Storyboards – Magic Before the Scenes

Storyboard frame

A storyboard is a sequence of drawings and/or words used to plan out scenes, events, or a draft of any form of media. Storyboards can be made on almost any program, words, Prezi, keynote, pages, even pencil, and paper, etc. A storyboard is a helpful tool for planning. Plenty of movies, cartoons, or shows use storyboards to plan out their thoughts, dialogue, and the overall flow of the scene. By a writing standpoint, a storyboard can help you plan out your thoughts, improve your argument, or jot down ideas to be used later in your writing. For a developer, producer, or anyone in general, a storyboard is exceedingly helpful when trying to convey your thoughts to others. Imagine you are a writer on a show, you have an amazing idea for an episode, but it would be difficult to tell your idea by stating it all verbally. So to communicate thoroughly your episode plan, you make a storyboard to pitch it to your team. This way there is a visual way to demonstrate how your episodes would flow and why it’s a great idea. This is just an example, and there are many other opportunities that a storyboard may come in handy. A few tips for in creating a storyboard are making it simple, have an engaging scenario or topic, make sure that there is a cohesive, understandable plot line. A storyboard should be easily understood by anyone viewing it. If planning always makes sure your storyboard is intriguing and not boring. Heading back to the writer analogy, if the episode he storyboards in boring, then it won’t become an episode. There has to be a hook to catch your readers or viewers to stay. Lastly, an unorganized storyboard losses the point of the storyboard. Some of the first storyboards in history were made by ancient humans. Cavemen used to make storyboards to track and illustrate their hunting and achievements, but a more famous case of ancient storyboards were the Egyptians. Mastering the art in their hieroglyphics. Our modern storyboards are credited to Webb Smith who worked at Disney, some of the first modern storyboards looked like comic strips. Modern storyboards were used to save money and organize how the scene was going transpire. For me, to create great storyboards it should be easily understood above all else. How can you organize and share your storyboard if there is no logical, linear, and cohesive planning? An interesting plot isn’t as difficult to accomplish if you know what would be boring or not. Storyboards are one of the simplest and most effective ways to plan out any form of media.

Citations:

Journalism, Burkley. “Storyboarding.” Berkeley Advanced Media Institute, UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, 9 May 2015, multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish-storyboarding/.

University, Houston. “Create Storyboards.” Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling, University of Houston, 2017, digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=23&cid=23&sublinkid=37.

Pinantoan, Andrianes. “Using Storyboards In Education.” InformED, InformED, 20 May 2013, http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/teacher-resources/using-storyboards-in-education/.

Babich, Nick. “Storyboard Frame.” Uxplanet, Babich.biz, 30 Apr. 2017, uxplanet.org/storyboarding-in-ux-design-b9d2e18e5fab.