Preproduction

Started by subversiveproductions, December 14, 2003, 01:12:26 AM

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Recce

The more projects I make, the more meticulously I plan stuff out before I begin shooting. I used to think storyboards were for suckers, mostly because I hate doing them. But on my last project, I took the time to do one and the shoot and editing went so smoothly, I'm sold for life. Granted, it was only a 60 second short, but it made it all fit together...like a puzzle...yes, a puzzle. The rest of the crew (and by that I mean the other two guys) were amazed at how organized I was and how clearly I saw each shot. Course my teacher hated it, but what the hell does he know.
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                        cannot put it back together again." (Travis Bickle, "Taxi Driver")

for petes sake

Quote from: subversiveproductionsThanks for the advice guys.  I noticed pretty much everyone mentioned storyboarding.  What type of techniques do you guys use for storyboarding?  I've tried to start doing this several times, but I can't draw for shit, and sketching out every shot seems like it would take an impossible amount of time and leave me with a lot of sketches that I won't be able to understand when it comes time to shoot.  Any suggestions?


For me at least, storyboarding is done for two reasons:

1) It ensures that as the director, I know exactly how I want every shot to look.  Sometimes when I envision a scene my mental picture might of whats going on might not be shootable, so drawing storyboards helps make sure that every shot is something that can be seen through a frame.  Basically it makes me rethink all of my shots and make sure that theya re the best way to tell the story.

2) Storyboards are inavluable for communicating with your production team (especially your DP).  It helps them picture what you want, and gets everybody on the same page.

If you find a better way to accomplish these two things than go for it (my friend used to actually shoot almost all his shots on a camcorder using blocks as actors, and this worked fine for him).

As far as storyboarding tips heres what I've learned in my limited experience.  As many have already mentioned, you can get away with stick figures, but you have to pay alot of attention to perspective.  If its an OTS shot, make sure you get an idea for how much sholder you want in the frame.  If its a CU, how tight?  It's things like this that your production team will look for and they are the things I try to avoid deciding on during last minute.

Hope this helps!

kotte

I'm in the middle of postproduction of short The Tortellini Suicide and I'm tired. I'm tired of how expensive it is, I'm tired of how slow the process is. That is why...

I´m shooting three shorts the 19th.
* The Berry Girl
* Áston
* An untitled experiment

Pre-production's been hectic. Just bought a fucking Santa beard for $65...It better turn out good.
I love the preprod. process. It's made me realize how much I love producing and that's a good thing. Not that I would give up writing and/or directing. Producing means control and control I like.

Reinhold

it depends on what your storyboarding sheets look like. i use a template with six 4x2.25 boxes with some lines under them.  i use those for non-detailed shots with stick figures with X's on the front of their faces  and arrows to show movement. each box is a new angle or something. i keep them around for editing, too.

i use regular blank computer paper for overhead shots with different colored arrows and stuff, like a football playbook for other stuff, if there's a fixed angle or something like that.

i stick them right in my scripts and take them with me to shoot. it helps me, but i'm a complete amateur.
Quote from: Pas Rap on April 23, 2010, 07:29:06 AM
Obviously what you are doing right now is called (in my upcoming book of psychology at least) validation. I think it's a normal thing to do. People will reply, say anything, and then you're gonna do what you were subconsciently thinking of doing all along.

meatball

Preproduction is like the time you take to gather up your courage and prepare your pickup line before you approach a girl. It sucks -- I usually feel like my intenstines are about to leak out -- but you need it or you'll just walk up and make a fool of yourself. And once production begins, all is well.

Link

That was beautiful, meatball....

subversiveproductions

I realize this was originally my post, but months later and a feature's worth of experience in the bag, I have found an answer:  FrameForge 3D.  My DoP for my next film is in love with me because of this software.  I set up the shot how I want it to look, and am able to instantly post it on the web for him to look at.  Not only that, but it includes an overhead blueprint view of every shot, so he can look at where he's going to put the bloody lights.  Only problems with this particular software: price (I'm on the demo version.), lack of certain objects, and no lighting.  There's a new version coming out one of these days, so hopefully they fix those things.  Anyways, good software, highly reccomended.
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