On the road to Storyboard Boot Camp

Keep in mind, it's made-up.

I always went with my best friend to the movies throughout my teenage-hood. If I had an itchin' for "Over 9000 Zombees", she would always be with me. And usually, this was on a Tuesday night. Films like "Teamwork in the Spotlight" and "Hidden Secrets" was packed with enough pathos to have us watch it more than once.

"We may have stitched arms and limped movements, but we can't be

ripped apart when united. Hands in, everyone!"

"Grandma carried that box through everything. And we needs 

what's inside. Please stay focused for once."

While my best friend re-experienced the movie, I kinda started noticing patterns in the shapes during certain shots.  Some shapes almost looking like a huge NFL-lineback next to a smaller track-and-fielder, even though they were of the same height and weight. Sometimes I felt a bit of apprehension, and sometimes I understood the moment a lot easier. At the time, it didn't occur to me why the filmmaker would do this, he must have been crazy.

But it drove me crazy to not know it when I was in storyboard boot camp many years later. While it wasn't the most important thing. It was damn important enough to seek everyone's advice, where the multitude of possible compositions confused me even more.

With a hodgepodge of logical compositions selected, I loaded my boards and made way to the presentation room. Nighttime assured quiet "able-to-freak-out-as-I-thumbtack-my-boards" time. If I didn't select the right compositions, would I be caught red-handed?

Lucky for me everyone complemented on the pretty boards (YES!) and could mostly tell what was going on. I survived the pitch, and with hopes of less insanity in the boarding phase next week.

Xerox'ing storyboard drawings was the next step towards becoming a full fledged storyboard artist. The machine ambushed me with paper storm the night before the next pitch. Why must you be so hard!?!