The storyboard is a universally accepted step in the process of making an animated film. But how often do we question why we actually make the storyboard? Generally the answer is that the storyboard is a tool to make the plot of the screenplay visual. In my opinion this is not a good reason.
Everything in a film, from the screenplay down to each individual shot or sound, should be there to help convey a message or theme. If we, while storyboarding, focus on the plot, which itself also is a tool to convey the message, we’re only focused on illustrating a tool that tries to convey the message and not on illustrating the message itself.
This may seem like nit-picking, but in my opinion, if we want to make a film that really moves our audience, we need to use every possible chance to improve on the how the message is conveyed. If we only storyboard the plot of the screenplay, we don’t take the storyboard as a chance to improve.
A second reason to storyboard is of pure economic reasons. It is a lot faster (read cheaper) to correct mistakes while storyboarding than it is while animating. Also, the better you know the story, down to each individual scene and shot, the less chance that you’ll make mistakes while animating. Brad Bird has talked about his how they kept the costs down on “Iron Giant” by creating very elaborate storyboards and animatics that helped them during the animation.
While working on Concrete Babylon I’ve tried to constantly focus on making the film a strong experience for the audience, also while storyboarding, always thinking about why the shot/scene/sequence should be in the film (its message) and how to convey this the strongest before illustrating the actions of the scene.
To be sure the message is told as strongly as we’re capable of, several drafts are always needed. Although making several drafts may sound like something we all know is needed, in reality it isn’t as easy, especially while working alone like I’m doing on Concrete Babylon.
The biggest problem when working alone, or while working in a very small team, is the lack of objective criticism. Criticising ones own work is not only colored by the fact that we, since we know exactly what we want to convey, have a lot easier time seeing this than what our audience will have, also there are other factors, where our subconscious try to convince us to be lazy and to be satisfied with the first draft. One of these factors is the so called “sunk-cost effect”.
What the sunk-cost effect says that the more energy/time/money we put in to something the harder time we will have to see that it isn’t as good as we think it is. One of the clearest examples of the sunk-cost effect is in professional sports where an underperforming player that was bought with a very expensive contract generally gets more playing time than a player who performs better but had a cheap contract.
The sunk-cost effect also taints our decision-making while storyboarding. If it takes a long time to create one draft it will be harder to see if the draft is good. Redrawing a feature-length storyboard with 3000+ drawings is no fun, it takes a long time to do it alone so the influence of the sunk-cost effect influences the critique of the storyboard.
The best way to limit the effect of the sunk-cost effect is, first, being aware that it exists and influences us, and second, to work more efficient. The shorter the time to produce a draft the less the influence of the sunk-cost effect on the critique of the draft.
While I was planning how to approach the storyboarding process, efficiency was top priority. Although I didn’t have close to all the answers when I started I’ve learned a lot during the process.
To storyboard faster the first solution that comes to mind generally is to find ways to draw faster by, for example, doing small thumbnail sketches before drawing them bigger or by increasing ones skill etc. But thumbnailing only increases ones speed so much, and improving ones skill comes slow. I believe a better solution is to look at what really drives the production, what makes us produce.
First of, of cause, comes the motivation. Why am I doing this? Why is it important for me to achieve it? Finding the real motivation (not what sounds good to tell others but what is important to you) helps you find the passion to really dedicate yourself and have the discipline to continue when things get hard and you don’t feel like doing it. Discipline helps you creating and keeping routines of HOW to approach the work. Having routines and patterns to follow helps you to get in to the right mindset, to find the focus needed to to create a flow in WHAT you do. Using routines and patterns to get in the right mindset is something most athletes do to help them focus on the task ahead, it is also used by zen Buddhists who have often use a kata (routine or pattern) to help them get to a mushin state (doing without thinking).
Finding routines to help us focus and removing distractions while working (Facebook, internet, email, colleges etc.) helps us find the flow state where things comes naturally and we don’t first have to think about what the next step should be, the flow state where we tend to make fewer mistakes that we would need to spend time on correcting.
When it gets to the actual storyboarding most people do it by doing scene after scene, generally working linear from the beginning to the end. In my opinion this is the wrong way to approach it, because this is to try to start with the details before seeing the whole. The individual drawings of a storyboard aren’t important. The drawings only are only important in context with each other as a part of the story. Since the individual drawings of the storyboard don’t have any value by themselves, and neither have the individual scenes, it is very hard to analyse them and see if they really work. We need to have the whole to know what we’re looking for when analysing the details. This is the way we draw, the way we animate and write screenplays. When we’re working on details before we have the whole picture, we’re working on details that we don’t even know if they really should be there.
In a lot of other businesses, mainly those following lean or agile management, new products are often released in frequent updates of “minimum viable products” or MVP:s. A MVP is a product with the minimal possible features for a functioning product. Each new release of MVP:s allows the producer to analyse the product, generally with the help of early “beta-testers” who try the product, and see in practice what works and doesn’t, instead of trying to guessing the answers. I think that we as filmmakers have something to learn from this.
On Concrete Babylon I’m working in a way where I’m gradually creating a more detailed film. The is storyboard, of cause, a part of this, but not as an “isolated item” rather as early versions of the film, and since the film is an audio visual storytelling experience early music and audio references are also added to create a MVP of a film.
I start of the storyboarding process with trying to find the films key image, the image I feel moves me the strongest emotionally, the image that defines the film. This image can be compared to what in screenwriting is called a logline, a one sentence summary of the film. To find the key image I generally have to try several different scenes to find the right one, and I force myself to try different techniques and designs to find what I feel would be optimal for the theme of the story. I also think that it is better to find the character and environmental design in context of the story rather than independently from each other. When I have the key image I also try find a sound design and musical theme that I feel would be right, not by composing anything myself but by referring to an other film or piece of music.
When the key image is done I start to add more detail to the film by illustrating the main turning points of the story. For me this generally is five images, one for each of the five turning points, the context, the conflict, the complication, the climax and the new context. If I feel I can work with fewer images or need one or two more, I of cause do this. For these images I also try to focus on the visual progression of the film. The design, like every other element in a film is about storytelling, and since storytelling is about progression the design should develop during the film, unless it is better for the story if the design is static. I tend to use these images as a way to try out the technique I’m going to animate the film in, to see how I might approach it the most efficient. I don’t actually animate the scenes but I recreate them in the technique I’m going to use. The last part here is to find how I think the sound/music should develop through the film.
An important thing to mention is that I don’t at this stage necessarily use a cinematic composition in the illustrations of the film, since I’m fully aware that, even if I would use a cinematic composition, all these images would still be changed and improved upon later in the process as I learn more. This brings me to another point. If I find something that would improve the film, it doesn’t matter if it’s a story, design or sound change, I do it. I see everything I do is a temporary solution untill I find a way to make the film a stronger experience for the audience. Since I work from few general images and gradually to a more detailed film, these changes does not take a lot of time to implement.
As I move on I continue to gradually add more detail, first illustrating the sequences, then the scenes before doing the individual shots and lastly doing a draft of the storyboard where I’m focused mainly on how to use the editing (montage) to help tell the story and make the animation simpler (read faster). These images I learnt to keep as rough sketches after finding how I kept wasting time cleaning up images I had to throw away anyway. I also work with the audio in parallel, gradually adding more detail, but not getting in to too much detail, the main focus is still is on the visuals.
When I’m done with the storyboard, I use the its images as templates to build each scene and shot of the film in the technique I’m going to animate in. I also pose the characters in the keyposes from the storyboard. After this comes the animation. But that is an entirely different article!
Thank you for taking your time and reading my post,
Peter Hertzberg
