First Critique

My first storyboard critique went well. Although I am a little behind for where I need to be by the end of the semester, I am comfortable going forward knowing that I can “hyper-plan” these storyboards until I can mindlessly chug away at asset creation and animation. Here is a photo from the critique, co-starring Ben, Alaina, and my “Italian chef hands”:

To get to this point in my storyboards, I essentially created a script as if I were going to shoot this in live action. That means I included dialogue between the characters, something I didn’t want from the beginning. I also included more shots that might not be necessary. I did both of these things in hope that I can now trim the fat from this film to reveal a sleek final product.

I got a bunch of great feedback in regards to how to cut down and add constraints to this project. Questions that were posed included:

How can color represent the mood of each scene and come together at the end? Is color necessary in parts? Where is the dialogue needed and where can it be cut? How can certain points be made with visuals alone? Could the main character be the narrator?

Off topic, but an interesting thing about that last question is that I never imagined I would consider making the main character narrate her thoughts throughout the film. I always thought this was a gimmick used by filmmakers to spoon-feed the audience information going on in a character’s head. I thought this way because I don’t talk to myself in regular situations. Unlike most people, I don’t have a consistent internal monologue, unless I am reading, writing, or in a stressful situation. But after learning about this distinction in how people think, there might be something with giving the main character an internal monologue. I am not a maximizer, but I am making a short film about one. I don’t have an internal monologue, but I feel like my main character WOULD.

Even if I ultimately don’t make my main character narrate her thoughts, this is something to consider that goes on in my main character’s brain while she is making decisions (also, would love to continue the internal monologue discussion as a class).

I think for now, I will let myself not think about story until after I have gone through more style exploration, just to see how things I uncover might dictate the story. For that, I have some foundational constraints set, but need a broader sample set to pick from to ensure that I have the best style for the film. Next post will be on that!