Understanding of Storyboards

A storyboard provides the structure of any film or animation in order to help to show how the film should be seen, heard and produced. A storyboard is usually produced after a concept or script is written for a film or animation. The storyboard visually tells a story panel by panel and usually contains notes underneath the panel to explain the shot in more detail. A storyboard can be compared to the visual look of a comic strip and how it develops a story visually.

Information from each panel are communicated visually, however some information may need to be noted down underneath the panel for more detail about the shot. Whilst what characters are in the shot can be seen, how they are moving and what they are saying may need to be written down. Camera angles, timing and transitions, lighting and sound descriptions and sometimes even a purpose of the shot may need to be included.

I created a storyboard for one of the trailers that i had researched for my presentation, which was 'The Last House On The Left'. As it would have taken up a large amount of time to storyboard the whole trailer, i used a 49 second section of the trailer in order to see how i would cope with it. This task was much harder then i expected as i was given a lot of information in a very short period of time and it was very easy to miss important parts of information. I decided that the best way to obtain all the information i needed was to watch the trailer and only comment on one feature at a time. For example i would comment on what was in the shot and then next time i could comment on lighting and then the next time transitions etc.

This experience was harder then i expected as it was very detailed and takes up a lot of time in order to obtain all the necessary information. This will help me in my project as i have learnt what is expected in a storyboard and the level of detail that is necessary for a good trailer.