The Storyboard

“A storyboard tells a story as easily as a comic book” (Green 2011)

As a comic book reader who enjoys watching film adaptations of comics – most recently with Green Lantern (2011) and Thor (2011) – Green’s statement above intrigued me in term of how these two could be connected? What are the characteristics of comic books panels that make them tell a story so ‘easily’? What are the limitations that are inherent with a written script?

Defined as a visual script storyboards shares comic book’s quality of “show-not-tell”.

To convey ideas

Using The Green Lantern as an example, a story with aliens from thousands of sectors in the universe and a protagonist who works as a test pilot for new advance fighter jets, it is close to impossible for individual with no interests or knowledge in these subject matters to imagine how it would appear in film.

Having drawings of how these scenes or characters would look like on screen helps to convey ideas to the numerous people working for a film like the director, producer, actors, costume designers and of course, writers. Having a working visual script makes it easier for everyone to work together.

Making use of the dynamic language of storyboards like panning, close-ups, transition, foreground, background and etcetera would further enhance this cooperation.

Editing

The storyboard is a work in progress and as is the script. The former presents a parallel script that can be used to review the latter vis-à-vis. I had first hand account on how storyboards could have helped me with a script I was working on.

I recall the commented my tutor gave for my political script I wrote where although the historical part of the story is well researched, there is simply no action at all. I was so absorbed with the discussion among the political conspirators in my script that I forgot about the visual element.

Emotional aspect

Lastly, like comic books, storyboards also work best if it presents an emotional depth. Although we had discussed the need for action earlier, it is important to remember that they are meaningless if they do not connect with the audience.

Forgive my adolescent example, but Batman’s theatrics like appearing from the shadows or wearing the bat costume in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight (2008) relay the dark psychological sign to both criminals and the police. The Joker counters this with his own psychotic clown performance. The same visual techniques are used to heighten emotions in the superhero’s comic books.