2 topics in one! Titles and storyboards

[miker]

i think if a title bears relevance to the story on more than one level then it is a good title. even if the 'levels' are slightly tenuous.

eg "Adult Contacts" refers to a certain classified section of a newspaper but also to the adult contact that Ian has had with his new love ...

"Ad Astra" is about a guy getting telecloned to Astra. he gets killed. many people mistake "AD" as After Death. the film has afterlife parallels. Ad Astra is latin for "To the Stars". it's also the name of a Gargoyle game on the ZX Spectrum that I have fond memories of. the teleclone tower sound effect has a ZX tapeloader sound mixed in ( LOAD "" SCREEN$ those were the days!).

"Crooked Features" is about a porn makers attempt to make a Hollywood blockbuster. one of the main protagonists has crooked features. it's reasonably apparent that the filmmakers are (an inept) bunch of crooks. there's that cliche of a crook grabbing a bad performer by the neck ...

story boards bore me. unless the shot needs meticulous planning i don't usually bother beyond describing the intended shot in the margin of the script

eg "2S w/pans" or "CU w/truck" etc - normally the shot dictates the framing dictates the composition which hopefully augments what's actually happening on screen in some way.

there's a single shot in Crooked Features which is three minutes long which was not storyboarded at all (that just wouldn't be docco style!) but when I watch it I don't think "oooh, that's a long shot", because I'm absorbed in the performances. it's also (obviously) not a slick shot since we weren't trying to show off but rather tell a story. but i don't think it looks like an awful handheld shot either. and the blocking was improvised on the day. and we got it on the third take. it just doesn't get any better than that .... (well, okay not on a shoestring budget it doesn't)

anyway, i need storyboards like picasso needed numbers .... [img]wink.gif[/img]

[untamed_aggression]

I love storyboarding. It's probably because all through my GCSE's and A-levels my art teachers would chastise me for my cartoony style, so now I can express it in a way that's also beneficial to me. Art's a stupid school subject anyway since it's all subjective (but that's another rant).

I pretty much storyboarded every shot in Angry and Moist (and here they are) since it was a pretty action heavy script. I didn't storyboard dialogue scenes because what's the point? It's two heads in a frame, and I don't want to draw every facial expression, but I do try and do a board for every other shot. I tend to draw what I see when I wrote the script, but even then, there's still some shots you can't quite decide on.

Boards are especially useful when you've got a tight shooting schedule and you want to make sure you have enough to make a decent scene in the editing. There's nothing worse than finishing cutting a scene and having an essential shot missing.

I agree with what Miker said about titles. Double meanings are generally good stuff. For my example, Running Like Mad. Could be about someone sprinting very fast. Could be about a couple of schizophrenics on the lam from the law. As it turns out, it's about a couple of schizophrenics on the lam from the law, very fast.

[emjen]

Don't want to make two topics about this, since both of them are fairly small (or are they?).

I suck at thinking of titles. I usually have to come up with one when I press the 'save as' button and have to give it some sort of name to remember it by. Sad thing is I usually stick with the name. Last screenplay about a guy without a consciense... simply called it 'no consciense' and stuck with it. Changed the title in a rewrite though. It's now called 'Dogs don't rape'. I'm pretty fond of that title, but the english language makes it sound cooler than it really is.

Anyhoo I know that titles supposed to have deeper meanings and all that, but how the heck do you make a nice one?

2nd topic, storyboarding. I started storyboarding few days ago, and even though everything is in my head... there were still shots where I had to ponder everything through a few times. This is yet another question, when storyboarding, do you create your 'visuals' (camera-angles etc) through careful consideration or do you simply jab everything that's in your head on the paper?

Then there's of course the problem of what's in your head can never be drawn on the paper... but my storyboards are sometimes 'jabbed spontaneously' and sometimes really 'thought of considerably'.

[bigmasi]

double

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 17, 2004 12:18 PM: Message edited by: bigmasi ]</font>

[bigmasi]

For the titles... They call the work title a work title for a reason. I think you should finish the script and after that think about the name, not before. It'l come...

I make the storyboards like this: I imagine the scene with my eyes closed. Then draw the first picture. Close my eyes again and draw the next... after a few pictures I "read" them, close my eyes and draw the next. After I finish, I just read it again and again and imagine it different ways and end up having something that I'm pleased with. Then I give it time (like script writing) and check on it a week later or so...

I also write a lot of text besides the drawings

Ps. If anybody has the idea of asking "how can you draw when you have your eyes closed?" ...don't bother. *grin*

[EP]

i'm suprised at the detail you put into the storyboard of Angry and Moist... I've started mine for my short feature film and I'm partial to the character shaped blocks...and if it comes down to it I'll label the people in the frame. Do you know what i find wook good though?, the que cards with lines on one side and a blank back.....

[eidde]

I suppose it depends on how much sculpting you want to put into it, as to how much you put into storyboards.
If you do use them too much then they can restrict the flow of a shooting day.
If you dont then you can miss out using a storytelling tool - (telling it in cuts).

Ive done a bit of both, I think my favourite moments are when Ive tried to figure out how the story will flow visually, storyboarded it and then filmed it, and got what I wanted, rather than had an easy(ish) day and made it up on the fly.

So I tend toward them.

As for titles...I think the script is more important to worry about - i think you are on the right line- put the word 'Dog' in the title somewhere and you've probably got a winner.
Reservior Dogs
Wag the Dog
Man Bites Dog
Dog Day afternoon....

all winners.

[Kigo]

I always find it funny when trying to come up with a title. I find that I can either come up with a title before the film is even scripted or everything I try doesn't fit and so I pick a working one, which is usually cheesey, finish the production and have used that title for so long that I end up going with it (unless I get strong objections!)

As for storyboards, I find them an essential part of pre-production, especially on key scenes. They allow you to anticipate any problems you may get when you finally shoot as well as giving you the main goal for what shots you want to see on film.

I highly recommend the 3-disc Panic Room DVD if you want to see this type of approach in action. The director not only storyboarded the film, but 'pre-visualsed' the entire thing through 3-d animation. That not only included every shot he wanted, but how he would acheive the shots (crane, steadi, etc) so when he got on set everything should flow easy as the data from the pre-viz dicatated how the takes would proceed. He could then concentrate on getting a performance out of the actors. Seems like a bit of over kill, but the film turned out ok!!!

This is one of the best behind the scenes DVDs I have seen.

How about 'Clifford the Big Red Dog'?

[thelaughingduck2001]

Straw Dogs?

[joepiechura]

Dogville?

I haven't seen the Panic Room DVD, but I've got the Se7en DVD (also David Fincher), and this also has some excellent pre and post-production features. Taxi Driver also has a storyboard to final scene shot comparison, which is excellent. Also has the screenplay on it.

I think the amount of planning really depends on how creative or ambitious you want to be with your shots, and how much you want to "direct."

While we're on the subject, does anyone know how to storyboard a shot like the long steadicam shot in Goodfellas. Would you just draw the shot at various intervals?