I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

They were joking, Ryan.

It depends if you're paying people and the time involved in doing the animation. If you can do the animation yourself, it just costs your own time.

[Ryan Elder]

Yes I would have to pay an animator to do it, and I assume that might cost more than having to pay a small production crew to help shoot a movie.

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Who is on your distribution list? Will they be able to cope with a screen, as in laptop, pad, phone etc, or does their role mean paper is better? Some folk will already have paper for other things, while others will be using a pad or similar already. For my normal crew of 6, two always want paper, the other 4 don't even have a pen!

One thing - test your preliminary versions on them to see if they can understand them. Never assume people have the skills you assume they have. People are extremely variable!

Well I could storyboard in frameforge or something like that, and be ready for paper or latpop depending on what they prefer later, if that's best. It's just that frameforge might be overkill to use, if they want paper, in which case, you do not get the camera movement that frameforge supplies. So maybe therefore a cheaper program might be better if more people prefer paper.

[Brian Drysdale]

You're the director, it's mostly for you, rather than other people. You can show the crew the scene on your laptop on the day of the shoot or on the recce, actors won't be be that interested, since they have other considerations than the shots.

[Paul R Johnson]

For my pantomimes, I would have from the production company, accurate plans of the sets and during the rehearsals when the actors got confused about where things would be I'd pull out the folder and show them a plan. 90% of them would instantly glaze over and obviously just not get it, so I'd pull out photographs of the set showing where everything was. So many times we'd get to the real stage and their set for the first time and I'd inwardly laugh when they'd misunderstood everything. All they want is for the director to say you start sitting here, you get upon and walk too here. This is what I meant about giving them what they want. Some on the distribution list may just not be interested or need them.

Ask your self what the storyboard is for - who wants them and what use are they. Stick men and a scribble can be photocopied and cost nothing. Putting hours into a storyboard using software could be a big waste off time (and money).

[Josh Bass]

I would assume itll be him, the dp, a sound guy, and the actors. MAYBE one other grip/electric?

[Ryan Elder]

Yeah that sounds about right, plus make up. But make up will not want to see them of course.

[Josh Bass]

I meant that will be the TOTALITY of your crew. Probably out of those positions I mentioned it'd be DP and possibly the grip/electric who would need to see the storyboards. Just tell your actors where to stand/move.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. I also thought I should show the sound person as well, of course.

[Josh Bass]

Nope. They will decide that after actually seeing the shot on camera.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, it's just in my experience I prefer to see it beforehand because there may be problems that can be addressed beforehand, compared to when the camera is set up, and thus less times to solve those problems. But I can try to creating storyboards that are more boom friendly.

[Brian Drysdale]

That's just you, the boom operator doesn't need to see the storyboard in order to do their job. It would be like a battle plan, it works until the first shots are fired. Any problems can usually be seen when the director is blocking out with the actors.

Also, you can't tell the lighting from a storyboard, that can also affect where you can position the mic boom because of the shadows.

[Paul R Johnson]

This is just you doing your management thing Ryan. You assume that other people would want to work like you, and they don’t. You want to ‘help’ the composer, the DoP, the cast, the crew, everyone by inflicting your way of working on them. If you have somebody to do makeup, are you sending them photos from movies you like so they get the style of the makeup? Have you sent them a lipstick colour chart, or examples of eyeshadow colour. Are you buying them an airbrush kit because pad application can be seen in HD, let alone 4K? Can your storyboard do costume and makeup?

Storyboards help those that need them, and invariably the details they want are not the ultra quality renders software can produce. Yours will look great, and instantly fall over when circumstances change and you have to adapt, as in every production so far, when you have to change script, locations and people.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Don’t give Ryan any more ideas on how to micro manage this movie to death. You’re right. I could see him trying to tell the makeup artist how to do her job supplying her with stills from movies he wants to emulate and color strips.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well I would just talk to the make up artist about what the movie would look like and then hear the ideas they would have I thought.

[Ryan Elder]

I am having some challenges getting use to FramgeForge. I think maybe I will just draw out the storyboards myself but does it come off as unprofessional if the drawings are bad?

When I see storyboards of professional movies that have been made, when storyboards are discussed, they always look good. I never see really unprofessionally drawn ones. So would those make a bad impression?