Directing the Story by Francis Glebas
Contents
- 1 The Goal: Why Do We Watch?
- 1.1 Why do we watch movies?
- 1.2 1001 Nights of Entertainment
- 1.3 What's at stake is nothing less than life and death
- 1.4 Dramatization through Questions
- 1.5 1001 Nights Entertainment Revisited
- 1.6 Critique: Is it too late to turn back?
- 1.7 Entertainment Explained
- 1.8 Opportunity from criticism
- 1.9 What is the audience doing?
- 1.10 Reverse-engineering approach
- 1.11 Why do we watch and more
- 1.12 Promise to the reader: intuition illuminated!
- 1.13 The secret of storytelling is story-delaying
- 1.14 Points to remember
- 2 Common Beginner Problems
- 2.1 Where do you begin?
- 2.2 The catch-22 of the character-driven intuitive approach
- 2.3 What can possibly go wrong?
- 2.4 What do directors direct?
- 2.5 The speaking metaphor
- 2.6 Show and Tell
- 2.7 Every Shot Is A Close-Up
- 2.8 What Is a Story?
- 2.9 What is Character?
- 2.10 Critique: Introducing Scheherazade
- 2.11 Points to Remember
- 3 The Beginning Basics
- 3.1 History and Function of Storyboards
- 3.2 Various Types of Storyboards
- 3.3 Production Process
- 3.4 The Beat Board
- 3.5 Storyboarding Overview
- 3.6 Story Reels
- 3.7 The Refinement Process
- 3.8 Pitching
- 3.9 The Gong Show
- 3.10 How to Tell a Story with Pictures
- 3.11 Breaking Down the Script: What Are Story Beats?
- 3.12 How to Storyboard a Scene
- 3.13 Staging the Action
- 3.14 Critique: Scheherazade's Storytelling
- 3.15 Points to Remember
- 4 How to Draw for Storyboarding: Motion and Emotion
- 4.1 Only 99,999 to Go
- 4.2 From Stick Figures to Balloon People
- 4.3 Walt Stanchfield's Gesture Drawing Class
- 4.4 Caricature
- 4.5 Designing Interesting Characters
- 4.6 The Story Drive of Emotions
- 4.7 Drawing the Four Main Emotion Groups
- 4.8 Miscellaneous Drawing Tips
- 4.9 Drawing for Clarity and the Use of Clear Silhouettes
- 4.10 Mort Walker's The Lexicon of Comicana
- 4.11 Technical Aspects of Storyboards
- 4.12 Critique: 1001 Drawings
- 4.13 Points to Remember
- 5 Structural Approach: Tactics to Reach the Goal
- 6 What do Directors Direct?
- 6.1 How to Get Attention
- 6.2 The Map is Not the Territory
- 6.3 Selective Attention
- 6.4 Keeping Attention
- 6.5 Keeping Structure Invisible: Tricks of Attention
- 6.6 The Power of Suggestion
- 6.7 How the Brain Organizes Information: Gestalt
- 6.8 Director as Magician
- 6.9 Hierarchy of Narrative Questions
- 6.10 Critique: Scheherazade Directs Attention
- 6.11 Points to Remember
- 7 How to Direct the Eyes
- 8 Directing the Eyes Deeper In Space and Time
- 8.1 What is Wrong With This Picture?
- 8.2 What to Use: Telephoto or Wide-Angle Lenses?
- 8.3 How to use Framing to tell a Story
- 8.4 Camera Mobility
- 8.5 Alternative Approaches
- 8.6 A Trick for Planning Scenes
- 8.7 Proximity
- 8.8 Point of View: Subjective Camera
- 8.9 The Town of Dumb Love and SketchUp
- 8.10 Beware of Depth Killers
- 8.11 Points to Remember
- 9 How to Make Images Speak: The Hidden Power of Images
- 9.1 A Fancy Word for Clues
- 9.2 Why Should You Care about Clues?
- 9.3 How Movies Speak to Us
- 9.4 The Mind Makes Associations
- 9.5 Crime Story Clues and Signs
- 9.6 Significant Objects
- 9.7 How Images Ask Questions
- 9.8 Speaking Indirectly
- 9.9 Everything Speaks, If You Know The Code
- 9.10 Semiotic Square
- 9.11 Semiotic Analysis of the Scheherazade and "Dumb Love" Stories
- 9.12 Points to Remember
- 10 How to Convey and Suggest Meaning
- 10.1 Continuity and Causality: How we put Juxtaposed Images Together
- 10.2 Multiple Types of Causality
- 10.3 Screen Geography: Letting the Audience Know Where They Are
- 10.4 Eyeline Matches
- 10.5 Time Continuity
- 10.6 History of Film Editing
- 10.7 Why Do We Have to Tell Stories?
- 10.8 The Film as Time Machine
- 10.9 Why Cuts Work
- 10.10 Why We Speak the Narration to Ourselves
- 10.11 Points to Remember
- 11 Dramatic Irony
- 12 The BIG Picture: Story Structures
- 12.1 Primitive Filmic Structures and Propp's Story Functions
- 12.2 The Hero's Journey or the Neurotic's Road Trip
- 12.3 Three Levels of Story Analysis
- 12.4 Mentors
- 12.5 Paradigms of Changing the Impossible to the Possible
- 12.6 Ending, Beginning, and Turning Points
- 12.7 Types of Scenes
- 12.8 What Happens if you Move the Structure Around?
