Thursday, August 25, 2005

I'm A Tad Confused

I am currently storyboarding Generator, and have come across a problem. Do I layout each camera angle, or the overview of the shot? As it stands right now, I have 6 different camera angles/shots for the first scene. I'm wondering if I should just show the scene as I picture it, then work within that framework once I begin shooting? Or am I supposed to be this obsessive with it, and break it down from wide shot, to Cl/U, then to Medium shot...ect..? I guess that could be kept for the actual shot list. Anyone have a semi educated opinion on how in depth storyboards are supposed to be??

5 Comments:

The Dissassociate said...

Every shot.

At least, that's what was used on the thingy I worked on, and that's how they reverse it in reality TV, and how I was taught.

It makes it easier. Helps you schedule things, makes your priorities simpler, lighting, knowing what shows and what doesn't.

But do what you want, really. Any time spent doing something that isn't useful to your production is better spent staring at shiny things or berating pigeons.

JD said...

Thanks, and welcome!

I think I'll do every shot, use it as my shot list. I just had a moment of extreme fright when I saw I had twelve shots for my first two scenes.

Matthew Reynolds said...

If you're shooting on DV my advice would be to storyboard (use it as a blueprint as you would an outline for a screenplay) as you see the movie in your head but shoot plenty of coverage. That's pretty much the beauty of DV as you don't have to worry about the footage. So get your master shot but then cover your reverse shots so that you're covered when you get to the edit.

The key is to have plenty of options in the editing room. When I was at film school a director I was friendly with swore by yelling "action" five seconds after the cameras started rolling and yelling "cut" five seconds after the last line of dialogue, so that he had plenty of space to make that cut. His crew would be looking at him with these confused expressions. He was an awesome editor though, so he already and a sense of the “space” he would need to work with in the editing room.

JD said...

After doing storyboards all day today, I agree. I am using far too much detail. Since I'm using DV, that gives me the flexibility to change on the fly. Good point.

I'll use my story boards as a template, and work off them.

Unknown said...

Every shot, but nail out a good master and maybe a good medium shot from all sides. just for cutting.