Friday, March 20, 2009

Storyboard weblinks

Here are a bunch of websites with storyboard examples of them. A mixture of film and advertising.

Agents
www.storyboardsinc.com
www.storyboards.nl
www.storyboardsonline.com
www.newyorkstoryboards.com
www.drawingbook.com.au
www.411creatives.com

Storyboard artists
www.storyboard.be
www.thefilmartist.com
http://homepage.mac.com/damaggio

If you've found anymore let me know.
Cheers,

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Left, Right, Left


Ages ago I read in a storyboarding book that the protagonist of a film generally travels from the left of the screen to the right. This spans from the fact that in the West we read from left to right, so, logically, it would make sense for our eyes to follow the same direction. I put this theory to the test and, sure enough, in most films it was true. This also means that the antagonist is more likely to travel from the opposite direction – inevitably confronting each other.

I wanted to point this out because it’s such a good way to use camera movement and action to build up to a clash. I’ve used this amazing scene from ‘Vampire Hunter D’ as an example. This is the scene where we are first introduced to ‘D’, through the eyes of the bounty hunter gang. They are both after the same bounty, so they don’t really want to be friends. As this is a Japanese film the direction of the protagonist is opposite from Western film (because they read funny.)

The guy with the beard has a sharp shot with his metallic bow and arrow, so sharp he doesn’t even have to look at his prey- he can just listen to their movements. As he hears a horse galloping behind the hill he shuts his eyes and follows the sound with his bow. A brilliant entrance for our hero- as we don’t even see him coming!

Just before he moves towards that ‘sweet spot’ we cut to a close up of his bow, a direct opponent of the gallop. Then, just at the exact moment, SWOOSH! He releases the arrow which hurtles towards our hero. It cuts to an intense movement as the camera follows it through the graveyard- only to be caught by D’s hand. D’s horse buckles. His cape flaps up. We cut to a wide as he makes a silhouette in the moon. They all stare at him in disbelief. He snaps the metal arrow.

BRILLIANT!

If you haven’t seen this film I recommend doing so. The story and dialogue are a bit cliché, but there are a few scenes like this that are jaw dropping. The design concepts are pretty stunning as well.

Let me know what you think? Any thoughts, examples, arguments? I like arguing.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Storyboard exercise 5: Charles

Here's the script....




And here are the boards.
Suggestions anyone?






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