Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
fi lms comes from the visual telling of the story by the hands and imagination of a storyboard
artist. Putting the story idea into visual form requires the skills and sensitivities of a fi lmmaker,
a graphic artist, a storyteller, and an actor. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a fair under-
standing of animation, layout and set design, music, dance, comedy, and psychology. Large
studios will invest many millions of dollars to make an animated fi lm. These studios need
good story artists and storyboard artists. All the money will not guarantee a good fi lm. It
requires a great story and a great telling of the story and that's what the story artists help
to do.
Film Language and Cinematography
Even though you may be drawing with a pencil or on a computer tablet you are
working to create a fi lm (or a fi lm-like video, digital or computer game story). This requires
that you know how fi lms and fi lm-stories are constructed. The thousands of existing fi lms,
advertisements, music videos, and video games form a library of good, bad, and so-so
fi lmmaking. It is important to learn how and why the most effective fi lms work. Learn how
fi lmmakers make the viewers understand complex plots and actions as well as the fl ow
and timing of simpler scenes. Analyze what the fi lmmaker has done to make you feel the
tension and fear, joy, triumph so that you laugh, cry, and squirm in your seat in all the right
places. It is not only the fact that the evil zombie is hiding in the closet but it is how the
director chooses to reveal this information to the audience that can make us shudder, snicker,
or yawn.
A novelist may want you to hear the voice inside a character's head telling us how
jealous and irrational he is. A fi lmmaker may choose to convey the same thing through
lighting and camera angle. An animator can use deep and shallow space, strong poses,
and maybe symbolic or referential images such as blazing fi re or strong colors. All of
these types of images and the way they are put together are the “language” of the fi lm.
Become a student of fi lm. Analyze the fi lmmaker's choices. Imagine what changes you
would make. See if the fi lm has storyboard examples and other useful information in the
supplements section of a DVD. Start a journal, do quick drawings of shots, and make other
notes as you notice interesting things while watching movies. You will not be able to see a
fi lm quite the same way you did before you undertook this journey. However, you will be
a better storyboard artist and you will probably fi nd even more reasons to enjoy the fi lms
you watch.
Cinematography
Cinematography refers primarily to the photographic camera work of fi lmmaking. In
live action the cinematographers are responsible for getting the right shot for the
director. Similarly, the storyboard artist needs to “get the right shot” or at least draw
the best approximation of that shot so that it becomes clear how that shot will work in the
fi lm. In animation, such things as light quality, a camera's focus, and camera effects like a
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