MAKING 5KINGS: Storyboarding
After the initial discussions with the director, while conceptualising the design direction and look of the project (*Pending confirmation of budget), I took on the task of storyboarding the project with the director, which I'd felt would help me in producing sets within the scope of what she wanted to see.
Seen up top was the very first non-prompted board I had done on after the earliest of discussions (color but not necessarily deliberate to the final colors), while subsequent boards showcased were totally devoid of color, as we had wanted to see framing of talents and background instead, while designing/navigating the scenes' colors (which'll be another blog-entry).
The entire project was separated unto different scenes from both the script and transition spaces, so the scenes were illustrated from and described as such. The scenes reflect a sequential linear narrative (*while presentation of the stopryboards here might not necessarily be).
Do pardon me for the lack of "proper" and consistent frames though. As well the images here were as well stitched together digitally (rather roughly, I admit). I very much want to showcase them as "raw" as I drew them, as "unprofessionally presented" as it may seem here, cheers.
What I had done was after drawing them, I had then used my phone camera top take pictures of them, and exported to my lap-top to digitally process, enhance and format. I had been a analog-creature navigating a digital world, thanks.
The "plan" was to churn out visuals first, then process them into "proper format" digitally after confirming visuals, which by then I had ran out of time, as I needed to urgently begin designing for the sets/settings. At this point in time, I was the sole person in the art department, prior to construction and prop design. Wardrobe exploration had begun, and needed the set designs to work with as well.
The short-hand visual narratives shown possessed not enough information for the technical folks to utilise, and that alone required what I felt was a dedicated storyboard artist for that specific period, which I could no longer fulfil as I had to begin set designs for, much less "colors", which was happening simultaneously with wardrobe design, from head to toe (wear shoes or barefoot etc).
With the assumption that the art budget might not be as robust as the script requirements ("might") have been, I also felt that having a storyboard would give me a clearer idea of what can be seen, can be held in hand or displayed in the background(s).
That said, the requirements for VP storyboards grew quickly out of hand for me, so I relinquished it to the director herself who subsequently did her own boards, which were far more detailed and descriptive, and used in the final reference.
The requirements for VP storyboarding is unlike what might be used as "short-hand" for (local) filmmaking, as the boards are referenced beyond the director themselves, and is needed for the technical calibrations from the VP team, and creation of digital assets to be used on the virtual projection screen, who as well needed the set designs to move forth with their own timelines and tasks. It is essentially a multiple person resource.
That said, shown here are my uncoloured basic story-boards, with camera action described by director, sans set descriptions. Alas I do not have "finished" filmed scenes to do any comparisons with, but once I do perhaps I'll attempt to update this blog-post, cheers.
The last time I actively storyboarded for a extended project (beyond 30-seconder show openings), was for my 4th feature film; "Song Of The Stork", circa 2000(ish). I'd spent an extended time with both directors for the feature film, with the intention to understand and access the scope required, and be able to feedback and propose designs while crafting the visuals/scenes. A fulfilling and enriching creative endeavour to be had, the downside of which was, most of the scenes were not based on locations we've secured, so there were numerous adaptations on the ground, as was for this project, with the developing set designs, which was awaiting me to design and draft.
Seen below is a more "detailed" board for the palace/Kraton scene (as compared to the rest of the scenes - which was the only "interior" versus the "exteriors"), and do note that most of all these shown thus far had excluded robust consultation with the project's Cinematographer James Ha, but were done with what the director has wanted the camera to see, and was used as a base for reference and discussion subsequently, which were further refined with the director herself, and after recommendations from VP-Post.
By that time I was conversing with James on the colors and design intent of the set(s), in reaction to what the camera will be seeing.
