Storyboarding

Storyboarding is the process in which drawings are produced of the shots of your script

Why do we do it?
It helps you to visualise what your film is going to look like. It enables you to work faster on set because it is a lot easier and quicker to show someone a picture of something for them to visualise it than to try and explain in words and have there interpretation match your ideas. It also means that producers can see problems with shots before time and money has been wasted by making a bad shot. It also means actors will get a feel of what they will be doing before they start filming which saves time.

Do you have to be an artist?
There are professional storyboard artists however you can do them yourself which is probably a better idea as nothing is lost in translation, you can experiment more and it is a lot cheaper doing it your self.

Story boarding is especially useful in complex sequences such as a battle scene or special effects sequences because they are complicated and it is good to have them planed out of they look like a mess. Some producers only storyboard these such sequences and some storyboard the whole film. They are used in stunt sequences also because they are usually the most expensive part in the whole film and can only be filmed a few times so it is very important that it is got right






this is an example of a storyboard of the shining.