Traditional Storyboarding for Teens

A one-day workshop where students will learn the basics of professional storyboarding. Including: How to analyze scripts, composition, and visual storytelling techniques.

A storyboard is a visual representation of how a scene will play out on the screen. It shows the framing and movement of the subject and allows the filmmaker to previsualize what their scene will look like before they ever touch a camera.

In this workshop, participants will walk through the storyboarding process. They will each receive a section of a script and be tasked with transforming their pages into pen-to-paper drawings of what they visualize the scene looks like when filmed. How will the subject be framed? What is the opening shot? Will the subject move? When will they move and where will they land? What action are they taking? Is a POV shot required? Where are they looking? What angle should the camera be set at? How do you “see” it playing out?

Each decision may seem small, but how a subject is shot and what images appear in sequence informs your audience about the story – what they should know and how they should feel. For example – how would you visualize a superhero giving an inspiring speech about hope? Perhaps you try to make the subject, your hero, look larger than life and mighty in the frame by having the camera be set at a low angle, thus having your audience “looking up to them”. Do we know if his speech is working? “cut to”/draw a frame of people reacting to his words. Each image in a film matters, so learn to be intentional in your shot decisions to “tell” a better story.