Storyboard/Previz

[Jonesy Jones]

Do you guys do storyboarding or previz before production? What do you use - stick figures, software, hire an artist?

If you don't, why? Is it too time consuming? Too costly? Or perhaps the payoff is not worth the time spent?

If you are aware of any awesome tools that many filmmakers use I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks in advance. 

Jonesy

[freeman]

Ballpoint pen and stick figures. I draw out a bunch of rectangles and start visualizing my shots. if you can communicate relative size and perspective it's a huge help. I love it because it gets my brain thinking creatively before I even have a cam in my hands. And often times once i'm actually on the shoot a lot of it goes right out the window! But I have never felt like pre-vis time is wasted time or not worth it. Sucks when you sketch out this sweet shot and you know it's gonna be a real stunner and you get to location and there is just no way it's going to work.. but that's part of it all. Can't remember who it was but a filmmaker I watched on youtube recently had a great way to practice this, you pick your favorite movie sequence and reverse storyboard it. I tried it and it puts a lot in perspective. 

[IronFilm]

When a production is costing millions and millions, and is burning through thousands of dollars per minute, then yes having storyboarded out the shoot beforehand is crucial if it means saving a few minutes (or even hours) here and there each day. (however, there are even Hollywood level productions which don't use storyboards, or at least don't carefully consult them. So this is far from a hard and fast rule, even at higher budget levels)

But if it just you, a couple of mates on crew for the laughs, and a couple of aspring actors, then is it really worthwhile spending every free spare moment during the past week to draw up a detailed storyboard?! Debatable. 

Even on a paid shoot, if you're only getting a few hundred bucks for it, why put in the extra effort for something you're not getting paid for? When there are so many other demands on your time.

For me I often find a basic minimal shot list is sufficent for most of my needs, this shot list doesn't even cover **ALL** the shots. But is just a simple list of the core basic shots which *must* be got, then depending on time (if I'm ahead of schedule, hopefully) and inspiration, I'll shoot any extra shots on top of this that I feel will be beneficial. Thus this ensures I both have the safety of being sure the basics get covered (god forbid we need to come back for a reshoot because something obvious got forgotten!!), and I get the flexibility to be creative on set to grab anything I feel at the time is worthwhile. 

 

[Axel]

Test shots combined with location scouting, via iPhone or Nikon D3300, stills and short clips. Arranged in an offline-edit. Works also as digital moodboard, I experiment with colors and start to collect audio. Difficult shots I arrange as AAE compositions, rough drafts. Sometimes this gives ideas how to get the shots done as trick shots. The sad part is that by doing so I realize how many efforts and expenses lie ahead, and I keep playing with the placeholders ...

[jcs]

When I first got into professional filmmaking I went on shoots with other professionals to learn how they worked. The shoots that were well planned, with detailed shot lists, storyboards, pre-rehearsals, table-reads, fully blocked and rehearsed, etc., always went much smoother and the crew were much happier, resulting in much better products than shoots that winged it or were otherwise not well prepared.

My day job which funds my film projects is software engineering (I currently only shoot for our own internal projects, currently working full time to develop Cosmic Flow). The same patterns apply to creating software: planning, testing ('rehearsing'), iterating (re-rewriting the script/shots after rehearsing/table-reading/testing) is critical for a smooth production. When working with teams, sometimes folks don't want to do the 'hard/not-very-fun' work of planning, testing, and iterating. My last few projects didn't have as much planning as I would like and the results weren't as good as we need (even live interviews can use good planning). Since I have to operate the camera, handle sound and lighting, and do the editing, I take steps to make my life easier for the final edit. Our current shoots in production are much better planned and the results are also much better.

There's an idea in software called the "lazy programmer". This actually means the opposite of what it says: the programmer spends a great deal of time and effort planning, designing, and iterating so that after the software is developed, their life will be much easier moving forward as it will be more reliable, easier to use, and easier to maintain. Thus the extra up front effort vastly reduces effort and headaches down the line (there is a balance- too much planning is counter-productive). The same pattern applies to any form of product creation, especially film.

[AaronChicago]

Narrative commercials are pretty much guaranteed to need storyboards. You have to plan out each second and make sure the angles/scenes are shot in the allotted time. I think they're really helpful in all of types of film other than documentary. If the director wants to take the time to do it then it's really beneficial.

[kaylee]

good responses here

i would say it totally depends on what youre doing... what are you producing? a doc? a kubrick-like feature?

even though im a fine artist, im literally working on a 14 foot drawing right now, i came kicking and screaming to the crushing realization that to make my first feature the way i want, i have to storyboard every shot. that epiphany came some time ago, and im a lot more knowledgable now, so the very idea that i even though it was optional is laughable today, its ironic. but thats for me

the SIMPLEST storyboards can be amazingly useful, a quick sketch that anyone can do can show lens choice, character movement, camera movement, etc. hell, look at this guy these suck and his films have worked out ok

[AaronChicago]

I love the old school TV frame formatting!

[Oliver Daniel]

With anything, the need to storyboard or previz depends on time and budget. 

A lot of the projects I do are in music, and 98% of the time, there's not enough budget to do it. So the way me and my team do it is to create mood boards (via something like Pinterest) for the scenes like for location, lighting camera movement, expressions, poses, master shots etc. Everyone can sort of visualise the tone and style we are going for. 

The commercial world is also spiralling in terms of budget. I was luck enough to win a tender for a national campaign, and although the budget was decent, we only really had time to draw up two frames from each scene, and juiced them up with mood boards. 

My style of filmmaking is generally more spontaneous, on-the-spot, "what looks best at the time" kinda thing. There's always a shot list, schedule and mood board - however there's always a lot of room to try something out and see where it goes. That happens a lot. Even on the most structured shoots. 

Mood boards can be difficult though when you have an idea in mind, and you can't quite find the right visual references to match your vision. if anyone else does mood boards, I'd love to hear your strategies in finding the correct visual material efficiently.  

[mercer]

Celtx has a storyboarding app called Celtx Shot. 

[Stanley]

Thought some people might be interested in having a look at this link where John Seale talks about not using a script, but working with 3,500 story boards to shoot Mad Max Fury Road. I know it's extreme, but interesting all the same.

http://nofilmschool.com/2015/11/in-depth-look-cinematography-mad-max-fury-road-john-seale

[squig]

I don't storyboard my shorts. Instead I pre-shoot the scene, sometimes multiple times, until I'm happy with it. I get crew to stand in and I shoot the scene with a DSLR so I can figure out blocking, angles, tracking, and lensing. Obviously this method won't work with a cast of thousands and Mad Max type stunts, but when you have to do camera and lighting tests anyway, it's well worth the extra effort.