Discuss the ways in which you think storyboarding could help you to make words more visual and/or filmic

In art school, when I was doing my undergraduate studies in design, I had taken a number of units where the assignments involve sketching storyboards for TV commercials. For a thirty second TV commercial we had to draw 15 frames that illustrate the scenes shots whether it was a locked in shot, pan, zoom and etcetera. I wasn’t very good at it, preferring units like typography and copywriting instead. 

A storyboard by definition is a sequence of drawings that represent the events of a story that will be filmed in the order they will be finally be edited and screened. Traditionally, it may have been used for film or animation but I have heard of how it is even used for events where the flow is carefully sketched in a form of a storyboard.

Thinking about this week’s question on storyboard, I see the connection between storyboards with what John Maeda a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said about computer not as a tool but material that should be distinguished in its purest form.

What distinguishes the character of storyboards? It helps us tells a story using visuals and is sequential or time based. As it takes up space and time, this makes storyboard turn what is a work of fiction into something solid and tangible. With storyboards complex scenes such as:

A thrilling 200 miles an hour chase, MI6 agent on the wheel in tense full concentration, racing inside a tunnel in a sleek silver DB9 Aston Martin that can’t help but scratches the wall

Could be expanded and organized for writing purpose.

Other than its technical aspect, storyboard’s visual nature could also potentially make what is written more engrossing by triggering the faculty of sight. Writing is a visual medium and having reference like a storyboard– akin to reading material – can help us locate and add details in the story as well as visualize the transition between events.

In the earlier paragraph, I had mentioned that I was not very good at coming up with storyboards.

I have not drawn a storyboard since my days in art school nor have I been in the film, TV or animation industry to have any real life experience with it. I do however enjoy the occasional graphic novels which shares some characteristics with the storyboard.

For those that are not used to reading graphic novels I recommend picking up Blanket by Craig Thompson and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Reading these graphic novels I can see how the dynamism in how the images are drawn together combined with selective use of words could make writing more visual and filmic.