Introduction to story boarding
12 camera shots
Extreme Close Up (ECU)
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Frames just the person's facial features.
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Frames only a portion of the subject.
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Shows the person's emotions.
Shrek 2 (2004)
Close up (CU)
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Frames a subject's face and cuts off mid-neck, showing the face and entire head.
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The subject fills almost the entire frame.
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Captures facial expressions and emotions.
The Shining (1980)
Long shot (LS / FS)
If you want to see a character from a distance, a long shot is perfect. In a long shot you’ll see a character’s whole body from head to toe. In some instances the character might not be that far away from the camera, in others the character might appear extremely small in the landscape or space they’re in.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Medium Close Up (MCU)
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Frames a subject's head and cuts off around mid-chest.
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The focus is on the subject.
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Reveals only a little of the surroundings.
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Shows the facial expressions of the subject.
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Commonly used for interviews in documentaries and news programs.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Medium shot (MS)
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Also known as the waist shot.
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Frames the subject from the waist up.
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Commonly used in interviews.
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Directs the viewer to the subject.
Titanic (1997)
Medium Long Shot (MLS)
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Also known as a three-quarters shot.
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Frames the whole subject from the knees up.
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An intermediate shot between the long shot and the medium shot.
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Shows the subject in relation to the surroundings.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Extreme Long shot (ELS / EWS)
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Also known as extreme wide shot (EWS).
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Covers a wide area.
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Shows the whole figure of your subject as well as his surroundings.
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Provides context for your scene.
Titanic (1997)
Over the shoulder
This shot is usually used when filming a conversation between two people. Rather than filming them in a two-shot, you film the conversation twice, once with the camera facing person one character, then again facing the other. By shooting over each person’s shoulder the audience remains quite close to the conversation whilst focussing on one character at a time.
Mean Girls (2004)
Dual layer shot
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You get a "dual layer" shot if simply take an over the shoulder ant turn the shoulder around.
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The looker becomes the the subject of the shot, shifting our primary focus to the mere figure in the frame.
Paris, Texas (1984)
Two shot
In terms of framing, two shots are framed like mid-shots, but it can vary. A two shot is basically when you see two characters in the frame. They’re often a mid-shot because the two characters in shot are often talking or interacting in some way, or maybe we want to see the emotion of both characters face.
The Breaking Bad (2012)
Group shot
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The group shot is first and foremost a shot of group dynamic or state of the entirety of the crew, of a team, a family, a gathering.
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As humans, we have a tendency to conceptually group individual items into mental sets and then deal with them in our minds as one thing.
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It is a mental tool for efficiency, and when it comes to a group shot, it is the filmmakers greatest asset.
Divergent (2014)
Crowd shot
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We think about masses, people are far away from being individuals
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They're just composite parts of greater entities, armies, factions, cultures.
Bird Box (2018)
Shooting plan examples
1.
Simple example of how to organise and put in the right order every shot.
There is place for subject and shot description.
Pros:
as simple as it can be
Cons:
lack of separate columns for location, equipment, time and etc.
might be hard to keep it organised.
2.
Pros:
Separate columns, easy to organise
Cons:
Too basic for a complex project
3.
Pros:
Many columns, including equipment, lens, notes and etc.
Perfect for complex, professional and large projects
Cons:
Some columns may be unnecessary for other creators
4.
Pros:
Separate columns, easy to organise
Cons:
Too basic for a complex project
Scene breakdown
Jaws (1975)
Scene: You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Medium Close Up
The focus is on the subject, shows the facial expressions. In this case such as confusion, fear or concern.
Group shot
Group shot is a great filmmakers asset since from all the people in the shot the viewers can easily grab the emotion that the film is creating. In this scene the boat crew are all shocked and surprised after seeing the shark.
Medium Close Up
The focus is on the subject, shows the facial expressions. In this case such as confusion, fear or concern.
Two shot
This shot is great because we can see both of the individuals and compare their facial expressions.
Dual layer shot
The primary focus was on the person when suddenly our focus went to his background aka the shark. Dual layer shot enhanced the fear.
Medium Long shot
Besides showing the individual, a medium long shot shows the surroundings. Here we see how the shark leaves after his approach and the shocked men are just watching.
Close up
Close up focuses only on the subject, his emotions, facial expressions.
Medium Long shot
Besides showing the individual, a medium long shot shows the surroundings.
Two shot
This shot is great because we can see both of the individuals and compare their facial expressions.
Scene breakdown (2)
The Intouchables (2011)
Reserved Parking scene
Medium Close Up
The character is stating his position during the conversation, therefore, medium close up is perfect to show his facial expression.
Over the shoulder shot
This character is listening to what the
Long shot
Shot includes both characters as well as the cars that they are talking about and arguing.
Two shot
Perfectly reflects the emotion of both characters at the same timing.
Medium Long shot
Shows only part of the vehicles, concentrating the middle one
Long shot
Long shot choice is perfect since the environment looks calm while characters leaves dramatically by drifting with the car.
