Storyboards are an integral part of making movies. They are also a clever way to showcase an idea, whether it’s for a film project, video game, or television commercial. Even though storyboards can vary in their presentation, they must always present information for everyone in an easy to understand way, often in the form of storyboard notes. But what are storyboard notes and why should you make sure to have them?Continue reading Storyboard Notes — A Guide to Making Storyboard Annotations
Making a short film is largely a similar process to making a feature. There’s pre-production, production, and post-production. There’s a crew and cast. And there’s storyboards. In this post we’ll look at how to storyboard a short film, and give you examples and templates to help you make sure your next short is planned out.Continue reading How to Storyboard a Short Film — Examples and Templates
Cameras are getting smaller, rigs are getting more accessible, and camera movement is becoming more prevalent than ever throughout all levels of filmmaking. With that comes the task of incorporating camera moves and camera movement into a storyboard. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to storyboard camera moves to communicate your cinematic vision effectively and clearly. Continue reading Storyboard Camera Movement — Tips and Techniques
It’s always good to go into a creative endeavor with a plan. Whether it’s for a music video, ad campaign, or short film, a storyboard can be extremely useful. Storyboards help you outline your vision and understand how you’ll go about creating your project. But many creators still ask, “How do you create a storyboard that’s both clear and compelling?” Never used a storyboard before? You might be wondering, “How do I make a storyboard that works?” Fear not. In this post, we’ll look at how to make a storyboard for video, why you should, and the elements you should…
Whether you’re making an animated commercial, a live-action short, or a feature film, animatics will help ensure a solid finished product. You’ve probably heard of storyboards and might have seen animatics before, even if you didn’t know that’s what they’re called.So, what is an animatic and what makes them so useful?In this post, we’re going to provide an animatic definition, discuss the reasons why any project can benefit from them and provide some real-world examples. The process of how to make an animatic is much simpler than it might sound. If you’ve already generated storyboards, you're just one step away.Continue…
There are many ways to film the same scene. The director's decisions depend on what experience they want the audience to have. Knowing what shot composition is and how to use it is vital to visual storytelling. Shot composition is more than arranging scene elements in a camera frame. It is an art that combines those elements to advance the story, reveal character and create emotion. Knowing the rules of shot composition and using them well can keep your audience engaged from beginning to end. Let's get started.Continue reading Rules of Shot Composition in Film: A Definitive Guide
During a photoshoot, there are many variables and details to keep track of shot to shot. Lighting, camera framing, wardrobe, and poses can all change from one shot to the next. One of the best tools to ensure that every shot contains the details you desire is the photography storyboard. Photography storyboards allow you to visualize and define your shots before the day of the shoot. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to make a storyboard for photography as well as the details to define when creating one. Continue reading How to Storyboard Photography — Ideas, Examples &…
Storyboards can be a crucial backbone in the filmmaking process. Understanding what you’ll be shooting on a given day, and making sure that your crew does as well, often makes the production process much smoother and more efficient. In this post, we’ll look at how to make a storyboard template so that you can hit the ground running for your next shoot. Continue reading How to Make a Storyboard Template — A Step-by-Step Guide
The size and shape of your storyboards matters. And if you're wondering if there is a single, standard size and shape of all storyboards, you'd be wrong. But that's a good thing! There is flexibility in storyboard dimensions, which allows you to visualize your story how you see fit. No matter the scope of your intended project, this post will cover some of the basics of storyboard dimensions and the considerations to make when storyboarding. Continue reading Storyboard Dimensions — Sizes, Layouts and Format Explained
Montages are crucial to the filmmaking language. A great montage can last in your audience’s head long after they’ve left a theater or turned off their television. But creating a great montage requires planning– how are your shots going to interact? In this post, we’ll look at how to storyboard montage sequences to know how they will look before even arriving on set.Continue reading Storyboard Montage — A Guide to Pre-Visualizing a Montage