Animatic Storyboard

Why do we have to storyboard?

Storyboarding is an important part of a pre-production process in order to be possible for the crew to have a specific "outline" to which we all agree on. The storyboard is a graphical representation of the camera shots in the wanted order with details on them, such as location, camera angles/movement, lighting and action. It helps the crew to visualise the flow of the film sequence and work further from then by expanding or changing it. We also started with an initial storyboard and then had to change it, but still kept some of the shots. Nevertheless, we were enabled to see potential problems or add new ideas.

"In a production meeting, a picture really is worth a thousand words. You can script a sequence in words as clearly as you like, and there always be some misunderstanding. But if you use storyboards, it's so much easier to communicate your visual and dramatic ideas."

              Matthew Jones, Television Script Editor, Red Productions

This is me, working on our storyboard

I took two pictures of our completed storyboard, which is ready to be filmed and then edited into an animatic storyboard. We created the storyboard together - every member of the group would draw sketches and then at the end we used a big poster in order to find the right place for each shot. We did that as a group because it is important that everybody agrees on the flow of the video and has an idea of what we will be doing.

The next step was the actual filming of the storyboard. We had to put the storyboard on a white board and film each shot from then for 10sec. each.

There is a picture of me filming.




Editing

In terms of editing, we took some screengrabs in order to create a clearer presentation of our working process and development.

We thought that it will be useful to have a screengrab video, which will not only show a still image, but a little part of our editing process. The following one is of me editing. We learnt how to use the so called "markers". They are very helpful if you want to edit shots on the right drum beat. First of all, I listened to where exactly the drums are hit, and then I would put a marker on the spot. I found them extremely useful because they make the editing process easier. I realized that you do not have to cut every time when there is a new marker, but you use them as a guidance. Every time you think that there is a good place to cut, you can simply do it when there is a marker and make sure that the cut makes sense. Before this realisation, we had some problems because we were cutting every time there is a beat change and we ran out of shots. So, in the video as you can see I am extending some of the shots in order to make everything fit. We had to repeat some of the shots and therefore use more live performance. Due to the fact that our song is quite up beat, we wanted to use quick shots. We are planning on having a constant change of frames - the narrative to live performance.

 Evaluation

In our storyboard, we tried to portray the star image of the artists. The fact that he is driving a scooter first in town in order to reach the scrab yard signifies some of the key elements of the star image - the indie/mod star image. There are many close-ups of him, he is the lead singer and the focus is on him. As Richard Dyer says "The star must besimultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer". We tried to find activities for the band members in the scrab yard, which are close to the target audience and they can fulfill Dyer's star image concept. They are different because they hang out in the scrab yard, but at the same time they do the same as what young people do.

In terms of what we could improve was the graphics because some of the shots were not clear enough of what we wanted to portray, but this was partly due to the fact that neither of us could draw and therefore we struggled with the presentation of the shots. We also realized that we will need some more bike shots which could be quite effective, especially if we use a camera that will be attached to helmet in order to get a variety of perspectives, in this case the perspective of the driver of the scooter.

 

Thinking about how creative we were, we actually developed further analogue drawing into digital technology and then we uploaded it online. That is how we used digital technology and the advantage was that we could "see" the band performing. The "animation" helped to bring the concept we had alive.

 

Pondering over the planning of the rest of our production, the biggest challenge we had was the actual scrap yard because it is quite hard to get a permission from the manager of the scrap yard. The problem is that obviously it is a working one and we cannot be in the way. For the time being we are trying to find a compromise and try to persuade them and shoot on Sunday possibly, but we need to think of a possible solution if it does not work. So, our back-up plan is to shoot mods with scooters driving and then we just a new place for them to "hang out".

Here is our animatic storyboard.