You Are Here: Storyboard Development

Storyboard development (left) and visual research (right)

Authors own

Through developing my storyboard I was able to concentrate on what was to be visually important within my final animation. I want it to run smoothly against the eyes, so therefore I concerned myself with clever transitions and subtle changes that insinuate things rather that embodied them. I was working with the name of the old street 'candlewick', packing the storyboard full of visual puns. Half way through making the storyboard, I came up with the idea of creating the first half, where we are leaving Candlewick Street, by hand, giving it an antique feel to reflect its historical nature. Therefore, the second half would look much more digital and modern, using simple aesthetics or perhaps even photographic collage.

You Are Here: Storyboarding

Storyboarding my ideas

Photo is authors own

1) Objects in the underground that are attached to the walls come alive and are calling out for help.

2) A visual idea, without narrative, that responds to the secondary research I did on Cannon Street and plays with the idea of the trains candle-like glow as it travels through the tunnel. The area used to be called Candlewick Street.

3) Playing with scale. The aspects of the space that I noticed the most are enlarged e.g. a huge pigeon stands next to a small man.

4) They are watching. This idea was based on the amount of CCTV equipment/cameras I saw situated in the station, together with one abandoned glove. The cameras come alive and create a mega robot that controls the people within the station.

It was relieving to finally come up with a few storyboarded ideas as there was so much information to work with. I find myself most drawn to the second idea, as I feel it will be interesting to work on a non-narrative piece and explore visual metaphors. However, I don't know how well received it would be by an audience, because effectively it is an educational piece on the history of the area. Moving forward with this idea I will return to the station and record more videos and sound, which could potentially be used in the final piece.

Freedom & Liberty: Final Storyboard

Reworked storyboard

Authors own

I reworked my initial storyboard so the idea's explored are much clearer and flow better. In this new narrative the character is walking to the park and is constantly bothered by the giant hand, getting poked around, tripped and dragged across the floor. They are then picked up and placed at the gates of the park. Relieved that they have been left alone and are at their intended destination, they enter the park. Suddenly, the hand reappears and crushes them into the floor, they are left a squashed and dizzy mess. This story works better because the character is put through a more brutal sequence of events and we are taken on an emotional roller coaster of tension, empathy, hope, relief and shock. 

Freedom & Liberty: Initial Storyboard

Initial storyboard

Photos are authors own

This is my initial storyboard for the freedom and liberty project. I found the process to be very time consuming as it is the most in-depth, elaborate story I have worked on so far. However, due to my inclusion of more boxes I was able to get a clearer picture of my final piece. The most successful component of this storyboard is the concept and its potential. Although, the sequence of events sort of splits into two separate stories. In order to work past this issue I will pick one half of the story that I can work best with. I need to identify one goal for the character, which is making it to the park. I also need to create a more sever antagonist and identify the significance of that antagonist (the hand). At the moment it is coming across as a parental hand, but I wasn't leaning towards that idea. I wish to make it the hand of unnecessary brutality and control.

Freedom & Liberty: Storyboard Ideas

Storyboarding 2 ideas

Authors own

The process of storyboarding my ideas was quite challenging, as I had a lot of places I wanted to take them.  I feel I produced some successful ideas due to the responses I received when pitching to a group of my peers.  However, I went with my first storyboard idea, as it had the most potential.  What I think works well about the idea is its potential to engage with the viewer causing them to empathise with the character and its struggle to control its own freedoms.

The narrative follows the journey of a non-gender, non-racial character as they attempt to make their way from A to B.  However, throughout this journey they are burdened by the presence of a gigantic, controlling hand.  This hand pokes and pulls at them to the extent of them snapping and fighting back.  When reviewing the story I can see that the extremity of the hands behaviour needs to be intensified in order for the audience to have an emotional response and for the characters resulting reactions towards the hand to be justified.   

Title Sequence: Thriller, Spaghetti Western, News, TV Drama?

Mind-map of Kiss the Girls

Mindmap and inital storyboard for Django 

Research and storyboarding for BBC 3 60 Seconds News

All photos are authors own

The aim of this project is to produce 4 storyboards for a title sequence for a Thriller, Spaghetti Western, News/Recent Events, Bollywood or TV Drama and then animate two of them. I chose to go with the Thriller, S. Western, TV Drama and News genres. I looked into existing title sequences created by directors such as Saul Bass (Psycho, 1960), Maurice Binder (Dr. No: James Bond, 1962) and Iginio Lardani (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, 1966). The process of choosing which genres I wanted to work with was quite straight forward. I went with which I felt I had the most experience with. I decided on the thriller Kiss the Girls (1997), the western Django (1993), the TV drama The L Word (2004-09) and the news programme BBC Three 60 Seconds News (on presently). In order to create the best possible title sequence designs for each of these shows I made mind maps that explored and analysed them. I want to produce something that explores the themes of each show in a visually metaphorical way. 

I have designed storyboards for each film/show and decided that I am going to animate the ones made for Kiss the Girls and BBC3 News. I made this decision in regards to what I can produce with the amount of time and facilities I have, but also on the designs that were most successful in portraying what the film/show is about. I found this process to be a great way of getting rid of weaker ideas. 

Metamorphosis: Initial Idea (decided concept)

Initial storyboard (left), initial character design and research into concept (right) 

Final character design 

Layout/setting design

Photos are authors own

I decided to work with a slightly obvious idea, which is the metamorphosis of a butterfly, but including the idea of death and afterlife. My initial working story was that a caterpillar awakens from sleeping in the form of a butterfly and is first confused, but the fearful as the shadow of the former caterpillar tells him the he has died and entered the spirit. I left the story as a cliff hanger. However, after attending a critic it was brought up that the story requires the viewer to erase what they already knew about the natural life cycle of a butterfly and it was clear they I needed to include some representation of death into the story. 

Before going on to make a final storyboard I proceeded to create my final character and layout designs. I decided due to time keeping that I would create the animation using grey scale (no colour). However, this seemed to work well with my concept with black representing death and white life. The colour choice will also create a more obscure, eery mood. My final storyboard will therefore be made in black and white, using the polished character and layout design.

Metamorphosis: Initial Idea

Photos are author own

My initial idea was based on metamorphosis as a super power, looking at examples like, The Hulk, Ben 10 and Megamind. I made a storyboard (first image) that included a boy who was teasing his sister and in order to avoid the consequences he turns into a rock. However, whilst he is still in rock form a man walks by and kicks him across the ground. When the boy turns back into his rightful form he has a huge dent in his head. This worked as a good starting point, but the story needed to be developed more. Most people felt as though the struggles the boy is put through should be elaborated and more extreme. So I expanded the story to include him getting kicked into a river and having to battle through numerous obstacles, whilst getting pushes down the current. I found the process of developing my story challenging because I had to make sure the audience was able to empathise with the character, but still find his experience comical. This is a hard thing to master. 

I then went on to designing the character using illustrator (second image), which was a very fun experience. I was able to create a character that before only existed in my mind and visually express the temperament of the boy. I think my initial character design was successful, but I found myself loosing interest in the concept I had chosen for the project. I want to create a more metaphorical, in-depth representation of metamorphosis.