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Creative Control: Helping to Ensure the Success of a Film Project with Storyboarding

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The tried and true process of storyboarding has come a long way since its early days, and now, mobile devices and new technology take it to a whole new level.

Producing a film or video is almost always more expensive than it seems, whether it’s a low-budget indie flick, or a blockbuster.  The complexities involved in creating a movie can lead to production delays or increased costs.  Planning in advance as much as possible can make a real difference, and that is the main point behind the concept of storyboarding.

Storyboarding dates back to the silent film era, though the form widely known today was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s.  The first storyboards at Disney evolved from comic-book like “story sketches” created in the 1920s to illustrate concepts for animated cartoon shorts.[1]

In essence, a storyboard is a large comic of the given film or some section of it that’s produced beforehand to help directors, cinematographers, and all involved players visualize the scenes.  It is the phase in pre-production where the language of the film starts to take shape, the particulars of each scene start to emerge, and potential problems can be addressed.  Storyboards even include arrows or instructions detailing movement, and set the overall stage for the full visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera lens.  Most importantly, the process helps estimate the overall production costs, and saves time.

Because of this, today, most studios have storyboard artists whose sole job is to relay the director’s vision of each shot and provide a visual rough draft.[2]  However, the advantageous process has gotten considerably easier, even for those of us not directing in Hollywood; it is now possible to develop a storyboard using mobile technology. 

Filmmakers have adapted some timesaving tricks that help them map out their storyboards on a digital platform, so they can explore all the particulars of their shoot ahead of time.  The Storyboard Quick app from PowerProduction Software allows filmmakers to import their scripts and images, make notations, and use built-in characters to compose each shot.  Users can edit images with vector draw tools, rearrange chronology, add speech bubbles, and print completed boards in a variety of formats. 

The ease-of-use and features this app provides makes the attributes of storyboarding more robust than ever before.  Filmmakers are able to export the completed storyboard for Flash, and storyboards can be optimized for mobile device viewing so it is possible for writers, directors, and camera operations to have remote collaboration on their project.  This eliminates communication problems or delays, and ensures all involved are on the same page, saving time in both pre- and post-production.  The simplicity of gathering and incorporating everyone’s input also prevents wasted dollars during the shoot, or in the editing phase. 

While the means of storyboarding have certainly evolved, the concept itself and the reasoning for it have remained steadfast over time.  The more fully ideas are fleshed out at the beginning, the more beautifully realized they are in the final video product.  Harnessing the latest mobile tools enhances communication and creative collaboration.

The Storyboard Quick app is enabled for 2 in 1 devices powered by Intel® Core™ M processors and is available for download at: http://www.powerproduction.com/storyboard-quick-software.html

[1]http://www.instructionaldesign.org/storyboarding.html
[2]http://nofilmschool.com/2013/08/storyboarding-with-coen-brothers-storyboard-artist


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