Storyboarding "Song of the Stork" (1999)

For my 4th feature film involved in; titled "Song of the Stork" (Vietnamese title: Vũ Khúc Con Cò), I had opted to storyboard the film, in addition to my "official" duties as the "Production Designer" for this Vietnamese film, which was filmed in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, circa 1999-2000 (The film premiered in 2000).

The logic being that since I would be designing for the film, I had wanted to also understand and advice on the visuals, and have an idea about the logistical demands the filming requires. Besides this being my biggest film to date, we were also filming in a foreign country (the first for me), and with a team / crew (17 folks in total) - all of whom (apparently) do not speak English - whom I only had a lady who was my translator (she was an office staff who had not done film before), so understandably I was on edge and needed to be on top of everything, as best as I could be.


Storyboarding took a couple of months, and happened prior to prep and pre-production - which of memory serves, was about 4 months before pre-pro started.

The film was helmed by two directors. Director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh focused on the actors and their performances (the script was in Vietnamese, with North and South dialects, no less), while Jonathan Foo was in charge of the visuals. Both directors spoke English, thank goodness.


All three of us sat together to work out the 300+ page storyboard - which was reproduced in a smaller A5 sized thick booklet brought along shoot days, which I had always regretted not bringing back home to Singapore with me, when the shoot wrapped. Featured up top is a snap-shot of it (), which quite frankly served as a "visual aid" internally.


What I did keep (in my files) were photocopies of a particular sequence - which we referred to as the "Hoai's Bombed House" sequence - for which these boards shown are a composite of, for which I have since edited (on iMovie on my Apple desktop), with the result being this low-res video clip (which also exists on my Facebook). And below that is the actual movie sequence (Begins at Mark 1:30 to 3:20), for visual reference.


And while I recognise very clearly my "standard/quality" of storyboarding illustrations (or lack thereof), it certainly has given me a "selfish"-avenue, to put to practical practise my "comic-book doodling"-dreams through my working years!

The year 2020 will be the 20th Anniversary of the film's premiere, and I certainly hope to do more with behind the scenes.

Cheers
Andy Heng