“Storyboards” by tracy bodeo photography are now available in 10×20, 11×14 and 12×12.  Storyboards are a great way to tell the story of your portrait session or special event.  Each storyboard displays between 3 and 12 images and are beautifully mounted as a lustre print (with a protective finish) or a Metal print (high gloss or satin finish).  Metal prints are delivered ready to hang.  Mounted lustre prints can be framed and hung with or without glass/acrylic.  Here are two samples from a recent portrait session… visit the Portrait Design Gallery on my website to see more.

A few storyboards for an upcoming stop-motion project that tells something about me. Each storyboard had to have a distinct past, present, and future included in the story.

This week, I encountered a common problem with how public agents produce formal documents: waiting until the end to involve senior staff.

By “formal document” I mean things like policy proposals, budget requests, procurement justifications, or project designs. These are important documents in governments because they have to persuade decision-makers with reasoned and well-documented points. They matter to decision-making and they require effort.

Because of their importance, such documents need to be approved by senior staff, though they are created by junior staff. It is the interaction between these two levels that causes the problem.

Too often, senior staff are asked their opinions only of the near-final draft; the one where the important decisions have already been made. In other words, senior staff are asked to serve as copy editors.

This is a problem for two reasons:

1. Copy editing is a waste of senior staff’s time and they rarely do it well anyway.
2. If senior staff have substantive objections, junior staff waste time starting over.

The solution should be obvious: involve senior staff near the beginning, when substantive issues are being resolved. Copy editing should be done by a non-senior professional editor, one who knows his or her stuff. Senior staff can still give final approval to the document, but by that point, there will be no substantive surprises and no editing mistakes left to fix.

This is obvious, but it may require a change in how staff write. Specifically, staff will have to separate the ideas part of writing from the drafting part of writing. They can then present the ideas to senior staff early in the writing process, perhaps in a rough draft or oral presentation.

Once the main ideas are made clear and approved by senior staff, the drafting and editing process can proceed without senior staff involvement. When the final draft is done, senior staff just have to confirm that the previously agreed upon ideas are in the document. No time-wasting copy editing by seniors, no time-wasting do-overs by juniors.

This idea is not new of course. It is how film and animation studios have done their work since Disney. Using storyboards or similar tools, junior staff prepare the big ideas of the film and get senior staff approval before spending time filming or drawing.

This week has been extremely productive and I really feel the movement of things now. The meeting in London went well, the short film is called ‘Spring Rolls’ and in a nutshell is about extreme revenge on a cheating husband. Very nice, twisted story, which I’m storyboarding. Got around 4 weeks to finish this one, as opposed to the 4 days for the last short film job – so plenty of time. I’m really loving freelancing at the moment, it’s great travelling around meeting new people, networking with new film folk, and discovering great new films to get involved with. Building a portfolio and resume of work is one of the most important things you can do as a filmmaker.

This week I’ve spent a lot of time building the RedScar website. Dan and I have now decided to incorporate my storyboard work and his production art/graphic design into RedScar, instead of keeping those as seperate entities for ourselves. This will mean RS as a company, offers more services, and can deliver more projects, thus in turn creating a name for the company a lot quicker than just promoting the short film and corporate work we do. To give you a taster of the site to come in the next coming weeks, below is the Homepage…

The site is pretty much done now, just a few tweaks here and there and we should be ready to go live early Feb. So from now on, any work Dan or I do that’s film related, will be directly under RedScar. If you want to follow our progress of productions etc, sign up to the blog for RedScar here. I am extremely excited to get RS set up as a company!

Dan came down to Kettering on Thursday and we had an awesome meeting about the path of RS and future projects. In May we will enter a 30 second advert for BluTack for a competition they are running, so we came to a final decision about what we are going to do for it and the script is now almost complete. Ideas for an untitled horror, and an untitled drama are in the works too. Principal photography begins next Monday for the new ‘Economy of Motion’ (working title) promotional documentary as well – so it’s full steam ahead. As well as all this, Dan and I will be editing a promo-docu for Paul Carrack (lead singer of Mike & The Mechanics), being produced and directed by Alan G. Parker. Things are really starting to pick up – 2010 is going to be the busiest and best year to date for my film career.

In other news, away from film, I made an application to the Guinness World Records! About two years ago I played Columns on the Mega Drive and didn’t die for around 4-5 hours. I reached an immense score of over 11,000,000 and after scouring the net I haven’t found a record for it – so I thought sod it, I’ll apply with my score and see what happens! I have photographic proof, so I’m hoping after intense scrutinisation they will accept it as real and untampered! Will keep you posted. Also played more Guitar Hero, but you knew that anyway.

