• Install ACDSee, Xara, Winamp

As Randolf is injured, I'm going to be subbing for this class only for the first week. I will put off going over the syllabus until next week so he can do it with you guys. Also there is a tendency to for late comer students to join up in the second week so it's actually better for the syllabus to be delayed.

The purpose of storyboards is to help the director/producer/cinematographer visualize their shots. It is a method for them to try out ideas and problem solve so as to not spend a lot of money trying to get it right in camera. The general thing to get out of this is that you need to have a plan. For movies, that plan is the storyboard. Storyboards will always be around in spite of technology. There is a tendency to use animatics, but those can become cost prohibative except for bigger budget productions or extremely complex camera moves. For the most part, all you need is a pencil and paper.

More and more people are moving to drawing digitally. One of the top storyboarders, a guy named Dan Milligan, typically does all his drawing digitally.

This class can either be taught digitally or it can be taught traditionally. Ideally it shouldn't matter. What is of vital importance is your ability to draw. I say this because it is personally painful for me to teach skills and techniques to those who have no foundation. Consider how hard it would be to teach poetry to someone who couldn’t read, or learn to write a song without knowing how to play an instrument. In short, I need you to have some skills. I need you to be good at drawing, or at the very least, have the desire to become good at drawing. Skills can be gained, but having a good attitude is the first step. If you cannot draw, or are really bad at drawing or perhaps barely passed life drawing with a ‘D’, I submit to you this class is going to be hard.

On the other hand, if you do have some skill and more importantly confidence, I will be showing you a few digital and traditional techniques that will help you on your way to becoming faster and more efficient.

You can make good money as a storyboard artist. You would be making better money if you lived in a place where movies or commercials were shot such as LA, New York, Montreal, or Vancouver, etc. It makes sense to train to do the work where the work is. You’re not going to find a lot of scuba diving in Kansas. The same goes for movie work. Move to where the work you want to do is. Granted there are people who live and work remotely, but those guys have a reputation. While you’re still in school, no one knows who you are yet.

Before we get started, let’s talk a little about materials. All you really need for this class, I believe should be pencil, paper and eraser. It really doesn’t matter what kind of pencil, just as long as you can see dark marks on the page. Many students either draw too lightly or use a pencil with too hard a lead. Make sure WHAT YOU DO CAN BE SEEN AND REPRODUCED. I suggest:

• Pencil – I either draw with No. 2 pencils (cheap) or 0.5 mechancial pencil (convenient.)
• Paper – whatever you like to draw on, anything except lined notebook paper
• Eraser – Kneaded eraser, Sakura/Panasonic electric erasers are great too for small areas

The other things I recommend are

• vellum or tracing paper. Vellum is better, but tracing paper is cheaper.
• Make-up pad or webril pad
• Stump or tortillion
• Proportion wheel
• Ruler
• Calculator (most of your cell phones have calculators)
• Camera (most of your cell phones have cameras)
• Access to a copy machine

I haven’t seen the book for this class, but most everything you need to know can be found on this webpage.

It’s from an interview with a guy named Ian McCaig. He’s a concept designer who formerly worked at ILM. He’s the guy who designed Darth Maul. Anyhow there are few images that tell you the basics.

1. The first thing we need to understand is aspect ratio. The aspect ratio of an image is its displayed width divided by its displayed height (mathematically expressed as x:y [“x-to-y”] and x×y [“x-by-y”]).

Put simply, aspect ratio is all about the relationship of how wide to how tall. We need to know this because we need to draw or design towards composing in this shape. This shot is 4 wide by 3 tall, or also expressed as 4:3. If you did the math and reduced this fraction it would 1.33:1. Also called "Academy."

Obviously, this shot is much wider than the one above it.

This shot is 16 wide by 9 tal or 16:9.

This would reduce to 1.85:1. This is called "Widescreen."

Here is an example of aspect ratio is 2.35:1. It's called "CinemaScope"

This is a screenshot from the Matrix. You will notice bigger black bars in the letterboxing on the dvd's for these type of films.

2. The second thing you need to worry about is framing.

LS – Long Shot – Shows full height of a human subject
MS – Medium Shot – From the crotch up
CU – Close Up – From the armpits up
ELS – Extreme Long Shot – really far away
ECU – Extreme Close Up – really close up

While it’s all good to know these, many students screw up by trying to draw at the wrong scale. I will show you some short cuts that will make your drawing go faster and easier.

3. The third thing you need to worry about is eye line. Where is the horizon in relationship to the subject(person)?

This diagram explains things better than writing them out. The camera position tells us how we should be looking at the characters.

4. Lens – This is probably the thing you will least be worried about, but it’s good to know and understand.

Discuss the cone of vision.

5. Movement - This can mean movement of people, creatures, or vehicles onscreen, or of the camera itself or a combination of any of those things. I will let Randolf cover this.

6. Line of action – This concept is best understood by imagining that if two characters are interacting, there is a laser beam shooting from one character's eyes to the other character's eyes. I will also let Randolf cover this.

I think once you see the diagram and the camera position you can understand what this is.

Demo

• I will also show a selection of my own examples from storyboarding jobs that I’ve done.
• Show samples of the Indiana Joens Storyboards.
• Use of a lay-in. Show Loomis.
• Demo handouts – Thumbnails and frames
• Demo digitally. – How I use Xara instead of Photoshop
• Ask the students if they want to know how to color digitally.
• Talk about online resources(JoBlo etc.). Talk about acts in films.

We will follow up with an exercise and an assignment. Do the name and tape thing.

• Name and tape – Drawing from your imagination. Many of you have been accustomed to drawing from the model, i.e. drawing what you see. This is good practice, but it is only the start. You need to be able to draw from your head. When you are in a meeting with a director, he EXPECTS YOU TO DRAW IN FRONT OF HIM. You will never know what he’s going to ask you for and you’ve got to be ready. The better you can draw from your head and from your memory, the better off you will be should you go into this industry.
• Assignment 30 mins max– Draw a scene with 3 figures. Details to come. Critique at the end of class.

Here are some useful links:

Dan Milligan.com

Mike Butkus

Famous Frames

Storyboards Inc

Storyboards-East

Frameworks LA

You can find more if you just surf for these on your own. Good Luck.

---