Storyboarding (in this case for film) is a graphic novelization of your script in which each frame represents a camera angle or an important point in the action. This is crucial to a film because you want to have good flow throughout your script that is not only coherent, but economical when the film is eventually sent to the editing room. However, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves for the purposes of this article. I want to keep this simple in each of the three areas listed in the title of this article so it does not appear to be an arduous task.
Let’s focus on one portion of this area. Continuity.
I have seen many scripts fail because of a lack of continuity. Sometimes, this can be hard to see in a written script unless you are a seasoned script writer. For help, let’s look at the dictionary definition of “continuity”. It is defined as such: the maintenance of continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes of a movie or broadcast. The work and re-work of continuous action and to have consistent detail.
Through storyboarding, areas in need of improvement with continuity suddenly appear that may not have been easily seen in the writing process. Setting inconsistencies, character movement and emotion, earlier scenes that conflict with scenes that come up later in the film, etc.
Next up . . . Editing.
For this section, I am speaking of the self-editing of your script before it is submitted. Storyboarding can be crucial in the editing of dialogue, description of action, character movement within the script space, the addition of new material, the subtraction of unneeded material, etc. The list here, as you know, goes on and on.
Lastly . . . Creative Restructuring.
As you can see, these three sections bleed into each other. This, of course, is what they are meant to do. This last section, I call the hunt for the creative black holes in your story. What parts of your story fail to keep the reader engaged? What parts of your story lack in purpose? Are all your characters necessary? Do all your scenes push the action forward? Do all your characters have a desire? Again, you can ask many more questions of yourself here; all made possible through the effort of Storyboarding.
To sum up, storyboarding is a very useful tool for the screenwriter. Use it when you can. There are several free apps online like Paginate and Paper by WeTransfer to help you out as you get started. Remember, you don’t have to be an artist to storyboard. So, break out your stylus and lets see those stick figures. Have fun with it.
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