What is Storyboarding?

This may not be a term commonly used in daily life, but to animators and movie makers storyboarding is an essential pre-production process. It is a visual and organizational example of how the video will play its story. Storyboarding becomes more essential in bigger projects to demonstrate for producers and investors what the production will require. It also saves time and money when mistakes are spotted before going through shooting the videos.

What are the elements shown in a storyboard?

Chiu, Wing. Course BA (Hans) Animation. Leeds Arts University.

What is important in storyboards are camera angles, focus, timelines, and camera movements. Storyboards used to be done on paper and looked like comics. Now there is software available with more options to help visualize the camera movements. Nonetheless, it doesn’t have to be that complicated and it can be used as a guideline to shooting scenes. The picture below shows an example of a scene on a storyboard.

Added to the scene images is camera movement such as zooming and sound effects. Dialogues or monologues could also be added as well as timeline duration. The usual timeframes film students start with are 10 seconds per shot. What is important in the image above is not only the camera movement but the style in which the images will be cut. In the fourth image, three shots are supposed to appear quickly after each other until they all stand on the same screen. In the last one, the camera pans up to show the height of the building.

Storyboards require creativity, brainstorming, and a good imagination, especially on how to pass a visual message to the audience. The challenge when turning books into movies is usually being able to integrate as much of the details as possible into the story without making a movie that lasts more than 2 hours.

Tips on storyboarding

Nickson, Roberto (2019, October 15). Woman using DesignLab for IOS. Unsplash.

First of all, make it rough. The drawings are not going to replace the movie or animation, they are rough sketches that are only meant to convey the idea. Second of all, add details on camera movement, sound effects, and dialogues. Even if it is just an idea, it is an exact idea of scenes that would unfold the story. From the storyboard above, we know that it is about two characters waking up in the morning, getting dressed, having breakfast, and then going to a tall building. It is either where they work or where they have a business to deal with. The idea of the beginning is clear.

What else could storyboards be used for?

They are not limited to movies and animations. Storyboards can be used to plan comics, UI/UX designs, graphic novels, carousels, games, or any story one wishes to display visually. They are most useful in bigger projects to avoid mistakes that would otherwise cost time, effort, and money. In a long comic, realizing that the story does not show up the way it was intended after drawing 10 pages can be a hassle.

Why should storyboarding be a project practice?

One of the main reasons storyboards are useful is to pitch ideas to investors and be able to show them visually. Therefore, storyboarding is not only used in the movie-making business. Through storyboarding, it is easy to know the duration the project will take, the design and visual aspect of what it will look like, and what software or tools would be needed to actualize it. It is a blueprint to building a successful plan.

References:

“How to Storyboard: Step-By-Step Storyboarding Guide (2021 Edition) | Boords.” Boords.com, 8 July 2020, boords.com/how-to-storyboard.

“Storyboards | Leeds Arts University.” Www.leeds-Art.ac.uk, www.leeds-art.ac.uk/study/undergraduate-courses/ba-hons-animation/galleries/storyboards/. Accessed 6 June 2021.

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