Storyboard
A storyboard or scene book is a graphic version of a script or a visualization of a concept or an idea.
General
Storyboards are used to visualize scripts and plan individual film scenes by means of sketchy representations before the actual start of shooting. The written script is implemented in pictures for the first time and enriched with the specific design such as perspective, viewing angle and setting size. The storyboard is also increasingly part of a creative technique as regulatory instruments used and therefore used for thematic sorting of contributions. The invention and use of storyboards goes back to the Disney studios . In terms of structure and use, as a two-dimensional visualization of narrative themes, the storyboard is related to the comic . The storyboard drawer calls himself a storyboard artist.
Movie
A storyboard is a sequence of images in combination with a text that visualizes the settings of a film (here: setting the camera), a multimedia production or other formats of the performing arts. The storyboard is usually implemented by an illustrator who is familiar with the film language according to the director's specifications with the involvement of the cameraman . The storyboard draftsman is often actively involved in finding ideas about possible attitudes. Especially in advertising, the first storyboards or animatics are often created before a director is hired for the planned clip. Through the images, in conjunction with a description of the image, everyone involved in the film can more clearly understand and better coordinate the intention of the makers with regard to setting sizes, viewing angles, perspectives and sometimes lighting, colors or overall aesthetics. Storyboards are mainly made for the following media:
- Cinema film, especially in the case of films with subsequent necessary post-processing on the computer and in the preparation of complex, resource-intensive sequences
- 2D or 3D animation
- Advertising (TV, print media)
but also stage shows, concerts, musicals, etc., all productions that are very complex and expensive.
Radio
Storyboards are also an important planning aid in the production of radio programs .
A storyboard usually consists of several columns. The left column contains the types of content such as language, music, noise / atmosphere, comments. The top or bottom line is for the time information. In the individual columns from left to right are the respective contents, mostly characterized by the following key points:
- Music: title and artist, genre, type of intro and outro.
- Comments: important fadings, necessary corrections, sources
- Language: thematic focus, key words or entire texts
- Noises: sound character
Recently there has also been the option of creating storyboards on the computer using specially optimized programs. While users describe these programs as extremely helpful and make work easier - e. For example, only a few image details have to be changed for new settings and no completely new drawings have to be created - critics point out the limitations with regard to the available objects and options, which do not come close to the almost unlimited possibilities of pure drawings.
Online journalism
A storyboard is also generated when designing websites . It gives an overview of the structure of the website, including links, and illustrates possible ways the user can navigate.
Creativity technique
The more complex the content to be presented, the more decisive the structure of the argument becomes. The storyboard approach is a method to translate complex topics into comprehensible and convincing presentations and e.g. B. to implement in teaching units. The method consists of powerful techniques with which information is structured and visualized in such a way that the audience can follow the argument like a gripping story. Considerations are in particular:
- Focus information on key messages; That means to condense a lot of facts and information into a precise, clear and understandable message - the core of your message.
- Structure information into a coherent argumentation: The central messages are used to build a logical, coherent and convincing argumentation - the storyline .
Software development
The storyboard technique is successfully used to visualize user interfaces, for example as a sequence of screen contents. The use of the storyboards essentially corresponds to the mock-up technique in software development (paper prototypes, see user story , use case ). Since the mid-2010s there have been apps that try to create storyboards automatically, such as the smartphone software called “Storyboard” from Google Labs .
Exhibitions
- 2011: Between film and art - storyboards from Hitchcock to Spielberg , Kunsthalle Emden , then
- 2011: Museum for Film and Television , Berlin
literature
- Marcie Begleiter, Peter Robert: Storyboard: From text to drawing to film , Verlag Zweiausendeins, ISBN 3861504987
- Steven D. Katz: Film Directing Shot by Shot (English), Michael Wiese Productions 1991, ISBN 0941188108
- Kerry Choun, Marcel Dunand: The Storyboard Approach , 2001
Web links
- Explanatory video for storyboard
- Storyboard template ( RTF ; 24 kB)
- Long-term exhibition in autumn 2011 in Berlin: From Hitchcock to Spielberg ; previously in the Kunsthalle Emden