- 12.9 Points to Remember
- 13 Aiming for the Heart
- 13.1 Do We Really Identify with the Hero?
- 13.2 Fears, Flaws, Wants, and Needs
- 13.3 Love Stories: What Keeps Lovers Apart?
- 13.4 What is So Scary about Horror?
- 13.5 The Rubberband Theory of Comedy: Aiming for the Backside of the Heart
- 13.6 So Many Crime Shows
- 13.7 Emotional Truth
- 13.8 Music and Color: Not Meaning, but Meaningful
- 13.9 What Is It All About?
- 13.10 Happy Ever After
- 13.11 Piglet's Big Compilation
- 13.12 Why We Watch Movies, Revisited
- 13.13 The Story Knot and the Formula for Fantasy
- 13.14 Emotional Engagement of a Story
- 13.15 Points to Remember
- 14 Summary: Recapitulation of All Concepts
- 15 Analysis and Evolution of the Scheherazade Project
- 15.1 Story Evolution: Making it Clearer and More Dramatic
- 15.2 Thematic Analysis and Dramatic Structures
- 15.3 Story Parallels and Repetitions
- 15.4 Hierarchy of Narrative Questions of the Scheherazade Story
- 15.5 Cuts for Length or to Make the Story Move Quicker
- 15.6 Changes Made to Make the Story More Dramatic or Resonant
- 16 Conclusion: Now We Must Say Good-bye
The Goal: Why Do We Watch?
Why do we watch movies?
1001 Nights of Entertainment
What's at stake is nothing less than life and death
Dramatization through Questions
1001 Nights Entertainment Revisited
Critique: Is it too late to turn back?
Entertainment Explained
Opportunity from criticism
What is the audience doing?
Reverse-engineering approach
Why do we watch and more
Promise to the reader: intuition illuminated!
The secret of storytelling is story-delaying
Points to remember
- We watch movies to feel good - meet that need in your audience
- Make sure your story is about something that matters
- Aim at providing an emotionally satisfying experience for your audience, but work at the the structural level
- The secret of storytelling is story-delaying. Learn the different tactics to tease your audience by making them wait
- The next time you're at a movie pay attention to what experiences you are going through as you watch. Notice what triggers your emotions.
Common Beginner Problems
Where do you begin?
The catch-22 of the character-driven intuitive approach
What can possibly go wrong?
What do directors direct?
The speaking metaphor
Show and Tell
Every Shot Is A Close-Up
What Is a Story?
What is Character?
Critique: Introducing Scheherazade
Points to Remember
- Make sure your story is character-driven by their desires
- Be aware of potential speaking problems that may bump your audience out of being "lost" in the story
- Remember the speaking metaphor: Clearly show one thing at a time
- Fight boredom by weaving interesting narrative questions that create dramatic characters in escalating conflict
- Fight confusion by focusing the audience's attention to one thing at a time as you tell the story
- Treat every shot as a close-up of what you wish to show the audience
- Make sure your images clearly show the story ideas that you intend to convey
- Aim at the heart by working at a structural level.
The Beginning Basics
History and Function of Storyboards
Various Types of Storyboards
Production Process
The Beat Board
Storyboarding Overview
Story Reels
The Refinement Process
Pitching
The Gong Show
How to Tell a Story with Pictures
Breaking Down the Script: What Are Story Beats?
How to Storyboard a Scene
Staging the Action
Critique: Scheherazade's Storytelling
Points to Remember
- Draw BOLD! Make your images easy to see as a billboard.
- Number your drawings
- Pitch clearly and passionately
- Storyboards are always a work in process. Start out rough and don't be afraid to throw away drawings. Keep at it until you find the image that best tells the story.
- Avoid relying on "talking head" shots. Tell the story visually. Invent visual devices.
- Watch the Wallace and Gromit shorts: A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers as an example of great visual storytellign.
- Watch old silent movies to see how they tell stories without words.
How to Draw for Storyboarding: Motion and Emotion
Only 99,999 to Go
From Stick Figures to Balloon People
Walt Stanchfield's Gesture Drawing Class
Caricature
Designing Interesting Characters
The Story Drive of Emotions
Drawing the Four Main Emotion Groups
Miscellaneous Drawing Tips
Drawing for Clarity and the Use of Clear Silhouettes
Mort Walker's The Lexicon of Comicana
Technical Aspects of Storyboards
Critique: 1001 Drawings
Points to Remember
Structural Approach: Tactics to Reach the Goal
Once upon a time
Critique: Developing Character Relationships
Points to Remember: Drawing for Storyboarding
- Carry a sketchbook and sketch, sketch, sketch!
- Sketch some more.
- Draw the story
- Use gestures to help tell the story
- Learn to draw the essentials fast
- Try scenes a dozen different ways to compose them
- Film always says one thing at a time, and everything must relate to that one thing
- Draw the pose, not the parts. Don't blow it with too many details
- Draw verbs (actions) not nouns (names of things)
Don't stiffen up your poses. Think diagonals. Watch the Disney aniamted classics for examples of great drawings. Watch Hayao Miyazaki's films such as Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro for great visual storytelling and drawing.
- Study comic books for great drawing and visual storytelling.
