A storyboard follows the timeline, and transfers the words on the timeline into images and expands on them. This gives us a first idea of what the final product is going to look like on screen, and allows us to visualise it, ready for when we shoot it. Whilst story boarding we work out what type of shot we will use for different events and why, such as; a mid shot of the lead singer positioned in the top left corner, presenting him as a protagonist character with the guitarist positioned in the background on the right hand side to give him an 'edgey' feel. During the storyboarsing process we also look at movement which will be used such as; tracking shots or craning. The storyboard allows us to see what will work and what wont.
We dont just shoot what is drawn on our storyboard. We 'shoot to edit', and we opperate on a high shot ratio, as is the case with most music videos, when a lot of footage will be shot but only 3 minutes of this footage will make the final 'cut'. This means that if there is a wide shot at the beginning of the storyboard and one towards the end, we would shoot the shots consecutively, and in the editing process position the footage when it is meant to occur - this is logical as it means we dont have to rearrange the camera, lighting or set and more than necessary, all similar shots will be done at once. We will probably film much more than necessary, perhaps the band performing the whole song with a Wide shot, to give us a greater selection of footage when editing as we may encounter problems with the footage we had planned to go somewhere. IT IS BETTER TO HAVE AND NOT NEED, THAN TO NEED AND NOT TO HAVE - this is very important when making any kind of film as it is often very expensive or impossible to go back and re-shoot a sequence after the final shoot day.
The storyboard gives the editor instruction as to what is required. In our storyboard we mapped out the shots we are going to use, camera angles, the movements we will use (such as tracking, panning and crane shots), mise en scene and lighting. The story board acts as a blueprint for the final product. If it works we will then shoot it and we can cut it as if putting a puzzle together. The video bellow is an example of a finished stroyboard that has been shot with a camera and then cut accordingly - if this product was then to be made into a professional animation, the final product would probably look very similar to this
- Shot Number
- Location
- Action
- Shot type/Movement
- Sound
- Lighting
- Edit Transition
- Timing
Unfortunately our plan kept changing from our timeline to our story board. This meant our storyboard kept changing up until the actuall shoot. In particular our location changed from being in a studio, to out doors to finally, on a sourced location - this meant alot of our original storyboard ideas were adapted accordingly
The lead musicians in our band are two attractive female singers and an elder man. We decided that we are going to use several close ups of the females as this may appeal to a wider audience, and is more appealing to watch. It will also help 'sell' the band.
We are going to use alot of close ups of individual instruments as the song has many aspects that showcase them such as solos and fast riffs. The band also uses a wide range of instruments such as banjo, double bass and fiddle, not the standard; guitar, bass, piano and drums - so it will be a good opportunity to show the audience that the band are something a bit 'fresh' and 'exciting'.
We are going to limit the majority of our edit transitions to straight intercuts. This is to ensure the final footage 'flows' and is easy for the audience to watch. Given the fast pace of the song, and extensive shots we will use, we felt that if an extensive range of transitions used our product might look 'choppy'. Straight cuts compliment the speed of the song.
Below is extracts from our storyboard.