My favourite film of the week to watch was Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, if only for this scene…

This is also now my ringtone. Yes, I love it that much. I piss every time I watch it, and I find it uncontrollably funny! I have no idea why. What I do have an idea about, is how much I love Kevin Smith.

I’m off to Sheffield this weekend for my best friends 24th birthday, Becky Curtis. She says I have to dedicate a post to her after tonight’s uncouth drunken shenanigans that will inevitably take place. So maybe Sunday night I’ll check in and tell you lucky people all about it (and mention how wonderful Becky is, etc etc, blah). Peace.

This one-day workshop is a wonderful opportunity to get inside information on the world of styling within the fashion industry and the highly skilled realms of commercial styling. If you are interested in learning about the business of styling, the difference between fashion and commercial styling, trend prediction, personal shopping, test shoots, creating story/mood boards for magazine shoots and prospective clients and learning how to approach clients for work, then this one-day master class is for you.

Date: Saturday 13th March

Time: 10am – 4pm

Place: D-light Studios, 46 North Great Clarence Street, Dublin 1.

Cost: e90

The NEW large storyboard book from Moleskine. I know, I know… another Moleskine mention but I cannot help it. I love these books. I am constantly looking for ways to organize my thoughts and jotting ideas on post-its just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I bought the small storyboard book about a month ago and I wasn’t too happy with it. The pocket size was completely impractical. When the large one was released I thought I’d give it a shot because the format was perfect for storyboarding my game sessions. It came in the mail yesterday and I just love it. Totally perfect. I still use my index card/bulletin board combo but having a portable version of that will prove invaluable.

I snapped this picture through the windshield on the way to work yesterday.

Stormy weather. Sure, there are lots of things that aren’t so great about all this rain, for example having to walk through a mini lake to get to my office, soaking my shoes, socks, and the bottom of my jeans in the process like I did this morning. But, it really is nice to hear the rain outside the windows. To be united with all my fellow Southern Californians experiencing this rare weather is fun.

Hot Chocolate. Yum! When Ramses got back into the office yesterday he brought me some hot chocolate. It was so nice and warm. It made me feel terribly full though so I think I may make some hot tea when I get home instead.

The Diamond Valley Lake Marathon being postponed. Safety first, people! I was worried for Ramses who was supposed to attempt his first half-marathon on Saturday. And to be completely honest, this weather has had me fantasizing about a nice, warm, cozy weekend at home so I was happy to hear about the postponement. =)

The Jill Kismet Series by Lilith Saintcrow. The only thing the rain puts me in the mood to do is read. I picked up the four books of this series about a month ago. The holidays didn’t really lead itself to much reading for me so I’ve only finished the first book but I’ve been burning through the second. I am really enjoying Saintcrow’s world and her kickass demon-hunting Jill Kismet is excellent inspiration for my own sexy hunter, Cassie Chase. I also got the first book of the Dante Valentine series that I think may be set in the same world so I’m anxious to read that one too.

{ Adobe Photoshop CS + Coffee = lovely Trend stories by jenevie }

= photoSources:  Style.com + Elle.com =

PSA Storyboards (pdf download)

Alcon Logo Storyboards (pdf download)

Typography Project Storyboards (pdf download)

V&K Storyboards (pdf download)

Event Promo Storyboards (pdf download)

You can buy this book in our on-line design bookshop

Sequential image making is a rich area of original and innovative work, riding the wave of interest in the art of illustration and graphic novels. Basics Illustration: Sequential Images investigates visual storytelling through examples of work that is intelligent, experimental, oblique, beguiling, incisive, visceral, and beautiful. Topics covered include concepts, pacing, narrative structure, storylines, genres, storyboards, navigation, visual codes, book illustration, graphic novels, comics, e-comics, manga, anime, animation, children’s books, interactivity, web publishing, mobile devices, film theory, paper engineering, film, design, video art, motion graphics installations, club art and VJs, viral images, kinetic worlds, exhibition and retail display, podcasts, video games, and more. For anyone interested in illustration and visual communication, Sequential Images is a must-have.

The National Grid & Fashion Designer Eugenio Zanchetta worked on 2 season ranges
of swimwear for sport label Everlast.
We created repeat patterns, icons & storyboards for each design.
Around 80 unique designs we’re produced.

I‘ve been drawing and painting casually for over 30 years. I traded pen, pencil, brush, paper and canvas for a computer and graphics pad about 12 years ago.

Since then, I’ve been creating stationery sets; enjoying making posters & desktop wallpaper; creating greeting cards, postcards and other paper novelties like playing cards.

