THE ART OF PRE-VISUALIZATION

Film making is a very extensive process. To start with filmmaking, there are a lot of criteria that affect the film making. The crew, the film makers, the technological aspects are all necessary in film making. But is this all enough? 

Whenever a movie or a scene is created, the most important part for it is to be pre-visualized and a basic idea to be made before starting the project. Before starting anything new, the basic step is to pre-visualize, planning the things and making it come to life in a better way. Story boarding is the technique to pre-visualize the scenes or movies before going ahead with the filming.

Story boarding and its origin –

Story boarding can be defined in simple words as the pre-visualization of the movie or any scene to be recorded. It is a graphic organisation of images or illustrations that are arranged in a sequence to pre-visualise or get an idea on how the scene or the movie has to be shot. It is used to visualize prior for the filming of a motion picture, animation, interactive media, motion graphics or videos.

                                               The origin of story boarding was by Walt Disney production in the year 1930.  The first film makers to try storyboarding and use it in the field of motion picture was Georges Mellies. The first motion picture to be shot with pre-visualization through storyboarding was the Disney short named Three Little Pigs. Later on, a lot of movies were made using this technique. 

Story boarding can be defined in simple words as the pre-visualization of the movie or any scene to be recorded. It is a graphic organisation of images or illustrations that are arranged in a sequence to pre-visualise or get an idea on how the scene or the movie has to be shot. It is used to visualize prior for the filming of a motion picture, animation, interactive media, motion graphics or videos.

                                               The origin of story boarding was by Walt Disney production in the year 1930.  The first film makers to try storyboarding and use it in the field of motion picture was Georges Mellies. The first motion picture to be shot with pre-visualization through storyboarding was the Disney short named Three Little Pigs. Later on, a lot of movies were made using this technique.

Uses of story boarding 

Story boarding is representation of a series of pictures or frames or drawings put together in the form and order of the events to take place in the movie or clip or video. It can be defined in the form of a comic book like representation before it is put into action.

It is useful in following ways – 

1. It helps in checking the adequacy of the scene prior to filming.
2. It helps in getting an idea of what the scene will look like after it is filmed.
3. It will help in getting an estimate of the costing and budget required to film the scene. 
4. Saves time and resources because of pre-visualization on how to execute the scene.
5. Will save the cost of filming by giving an accurate idea on how to execute the filming and in what manner.
6. Helps in syncing audio and visuals better in the case of animatics.
7. Helps in checking the quality of the script before proceeding and helps in making any alterations if needed.
8. Any changes to be made in scenes and storyline, or a fight sequence or any scene for that matter can be made. This will help in making the film more economical and make the best come out of it. 

The various regions where story boarding can be used –

The following are the areas where story boarding is put to use –

1. Animation – 

 In animation a mock form of series of images are taken in a simplified form. This helps in story boarding before actually getting the animatics together. This way the audio and the action can be synced better when executing the animatics.

2. advertisement industries –

                                      This technique of story boarding can be used in advertisement industries to make a prior plan of the Ad in a sequential manner. The Ad material can be laid down in a sequence of images and the final representation of the Ad can be made. 

3. Movies –

                Story boarding has now also been used in movies to pre-visualise a scene. The scene to be visualised is arranged in a sequence of pictures, drawings or frames and the scene is interpreted, any changes to be made are done after story boarding. 

Process of storyboarding –

Story boarding starts with the writer or director explaining the storyline to the hired story boarder. The story boarder later creates a storyboard that matches the vision of the directors. The draft of the storyboard is created, got approved by the director and later a fair copy is made. The idea of storyboarding is to make the director sure of what he wants out of the shots and the whole movie in itself. 

Storyboarding is the way that puts the script into action. The basic idea of storyboarding is to create a fair copy of the scenes for the vision to channel the storyline. By this process, the storyboard being the vision is put into production and the frame for the movie is created. It is one of the major procedures for pre-production of the movie. At this stage scenes can be meddled with if needed and changes can be made. 

                                       Storyboarding helps in illustrating the story better. The process is basically to represent the storyline or scene in the form of visual representation. It gives clarity and caters to the requirement of the director. Also, the crew can work better on the scenes and the whole crew is provided with the storyboard, being an accurate representation of the scenes. 

Storyboarding helps in deciding the potential of the scenes that are going to filmed. For example, it helps the costume designers to bring out the costumes with accuracy if they know the scene. It also helps the music directors in composing the music and basically helps the whole crew in some way or the other. A detailed storyboard with dialogues can be created for the actors for them to get an idea of the scenes and help them in enacting the scene well.

Overall interpretation –

Overall speaking, the idea of storyboarding is the best way to create error-free scenes and shots in the movie. It helps in saving time and effort by envisioning the scenes as a visual representation. This acts as the soft copy of the movie. This also helps in setting up the indications of the camera positions and shot durations. 

Storyboard is set in such a way that shots are created per day and shot with the number of storyboard sections desired making a planner easy to execute. It also helps in showing the editor the requirement and vision of the director helping them work their magic in editing. Storyboarding is all about envisioning in a way that a better understanding of the shot is created between the director and the whole crew.