What goes into the hour to two hours of film that you see on the screen?
i mean we all know there's the director, the actors who play the roles of the people we see, the editors who put it all together; but is it really all that simple, isn't there more to it?
The Answer is YES!
Many people fail to realize how much work is actually put into a movie, hours of film, days of work, and hours over hours of editing. Its a true art, that takes hard work, and a lot of time.
What does a director do?... well we all would answer "oh he's the guy who says cut and actions, and leads the group." and that is very true, but there is one very interesting pre-production step that directors take, which is essential for the movie's success, and that is storyboarding.
Now storyboarding isn't neccesarily what it might sound like, at first impression somebody might think its only like writing out or explaining the story; however its more complicated than that. Storyboarding is actually like drawing out a comic book version of te film, scene by scene, line by line. There is the addition of dialogue, sound effects, and other information that is essential to make the script a visual.
For example this storyboard of what a simpsons episode will come out to be.
Now the whole purpose of this storyboarding is to save time and money. It is really a way for the director to see if the film will work, what visual will work, which won't, and to have their film pre-planned. It is a great way of saving money, without it a whole lot of money could be lost.
The fun part, i think, is that there is no set way to storyboard, a director could be creative as he/she desires. for example for the Movie Return of the Jedi the production crew planned out vigorous, hard scenes by acting them out with plastic figurines. it was like they got payed to play with toys. Also in Jurrasic Park the whole movie was pre-filmed use claymations, so they knew exactly how it would come out.
Here's an example of a played story board for the movie X2 Xmen United
And once the storyboard is created the movie production can start, you see now filmmaking is something a lot more than it seems, the storyboard, thats just the beginning. After the comes the actual filming which involves actors, techniques, problems encountered, and the magic of editing which literally puts all the work and filming, together. There is still a lot to learn about :)