I‘ve especially had fun designing the stationery sets.  Simple sets include note cards with envelopes in a matching handmade box.  The fancier sets include note cards with envelopes, calendar, business or “calling cards,” all in a handmade box which can also be made to accomodate a hidden stash of potpourri which will gently scent the contents.

A plan for a tutorial on using the Automated Stack Request system covering the process of ordering an item and collecting from the library: ASR FAQ Plan

Hitchcock is notorious for having used them. Spielberg has been known to hire armies of artists to create them, and, as filmmakers and educators, you can use them too. In fact, if you don’t, you could be opening yourself up to problems you might not otherwise have. We’re talking, of course, about visualizing your film before you shoot by creating a storyboard.

Film is, after all, a visual medium, and the storyboard is the most often used tool for getting a sense of how an idea will work before filming takes place. Storyboarding involves drawing still, comic book-like images of what you want your final scenes to look like. It is used as a guideline for smooth filming on set, as well as a template for the pre-production editing process.
Why storyboard?

Alfred Hitchcock was well known for storyboarding every shot of his classic films. In fact, he was so meticulous about storyboarding that he considered the procedure to be the most creative phase of the filmmaking process. Shooting the actual film was just a necessary evil. The storyboard not only determined exactly what the film would look like, it even decided what kinds of camera movements and shots were necessary to create the perfect scene.

Who can forget the shower sequence from Psycho, its every shot communicating a new terror? Or the plane chasing Cary Grant in North by Northwest? If Hitchcock had waited to decide how to shoot the scenes of either of these sequences on location, there is little doubt that they would not have ended up as well crafted and memorable. But how can drawing a few storyboards have such an effect on the final outcome of a film? The main reason is time.

If you don’t storyboard, you’ll be spending more time with your camera in hand, forcing your actors to wait on the sidelines and working hard to figure out what to shoot next. Your time is better spent planning on your own and going over your script in detail.

Pretend you are shooting the film on paper and drawing each shot as you go. (For beginning filmmakers, it is helpful to have a list of possible camera shots to assist you. This will help you visualize the difference between close-ups and medium shots, cutaways and cut-in shots, etc. and allow you to choose what will best help “show” rather than tell your story.)

Review your drawings in sequence to make sure every shot will fit together smoothly, and if they do not, it is best to know this beforehand. That way, you can make changes before filming begins, eliminating the stressful need for a re-shooting.

How do I get started?

To give you some practical insight into how the storyboarding process works, here is an exercise. First use a storyboarding template and make additional copies as needed. Next, grab your favorite movie and watch a short scene with your pencil and template in hand.

Choose something short. You may be surprised how many shots (or edits) there are in a short film sequence. For example, the shower sequence from Psycho has 52 shots in a span of only 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

Freeze frame your scene and stop at the first shot of the sequence. Sketch what you see on the screen as a still representation on your storyboard. Continue sketching each new shot (or edit) within the sequence.

If the scene includes a long pan, or moving shot, (for example, a pan of the skyline or a zoom in on an actor’s face), you can indicate motion within your storyboard. Use an arrow to indicate the motion the camera will make. An arrow can eliminate the need for multiple drawings. Under the storyboard box, write careful descriptions to effectively communicate the movement happening within the shot as well.

To test yourself, or if you are a teacher, to test your class, try the American Film Institute Screen Education handbook and Door Scene Exercise. Teams of students must create a storyboard of a simple scene involving a door and a number of camera angles and shots. Then, they must film and edit their finished scene based on the storyboard.

To ensure that the students’ storyboard is complete and easy to follow, they must trade their storyboard with another student team. A second film is made exactly as this “new” storyboard instructs with no other communications from its creators.

Will the films turn out the same? If they do, congratulations, you have created an excellent storyboard, one that can effectively communicate your vision without explanation. If the two films are different, you should go back and try to figure out where your visual communication could have been clearer and more concise.

A storyboard is the primary communication tool for filmmaking. It does not matter if you are creating a work of fiction or a documentary; each benefit from the kind of planning that storyboards provide. The dilemma here is that a storyboard should not leave anything to the imagination: using your imagination could be dangerous as no two people “imagine” the same thing.

Use your original script to create a solid and interpretable visualization of your story. Take the time to plan, or otherwise you will be dealing with reshoots, footage you cannot use, scenes that are difficult to follow and a lot of miscommunication. Follow the great directors who went before you and grab some paper and pencils, because storyboarding is the secret to a successful film.

pencil, blueline, from production stills.

pencil, blueline, from production stills.

car chase scene- pencil, pantone markers. copied from production artwork.