The Indie Auteur Musings on filmmaking by Stephan Vladimir Bugaj.

Storyboard Handoffs

I recently handed off the first sequence in my in-preproduction short animated film Measured Assessment to Emma, who has graciously agreed to board the film.

Storyboarding is the phase of deveopment in which the visual language of the film is explored and conceptually locked down (the visual concept is simultaneously co-developed with the production designer, who will then refine it). Boards are the most economical place to explore camera framing and movement in order to figure out the pacing and style of your film.

In order to prepare for boarding, the Director needs to do a story breakdown of the script.  Doing a script breakdown for an animation storyboard artist is quite different than doing a script breakdown for on-set production. What an experienced animation board artist expects from the Director is not necessarily what you might think when you hear the word “breakdown.”

Start With A Sequence

Board artists are generally given full sequences to work on, not just one scene or shot (except, sometimes, for fixes or punch-up), because the idea is for the artist to focus on a thematic unit of the film and help develop it.  First off, one must realize that a sequence is not a scene.  A sequence is a series of actions, which may or may not be geographically and temporally coherent, but which are thematically coherent.  For example, in Pixar’s The Incredibles, the introductory set of scenes where Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone are being interviewed about being superheroes is not geographically or temporally coherent (they’re all being interviewed in different places, at different times), but all the shots in that sequence are about establishing their old perspectives.  In the script, each of the interview scenes will be separate scenes, each starting with a new slugline.  But they’re still part of the same sequence.

Breakdown for Boarding

While it’s certainly not forbidden for the Director to include camera suggestions in the delivery to the board artist, but what the board artist really needs from the Director is a breakdown of the logical and emotional beats in the sequence.  Most story artists want this in the form of a verbal pitch, and they are expected to give the Director a verbal pitch of how they interpreted the sequence when they present the boards. The pitch the board artists need is not your elevator pitch, selling pitch, or even treatment excerpt.  It’s specifically a pitch about what the theme and mood of the sequence are, and how each beat (meaning some block of action and dialog that you feel is a continuous conceptual whole within the sequence) contributes to that, and to the rising and falling action in the sequence.

A section of the opening sequence of my in-progress short, Measured Assessment, can serve as an example.  Here is one scene and part of the next in the opening sequence:

And by way of example, here are notes similar to the ones I gave Emma:

Establish Josef: he is old, but not pathetic.  Still alert and engaged, he reads copiously and loves his loyal pet cat.  The books, his age, and the room generally should establish a contrast that we’ll build during the sequence, between Josef and his world, and the world he now lives in.   We need a close on the eyeglass adjust as it’s a runner that needs to get established.  A wide to establish his room, and how homey it is, would be good to heighten the contrast to what we’ll see later.

Establish A.N.G.E.L., who is in fact a lot like Annabel The Cat: a loyal pet, who also happens to be a competent and devoted caregiver.  This robot is not slick, it’s utilitarian, fairly outdated, and utterly dedicated to its charge.   A.N.G.E.L. is a bit worn, which not only helps to highlight the contrast between Josef’s “outdated” world and his unwillingness to constantly upgrade in comparison to the rest of the world he lives in, but also to show that he’s ultimately as loyal to A.N.G.E.L. as the bot is to him.  I’d like to be close on A.N.G.E.L. so we can see her details, including the logo.

The clock not only further reinforces Josef’s anachronistic life, but symbolizes taking the time to live or letting it slip away: a core theme.  The moment of his struggle to his feet is the highlight of this moment: his will to live is strong, but even his devoted bot can’t keep him feeling young forever. The other beats keep up the runners: he’s still actively living, he engenders loyalty, and also the mechanical element of the glasses adjust.

Establish the world around him.  Josef emerges into the world outside his cozy home.  It is cold and fast, and moving on without him.  His robot is his only comfort outside his lair, and even his loyal A.N.G.E.L. isn’t quite capable of being actively warm to him.  While the distance his bot keeps is a respectful one, it’s still the case that he’s basically alone.   An ortho view of the city showing the vastness and blur of people literally speeding through their days that does a tilt-down and push into Josef revealing him plodding along past the blur could be a really cool shot.

Camera: The pacing in Josef’s home should be a bit slow.  It moves along at Josef’s rhythm.  Outside, it’s a contrast between the staccato rhythm of the life of the city with his own steady beat.   I’m interested in limited camera movement in the beginning, with more towards the end of the sequence — but not shakycam or frenetic MTV cutting.  Still a more classically cinematic approach to framing and moving the camera, but increasing in energy (that build will continue for a while, and we never want to get into hyperactive cinematography, so plan accordingly).

As you can see, the idea in pitching to the board artist is to convey the emotional beats, and the purpose of each one.  Ideas about camera style are also given, but specific shot breakdowns aren’t a part of the pitch (if you want to do them, write them down and give them to the artist — and also let them know they’re free to change the camera specifics if they come up with better ideas since they’re there for you to collaborate with, after all).

Approaching your handoffs to your storyboard artist in this manner will make the process much more useful for you as the Director, and much more productive and enjoyable for your collaborator.