Juan teaching at our workshop
On Tuesday we held a Storyboarding 101 workshop lead by Juan Moore– Illustrator, animator and storyboard artist, who was previously on the team of Oscar nominated feature, Chico and Rita.
During the first half of the class, Juan gave an introduction to storyboarding, taught some formatting tips followed by a few practical exercises. In the second half, Juan worked with individuals on their storyboarding for specific projects offering one on one guidance and help.
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Here are some comments from a selection of workshop attendees:-
“As someone who has all the drawing skills of a dyslexic caveman, Juan’s relaxed and informative workshop underlined for me, that one doesn’t need to be Van Gogh in order to be able to create good storyboards.”
Ben Desmond – MannIN Shorts budding writer/ director
Working on a storyboard excercise
“It was lovely to listen to a professional artist talk about the things that he has done and how he has approached them, and nice little insight into a different life and very inspirational. ”
Jennifer Chance- MannIN Shorts Producer for ‘Breathless’ (shooting in the coming months)“I found the workshop really useful, Juan delivered a very informative session and provided a great insight into the world of illustration and storyboarding for film. I feel confident that I could put the new skill set towards storyboarding my own short films in the future.”
Richard Hird – New MannIN Shorts attendee
Hard at work Storyboarding
For those of you who were unable to make the workshop, we caught up with Juan, and asked him a few questions:
1. In a nut shell, what’s your background and experience in storyboarding for film?
“I’m an illustrator and fine artist primarily, mostly working within editorial or publishing work, from time to time I work as a storyboard artist, mostly on shorter projects such as short animations or adverts, I also worked on Chico and Rita which was nominated for an Oscar, but that was awhile ago.”
“It’s the first visualisation of the narrative, an opportunity to solve any narrative or potential shot problems before production begins and essentially make you movie as still images for the cost of some paper and a pencil.”
Juan Moore (c) Storyboard
3. What are some of the biggest mistakes or misconceptions beginners have with storyboarding?
“I think people see highly artistic renderings on storyboards for big budget films, these are great but if your making it yourself, the images simply need to be understood, they don’t have to be works of art. if your including storyboards in a project pitch then maybe they would need to be a little more polished, but if you can understand them and talk about them well to others, then the job is a good’un.”
4. What resources or tools would you suggest newcomers get to grips with?
“A pencil, imagination and looking at things from different points of view.”
Juan Moore (c) Storyboard work
5. What’s your top tip for someone wishing to pursue a career in visualisation/ storyboarding and concept art for film?
“Draw, A LOT! practice drawing the human form and get to grips with the basics of perspective and communicating movement.”
This Blog was created by Emily Cook – MannIN Shorts
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