Medium shot
Medium shot of the other housee staff, who looks pretty upset and grumpy, seeing them leave with the not desired car.
Dual layer shot
The driver and the passenger are the main subject, however, the road blocking car in the front grabs the attention.
Close up
This shot focuses only on the subjects emotion.
Medium Long shot
In other words the 3/4 shot, since includes three fourths of the person and gives some environment.
Two shot
Both characters are shown at the same time, here one is giving a rough lesson to other about parking rules.
Extreme Long shot
Shows a wide area as well as characters. This shot gives a better understanding of the environment.
Medium shot
Shows the character from the waist and up as well as a close environment. Like here two characters looking into art piece.
Long shot
Lovely shot that includes full bodies of the characters as well as gives some stunning background of the Eiffel Tower.
Dual layer shot
Shows both of the characters but the one talking is in focus while the other keeps looking at the art piece.
Composition and camera shots
Starting task
Close-up
Close up view of the bicycle and its parts. This shot is close enough to show the raindrops on it.
Medium shot
Shows full object with a little background view.
Long shot
The focused object is the bicycle but we can more of the background, other bicycles in the back and etc.
Pan
A left to right shot of a close object to the further church.
Tilt
Shot tilting down from the church view to the bright green bicycle.
Tracking shot
A tracking shot is basically following a moving object together with the camera.
Basic Questions for a Storyboard Artist
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What is the story about?
The story is based on Road Dahl's story 'The Landlady'. This story is about a young man travelling to Bath for a business meeting and staying at a Bed&Breakfast place which from a glance looked like a perfect stay but later on the place and the landlady appears rather creepy than warm and welcoming.
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In each scene, what do they do or say?
The conversations are from the original Roald Dahl's story.
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In each scene, when are long, medium and close-up shots necessary?
Long shots required to show the surroundings so there will be long shots in the station, streets of bath and the bed&breakfast house exterior and interior.
Medium ones will be mostly be of the characters in various places, for example walking up stairs, two shot of the characters sitting in front of fireplace and etc.
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What kind of reflectors, filters, gels etc. are called for to create the mood?
Three main moods: dark evening outdoors, lovely and warm bed&breakfast house interior,
dodgy and horror feeling at the end.
As the story is in black&white I will create moods with shading.
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What colours dominate each scene?
If it was in colour it would be warm tones, now its black&white.
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Who are the characters?
The protagonist is Billy Weaver, young business man staying at Bath. His style is classy and neat. The other character is the landlady, an old lady that is so cute and tiny, she is very welcoming but has a dark side which Billy notices too late.
There is an extra character which appears only in the beginning of the film. He is the porter in the train station.
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In each scene, which characters are in the foreground, middle-ground or background
As there are only two characters so they are either both in the shot or one of them is in the front while other in the back and vice versa.
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In each scene, what intensity is demanded?
The whole story is quite calm, however, only at the end while Billy is having a tea with the landlady and she starts to talk weirdly. At that moment the story becomes quite intense, a sense of horror is felt.
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What should be the main light sources, for both interior and exterior?
Pencil shading.
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Where will the key lights be positioned? What should be the main light sources, for both interior and exterior?
Exterior ones will be the pole lights on the street as well as moonlight, interior is lamps and fireplace.
Treatment
Short animated film based on Roald Dahl's short novel 'The Landlady'.
The story is about a seventeen year old Billy Weaver who travels to Bath for a business meeting and decides to stay at a local 'Bed and Breakfast'. The place from a glance looks warm and cosy, the landlady is welcoming and sweet, however, something doesn't feel right. One of the stranger things is that there has been only two previous visitors in the past few years. How can it be so when the place is surprisingly cheap and lovely? Why does Billy find the names of previous visitors familiar?
The story is about a happy seventeen year old, the mood is uplifting. However, when arrived at the 'bed and breakfast' place the vibe gets a bit creepy or mysterious.
The music and sound effects begin as a happy or calm music and goes into some mysterious, a bit scary sounds. But the ending is calm despite the creepy ending.
My Shotlist
In total I created 75 shots for my story including various shots such as pan, tilt, extreme long, medium close, close ups, extreme close ups, long shots and etc.
The story has few locations:
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train
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train station
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streets of Bath
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the Bed&Breakfast
Storyboard
The storyboard contains the majority of the shots from the shot list. On the shot list the circled ones are the ones I decided to draw in my storyboard. Therefore, every little drawing has its own description in the shot list. For convenience, below every drawing I wrote down what type of shot it is.
The preparation for shooting/painting scenes and characters
Filming process
The Final Video
If I'm being honest, I loved the filming process, the background music research and adding the sound effects.
The whole process from the shot list writing, drawing, then painting my scenes and characters. This was a lovely project to make.
As for the video itself, I see where I could improve, the zoom in train scene didn't work out as I thought it would, it's very shaky and not smooth, maybe because I had to manually adjust the camera's height and move the table as well. But I don't like it.
And it bugs me that the light was natural and it was constantly changing. But I couldn't change this.
What I like about this video is the moving train scene, the last scene where the character is walking.