17. February 2023. • PRODUCTION

WHAT IS A STORYBOARD, pt.3

Director’s Storyboard

Unlike the agency storyboard, where the illustrator works alone and exclusively with information and materials given by the agency, the director’s storyboard, as the name suggests, is done in collaboration with the director. I have personally achieved numerous collaborations like that and I had the opportunity to work with some of the famous Croatian directors such as Hrvoje Hribar, Igor Šeregi and Nevio Marasović.

Creating a storyboard like this is a tango between the director and illustrator. They go through the scenario together, scene by scene, either over the phone, or in person, while the director explains how he wants to present and shoot his idea and what is the visual direction. Sometimes the starting point is the agency’s storyboard, so the director starts developing some of his ideas based on that, and sometimes he starts from scratch. If the client has already approved the casting and the choice of locations where the film/commercial will be filmed, then the illustrator receives photos of the actors who will portray the heroes, as well as photos of the locations where the film/commercial will be filmed. Accordingly, it is up to the illustrator to depict the characters and locations as faithfully as possible. Although realistically, the quality of the drawing itself is not even as important as the technical presentation of the director’s approach, which refers to camera angles and movements, film plans within individual frames, as well as emotion presented in individual scenes.

The entire process of creating a storyboard in collaboration with the director can be divided into two parts. The first part is therefore a direct collaboration with the director, where over the course of an hour, two, maybe three, the illustrator, referring to the director’s instructions, draws simple sketches (at that stage my drawings usually look like doodles) that roughly show how the shots will look, and which the director confirms if he is satisfied.

When the illustrator is done with all the sketches and transfers to paper everything that the director imagined and wanted, their direct collaboration ends there, but the real work of the illustrator begins! The illustrator, in the comfort of his own home, begins defining and shaping a more detailed drawing based on existing sketches. And besides polishing the drawings he adds some other elements of a technical nature such as adding arrows that show the direction of camera movement.

When the storyboard is fully finalized, the drawings are sent to the director for review. If he is satisfied with the final product, the illustrator’s job is (finally) done. However, sometimes you find yourself in a situation where the director is ultimately not satisfied with certain shots, so he asks you to make changes, or he wants to add some new shots . Of course, you will do it with a smile on your face, and hope that this is it. If so, it’s time for a drink!

The storyboard as such is finalized, but it is still up to the director to add to the visuals all the other information and materials we mentioned earlier (frame descriptions, camera movement information, various other notes, instructions and the such) and to finally put together the mentioned shooting board that will serve the clients, the director and the entire crew to have a better overview of the production process itself, and that on the day of shooting of individual scenes, more or less everyone knows what is being shot that day, where the cameras and lighting should be placed and where the actors will be positioned…