Creating the magic, one storyboard panel at a time.

There is always a battle going on in every field of study of who has the most important job. Like in any field, the film and entertainment industry is no exception. For the longest time, I really thought the only people that were part of a film were the actors (if they looked good) and the director (if there were pictures of them behind the camera). As time has gone on however, I have learned that this is not the case. There are hundreds of individuals who are part of the film making process, be it craft services, 1^st AD, Casting Director, Gaffer, Key Grip or the Best Boy. They are the unseen heroes that help make the films, television shows, shorts, and commercials that we have come to know and love a reality. I really want to help shed some light into one such position that I have found most intriguing yet is hardly ever mentioned in the production of animated and live action films. A job which merges my two greatest loves, art and story.

Its a job that lies within the heart of the film, where both a passion for art and an immense love for storytelling collide. Meet the storyboard artist; an individual with a job so important that he has the ability to make or break a film.

When I visited Walt Disney Animation Studios this past year, I really expected to find myself in awe of the animating legends of Glen Keane and the poster children jobs of the current industry, such as painting, lighting, rigging, and animating. However, I find myself still in awe and probably more inspired by a department that until recently I have overlooked. It never occurred to me to picture storytelling as an art in itself, but boy was I wrong.

Storytelling is at the heart of every film. More and more recently we have seen a large increase of amazing graphics and special effects. Tantalizing colors and picture perfect artistic styles have now become a film industry norm.  Though, it is easy to find that as technology and artistic capabilities continue to develop, we also see an increase of horrible movies. It is easy to see that these movies do not fail due to their graphics alone (though it is certain that some do) but rather on their shortcomings of not attracting or connecting with their audience. To put it simply, movies fail because the story is bad. If we cannot connect with the characters, if we cannot feel their own personal pains and joys, then there is no story. The movie won’t work.

Pixar is known for not only their incredible use of story, but also their groundbreaking effects. The art of storytelling at it’s absolute finest is best seen within this heart-wrenching and heart-warming scene from Pixar’s film, Up

In the production of any film, it is true that the story is the deepest and most central core of the production. Once a story is laid out it is almost as if the director produces and creates the story out of thin air. But it is pre-production and pre-vis that creates the world that we see, and that is where storyboarding lies. Planning is always crucial when undertaking a complex and large project. Architects create detailed blueprints before ever constructing a twenty-story building, doctors outline a complex treatment plan before prescribing medicine for an oncology patient, and filmmakers must layout their movie from start to finish before they even pick up Maya or a camera. And their unique art is sometimes just as beautiful as the final product.

The Beauty of Dumbo: Sometimes storyboarding is as real as the final product. Click the image to enlarge this amazing storyboard panel from Disney's "Dumbo"

Storyboarding combines the art of storytelling and art together. It serves as one of the most important foundations in the production of any cinematic film project. While it is indeed true anyone can draw a stick figure onto a piece of paper to show that they want this person standing over here, a storyboard artists’ job is to make that more in depth and to expose those involved in the creative process to what that character is not only doing, but feeling.

To put it simply, the best storyboard artists are:

• Natural born actors
• Comedians worthy of their own sitcom
• Knowledgeable in cinematics
• Highly sympathetic and emotionally aware individuals
• Storytelling prodigies
• And above all, they are incredibly talented artists

Storyboard artists’ job serves as the visual representation of the entire film, and is one of the most important assets in any production. Their art skills enable them to communicate thoughts, feelings, and emotions to the production team and the audience. They are talented, loose artists who can do quick renderings conveying an action, an intense emotion, or the setting of a scene. It is a breed of artists that takes years of hard work, gesture drawing, and storytelling in the making.

Their work, while it may not show up on the big screen, is carried along by the director for the entire length of the production process. The simple drawings carry the basic necessities of the story as well as complex cinematics and layouts for the film. It acts as the necessary visual script that helps move the film process along. You may have seen these boards if you have ever seen behind the scenes footage of animated productions from Pixar and Disney. One of the greatest storyboard artists was a man by the name of Joe Ranft, who was coined a “master storyboard artist” of our generation. He had storyboarded such blockbuster hits as The Lion King, Toy Story, Monster’s Inc., and Cars. To get a better idea of the commitment and dedication it takes to become a storyboard artist, check out this clip from Waking Sleeping Beauty.

Storyboard artists will go through hundreds upon thousands of bad drawings, much like any animator or artist in the world today. As stories change, comedy is added, parts are removed and dissected and put back together in a different order, storyboard artists will scratch and rearrange their art as they see fit. In today’s industry, many storyboard artists have ditched black mounted boards, pencils, paper, and push pins for the environmentally friendly and faster alternative of creating small thumbnails on a tablet and putting it into the computer. Film giants such as Pixar now show their storyboards on a slideshow like “reel” format rather than the time consuming process of holding a giant wooden stick and pointing to a gigantic board. However, there are definitely times that call for the old way of doing things, which is where I believe the true magic and art of storyboarding comes at it’s finest. While visiting WDAS, I asked one such storyboard artist which method is most commonly used and he responded saying,

“We still have artists drawing with a pencil, it is all about their personal style. And there is nothing wrong with that! I actually find it is better understood when the artist is in the middle of a room surrounded by panels and panels of boards. They act it out, they move around, they have fun with it. That’s what storyboarding is all about, it’s about selling it. Making us feel what the character or the scene is feeling.”

It is incredible to see so much emotion, so much depth, and so much heart in simple penciled drawings. While there are many who enter the entertainment industry looking to make or direct the next great film, I think they often overlook the importance of a well-organized storyboard. Whether creating a live action film or a small-animated television commercial, storyboard artists create and develop the project shot by shot. They are not only storytellers, but Da Vinci’s in their own right. Their craft is not only beautiful, but incredibly powerful and useful within the industry. It is a talent and a passion that not many artists truly posses, and it is indeed the unsung and unseen driving force behind every film we see today.  After all, it is story we are after, right?