Storyboarding!

Hello, Writer's Blog. I feel like it's been a while. Maybe it hasn't. Maybe it's just because of how frequently I used to update this blog, my maybe-once-a-week updates seem sparse.

I'm taking a break from my verbal storyboards of episode 3 ("Personification") to share my dirty little storyboarding secrets:

1. I don't always storyboard. Episodes 1 and 2 of The Ruffians weren't storyboarded. For episode 1, we picked four or five angles from which to shoot the conversation and just went from there. And for episode 2, I let the flow of the confrontation, the actions the actors picked, and the actual location dictate the camera angles and movements.
2. I can't draw. The best I can muster are stick figures so vague and without form they only serve to confuse everyone involved, including myself. Thus . . .
3. My storyboards are completely verbal. I take whatever script I'm working on, copy and paste it into a new document, and then start adding BOLD camera directions to the script (sometimes I use colour!).

Episode 3 is a far more visually demanding story than any of the previous episodes have been. There are very specific things that need to be revealed at very specific times in order for the story to unfold in the correct manner. There are certain gags and visual cues that have worked their way into the script. And, for the first time ever, there are going to be special effects. And those special effects have to be shot from certain angles for them to work.

In other words, episode 3 was a beast to write and it's going to be a beast to shoot.