How To Make A Storyboard: FREE Film School

In the last few weeks of FREE Film School we’ve been learning to think like a filmmaker and we’ve also been learning how to form a narrative. And last week I talked about the 3 Pillars of filmmaking.

So that brings us to the point where you have your first pillar of your film: the story. If you got this far, well done! Congratulate yourself, because creating a compelling narrative is not easy. The best minds in the film industry struggle with this task every day of their working lives.

Is your story perfect?

No? That’s OK because it doesn’t have to be. In your mind, it probably never will be. And that’s healthy, as long as you don’t allow it to stop you making your film.

In a way, it’s probably better if your story is a little rough around the edges at this stage. Because once you start trying to build the next 2 pillars of your film, you’ll start to see your story differently. If it’s still a little rough, you won’t mind playing around with it while you develop pillars 2 and 3.

If you thought writing the story was hard, building the next pillars – Image and Performance – are even harder. The journey to casting your story, and then creating powerful images which complement the narrative you’ve constructed, is littered with dangers and pitfalls.

Thing is, the only real way to learn and get better at avoiding these problems is to make films. As film students, we have to accept that our first attempts will likely not go the way we planned or imagined.

Filmmaking is an art. But it’s also an art which involves a large amount of collaboration with other artists: actors, cinematographers, editors, make up artists, art directors and so on. Setting up a situation where everyone works together in harmony is not always easy (or even always desirable).

As a filmmaker, your mission is to weather any storms and come out the other side with usable footage. But don’t be put off by the storms, because sometimes these storms can be productive: A sailing ship needs a strong wind to get up some speed, while calm weather brings your ship to a standstill.

Of course, storms can also be highly destructive. But that’s the nature of filmmaking, especially when exploring the Seven Seas of Low Budget Filmmaking…

Pillar 2: Image

OK, so you have a reasonably well developed story which you believe is going to make a good movie. The next step would normally be to start forming an idea of how the story will look as a film. So where to start?

This is mostly the director’s job, at least to start with. Then as other collaborators get on board, most importantly the director of photography, this task is shared.

When pitching a film, the “pitch deck” often comes with Director’s Notes, which will include his or her vision for how the film will be made and how it will look. So you could try writing some notes describing how you “see” the film.

Once a film is in pre-production, a director will often create storyboards. For big productions, this job is done by a dedicated storyboard artist (in collaboration with the director and other key crew members). Creating a storyboard is a cheap and effective way for you to start visualising your film.

First, you might want to download a storyboard template and print them out. I would recommend something simple to start with – just a series of frames to sketch in.

What is a storyboard used for?

The storyboard is used for planning your shoot, and as a tool for communicating your vision to other crew members. By sketching out how you see your movie playing, shot by shot, you can save a lot of time when filming. Instead of having to remember and explain every shot, you have a visual reference which is much easier and quicker to understand.

You don’t have to be an amazing artist. Do the best you can to show how your story works as a film, filling each empty frame with a sketch of the intended shot.

The frames should follow in the sequence you intend them to appear in the final film. If you’ve ever read a comic book or graphic novel, then you’ll understand the principle. And as each frame is a still image, we understand a cut (or transition) will take us from one image to the next.

It helps to number each shot. Below each box you can describe the action and dialogue taking place in the shot.

Just start with the first scene of your story. Try to “see” the story running like a film. In other words, set up that brain projector in your mind and start your imaginary film rolling.

Don’t know where to start?

Well, remember the first lessons were watching films and analysing them? There’s no harm in running a film now and analysing some scenes to work out how they progress, from shot to shot. If you find a scene which roughly fits the scene you’re storyboarding, keep running it over and over to study those shots.

There’s also general practices to bear in mind

Often, a scene will start wide and move in with each shot. For example:

Start with a wide establishing shot of a park. The next shot is a medium shot on our two lovers walking and talking. Next is a medium close up of our two lovers – head and shoulders – as they continue.

As the conversation gets more intimate, the next shot is a close up of one of the actors. The conversation proceeds, building in drama, so we continue to cut between the two lovers in close up.

As one of the lovers storms off in tears, leaving the other stranded and helpless, we cut back to a wider shot of the park.

The scene ends with the upset lover exiting this wider frame to the left.

You see, when you’re creating a storyboard you can start to think how the shots reflect or emphasise the emotions of the scene. How does the scene progress dramatically? Usually, scenes start slowly and build to a climax before moving onto the next scene (which then repeats that quiet-to-loud dramatic arc again).

And while each scene is a little mini story of dramatic conflict, each section of the story also has similar arcs (often called “acts”). And then the story as a whole also has one big dramatic arc which reaches a peak somewhere near the end of the movie.

This is just a general rule. Of course, many films break these rules and do so successfully. But when starting out it’s good to understand the basic principles, before moving onto more risky ideas.

That’s it for this week. Good luck!

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