What is a Story Board?

What is a storyboard?

A storyboard is a time honoured method for organizing and delineating a story in sequential visual representations. They are particularly useful in the development of animations, comic graphic novels and illustrated children’s book and they are also used as a preliminary tool for the development of conventional films as a pre-shoot visualization of the script.

Once a story or script is written for a book comic graphic novel, film or animation, the next step is to make a storyboard. A storyboard visually tells the story of how the visual events of the narrative unfold page by page or panel by panel, in a similar way to the structure of a comic book. There are a variety of different opinions about how a storyboard should look and what it should contain as you will see from the examples I have posted .I don’t think we could say there is any absolutely right method as this varies from industry to industry. The animation industry have the most formalized method of organizing content and some illustrators have a very loose method of working out the visual story sequence. Some graphic novelists immediately start to use frame hierarchy to introduce concepts of pace and tempo while animators working for the T.V or film screen use a fixed frame size in which the action develops as this translates directly to the final viewing format. The choices we make about the style of the Story board should be useful to the achievement of our intended outcomes rather than just a process

Generally a storyboard would contain some of the following ideas:

• What characters are in the frame, and how are they moving.
• What environment or world the characters are in.
• How the characters are interacting with the world or each other.
• The Point of View in the scene, think in terms of camera angle e.g. close-up, mid- shot ‘over the shoulder shot’, bird’s eye view etc.

They can also contain

·       Preliminary representation of the characters in the style of illustration you intend to work in

·       Preliminary experiments with frame hierarchy to convey pace, tempo or dynamic interactivity between characters and the world.

Why make a storyboard?

Creating a storyboard will help you plan your animation out shot by shot. You can make changes to your storyboard before you start animating, instead of changing your mind later. You will also be able to talk about your animation and show your storyboard to other people to get feedback on your ideas.

A Glossary of Film Techniques and there use in developing Visual narratives

The terms used to describe Film techniques, can be a useful way of describing compositional ideas in 2D visual narratives it’s not a compulsory way of talking but it can be helpful in the process of organizing  and editing your ideas

Camera Shots P.O.V

Extreme Wide Shots act to establish the area.

Wide Shots show the entire person or area.  They’re great for establishing the scene and allow for good action of the characters.  Sometimes this is known as the long shot.

Medium Shots frame the subject from the waste up.  This is the most common shot and allows for hand gestures and motion.

Medium Close Ups shots show the subject in more detail and are often framed from just below the shoulders to the top of the head.

Close Ups show a particular part of your subject.  For people this usually means the shot frames just the head.

Extreme Close Ups are much tighter close-up shots in which you get detail greater than the human eye might be able to normally perceive.  An example of this shot might be of the mouth and eyes together

Extreme Long Shot contains a large amount of landscape. It is often used at the beginning of a scene or a film to establish general location (setting). This is also known as an establishing shot.

Long Shot contains landscape but gives the viewer a more specific idea of setting. A long shot may show the viewers the building where the action will take place. A panorama of a scene in the world

Full Shot contains a complete view of the characters. From this shot, viewers can take in the costumes/bodies of characters and may also help to demonstrate the relationships between characters.

Mid Shot contains the characters or a character from the waist up. From this shot, viewers can see the characters' faces more clearly as well as their interaction with other characters. This is also known as a social shot

Bird's Eye Angle is an angle that looks directly down upon a scene. This angle is often used as an establishing angle, along with an extreme long shot, to establish setting.

Aerial Shot: A shot taken from a plane, helicopter or a person on top of a building. Not necessarily a moving shot.

High Angle is a camera angle that looks down upon a subject. A character shot with a high angle will look vulnerable or small. These angles are often used to demonstrate to the audience a perspective of a particular character. The example above demonstrates to us the perspective or point of view of a vampire. As a viewer we can understand that the vampire feels powerful.

Eye-Level Angle puts the audience on an equal footing with the character/s. This is the most commonly used angle in most films as it allows the viewers to feel comfortable with the characters.

Low Angle is a camera angle that looks up at a character. This is the opposite of a high angle and makes a character look more powerful. This can make the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character. This can help the responder feel empathy if they are viewing the frame from another character's point of view.

Two Shot This is a shot of two peoples (or other individuals) together. 

Cut Away  Cutaways are used in the editing process to fill in footage which is different from the main action.  B-roll is often used for cutaways.  An example might be a cut away of a bird singing if the shot is focused on a couple in the woods. 

Over the Shoulder Shots are shot from behind the person towards their subject.  Generally the frame is cut off just behind the ear, although there are several variations.  A good technique to use to get this shot is to frame the person facing the subject with about one third of the frame.

Point of View (P.O.V): This is an effective shot that gives the audience the feel that you’re seeing it from the eyes of the performer.  It is taken from near the eye-level of the actor and shows what he might see.  It could be used to give the perspective of other animals too like a frog, a bird, or a fish.

Selective Focus: By using a large aperture value (f/1.4, f/2.0) you will be able to create a shallow depth of field.  This effectively leaves one part of the frame in focus while blurring others, such as the foreground or background.  When you change the focus in the shot from the foreground to the background you’re doing another advanced camera shot called a rack focus

Evangelion Shot is derived from the popular anime series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'. This camera movement begins as an extreme close-up and zooms out abruptly, creating a blurring effect to emphasise the speed and size of the object