StoryboardingWhere It All Begins

The Storyboard

The first step is to understand what you are trying to communicate and what your intended message is.

If you don't understand your message, no one will.

When you start doing video projects, remember: It’s the preproduction work that makes a good end product.

The StoryboardThe more time you spend planning before you use the camera, the less time you will waste. Use the following process to ensure a good production.

Step One Brainstorm ways to best tell your storyStep Two Do the researchStep Three Outline the storyStep Four Write your scriptStep Five Build a StoryboardStep Six Shoot A-roll and B-roll footageStep Seven Import Footage to Video Editor SoftwareStep Eight Acquire other assetsStep Nine Edit your VideoStep Ten Export your video using the correct codec and compressionStep Eleven Save your project to the To the Media Server

The Storyboard1. OUTLINING

Categorize the materials that you have collected during your research.

Match similar information about the subject from the different sources that you have found.

Once you have categorized your information, develop an outline to use when writing the script.

The Storyboard2. SCRIPTING

A script should be written for your audience to hear, not for them to read. Your audience will be watching whatever you put on the screen while trying to listen at the same time. This means you want to use very familiar words and phrases so they don’t get confused.

Compared to reading a book, watching television does not give a person the opportunity to go back and reread what he or she misunderstands. With TV, you have to keep the viewer interested by using dialogue that is easy to understand .

One technique for TV script writing is to work from your outline, but instead of writing, speak into a tape recorder. Transcribe the tape and add in anything you left out.

The Storyboard3. STORYBOARDING

This is where it all begins. This is where the script or the original idea, begins to take life through visual communication. Think of your video as a story. All good stories contain the 5 W's; Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

If you can answer these questions during the duration of your video, chances are it will be a good story

Additionally, there are some general terms that you should be familiar with; protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, turning point, dialog, introduction, conclusion, narration, and points of view.

The Storyboard

Storyboards are visual representations that aid in the the creation process of digital storytelling.

Storyboards lay out images in sequential order to create the flow of the production. They can also include technical aspects and explanations of design.

The following flowchart demonstrates how the basic scenes from a digital story might be organized.

The Background

Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written languages, used by ancient cultures before text evolved and as a natural bridge to text.

The Chinese language was built using pictographs.

Egyptians used storyboards, or hieroglyphics, first etched in stone: :

The Background

Egyptian Cuniaform hieroglyphics on a stone tablet

The Background

and later written on papyrus (ancient paper), to organize a complex society and to rule the ancient world:

The Background

Storyboards appear in many forms, from emerging literacy books to emergency instructions on airplanes to technical textbooks.

When writers in various fields want to make ideas easily understood, they choose a storyboard format or one of its close cousins: the flow chart, the time line, or the PowerPoint presentation.

Storyboards are widely used because we know pictures combined with text offer a rich synthesis of information that can entertain and inform.

What Is A Storyboard?

A graphical representation of the camera shots in a sequence, connected together to create a narrative flow.

Similar in appearance to a comic strip.

What Is A Storyboard?

Once a concept or script is written for a film or animation, the next step is to make a storyboard. A storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, kind of like a comic book. Your storyboard will/should convey some of the following information:

What characters are in the frame, and how are they moving?

What are the characters saying to each other, if anything?

How much time has passed between the last frame of the storyboard and the current one?

What Is A Storyboard?

It allows the director to visualize the flow of camera shots and sets.

The process helps the director to decide the sequences of shots, the movement of actors, camera directions and lighting directions.

Used for discussions between the director and cinematographer/director of photography, to decide how the shots need to be acted and shot.

What Does A Storyboard Look Like?

Each shot is drawn as a frame.

Each frame is annotated with a brief information about settings, actions, camera angles, shots types, camera movement and editing notes.

The frames are often connected together with words or symbols.

What Does A Storyboard Look Like?

What Does A Storyboard Look Like?

How Are Storyboards Used?

PRE-PRODUCTION (BEFORE SHOOTING)

The director and production designer will discuss how to achieve the right look and feel.

A storyboard artist will draw up the directors rough storyboards.

The director discusses these storyboards with the cinematographer/director of photography.

How Are Storyboards Used?

PRODUCTION (DURING SHOOTING)

The storyboards are given to all of the crew so they know what is needed for each shot.

How Are Storyboards Used?

POST-PRODUCTION (AFTER SHOOTING)

The editors use the storyboards as a blueprint of the original intentions of the director.

The editors use the storyboards as a framework against which changes can be judged.

What Does Each Frame Contain?

FRAMING AND DISTANCE

The type of shot ( C/U, Medium C/U etc)

An audio cue

A description of the sequence or frames

Camera movement

Transitions