Notes from The Art of Storyboarding
Overview
Instructor: David Chlystek
Introductory videos
Takeaway: It’s necessary to generate emotion; the audience has to feel something.
Assignment
Break down a scene from a favorite movie. (Badlands)
Composition
Negative space around characters draws attention. (TODO: insert illustration)
Eye Trace—thinking about where the eye moves from scene to scene—don’t jump around.
Public vs private compositions suggest the audience’s relationship with what is in the frame.
Frame within frame creates unease or tension by boxing in the characters within the frame.
Think of ways to convey emotion without relying on cutting from characters speaking dialog.
The “5 C’s” of cinemaphotography
- Camera Angles
Upshot, downshot, wide, close, etc. “Dutch tilt,” i.e. camera tilted relative to horizon - Continuity i.e. “hook ups”
- Cutting i.e. editing
- Composition
- Close-Ups
Types of Compositions/Shots
Extreme Long (or Wide) Shot
- Can barely make out figures—they are specks in the landscape
- Establishing shot
- Very little emotion
Wide Shot
- Figures are very small; cannot make out features.
- Establishing shot with a little more focus on character.
- Little emotion
Long Shot
- Full figure with plenty of space above and below the head and feet
- Similar to watching a stage play
- Also an establishing shot
Full Shot
- Knees up
- It’s possible to make out the expressions on the characters’ faces
- Neutral emotion
- Audience is not a participant in the action
- “Public” space
Medium Shot
- Waist up
- Dialog-heavy scenes
- 2 or 3 characters
- Over-the-shoulder (OTS) shots
Close-Up
- Face of the actor / Neck-up
- One actor
- Very little background
- Magnifies emotions
Extreme Close-Up
- Just eyes or mouth
- Extremely personal & intimate
Deep Focus or Wide Angle
- Wide angle lens with everything in focus
- Foreground, middle ground, and distance
Point-of-View (POV) shots
Over-the-shoulder without the foreground character in the picture becomes a POV shot (Cohen Bros. use this a lot.)
With OTS the audience is slightly more detached.
With POV the audience assumes the place of the other character, making it more voyeuristic. Audience is placed deeper in the story.