Kevin Kelly predicts the evolution of the web in six verbs:
Screening
Interacting
Sharing
Flowing
Accessing
Generating [Creating]
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Embrace Failure
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The Lion of OZ
I found an upload of this feature I boarded in 1999 I think. Spent a whole summer: 10 sequences, 1 to the client per week. In the days of paper and Fedex. Directed by Tim Deacon for Cinégroupé in Montréal.
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The Dogfather
The Dogfather was a good job I boarded two summers ago. I was contacted by Richard Boddington over the phone, made a quick deal, worked like crazy for a full month to board out the film in rough breakdowns. I would send Richard PDFs (with YouSendit) of the board every couple of days. I missed screening last summer. It was a good job by a director who knows the value of even a rough board. On Amazon now.
Boarding notes found in the files. From Warners around Batman’s first iteration. I didn’t work on it. Just appreciate the clarity. Even though these are obviously typewritten and probably mimeographed, the ideas here are still gold. (Who remembers a bi-pak?)
“Do you storyboard a lot?
Yep, pencil and paper. Sometimes you have a script and sometimes you don’t, but we usually have photos, storyboards, and location photos on a wall. It’s all sorts of things that are influenced by the script. Sometimes after reading a rough draft, I just cant help but to immediately draw. The construction of shots and the sizes of shots is a language. Some movies, like The Weather Man, are not storyboarded, but immediately when we rehearse I’ll take pictures or draw a shot-list for the day.
I don’t like coverage. I like to think of a sequence as how it’s going to be cut, you know. Seeing the close-up for that reaction and building the hour glass where it gets tighter, and just goes bam. Or starting a scene on a close-up where you don’t know where you are. Just knowing the push and pull is the language of shots.”
No computer pre-vis for him.
From Film School Rejects: Here.
I recently saw The Social Network and found it is an excellent example-among other benefits- of the way creative ideas develop. Faux Zuckerberg is shown as getting inspiration anywhere. Sitting in a pub, talking to friends, discussing seemingly incongruous ideas. All of a sudden, he sprints to his dorm room, types a short piece of code and “Thefacebook” is finished.
And then the lawyers get involved.
Faux Z is sued. Everyone he’s ever talked to is seeking a piece of the pie. The film is a morality tale on the art of creative collaboration and, surprisingly in this era of crowdsourcing and, well, Facebook, a warning about the sharing of ideas. The true loss is the vilification of creative collaboration.
In contrast, I also recently watched The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Because the lawyers got involved again, Springsteen was restricted from releasing an album for three years after his smash hit, Born to Run. This in the days when recording artists released two albums a year. As a result, he spent the time in the studio recording 70 songs for the 10 that where eventually released on the album.
The documentary shows these recording sessions and demonstrates how Springsteen works out his ideas with his band. Everyone contributes and produces the song. Springsteen is unquestionably the author but uses collaboration to involve those around him to evolve his sound. A more positive morality tale.
What’s this got to do with storyboarding.
I recently was “released” from a project, by mutual consent I hasten to add. My end was a mess. I couldn’t get what they wanted, how fast they wanted it and how much control they required. The client was very specific to the extent they called out head positions and how big the smiles on the characters faces. That would be like Springsteen constantly sitting at the piano to show Roy Bittan the cords or Clarence how to blow the sax. Not the way to make a song or an animated television show. It diminishes the creative contribution of collaborators and causes the work to be done without pride of craftsmanship.
Here’s an example: the client demanded an expensive piece of software be installed that allowed thumbnails and ideas to be drawn digitally on the script over the internet. So expensive that only one license could be supported by the production budget, so everybody had to come in and gather in a specific boardroom. The kicker-maybe the Kick is in this is all an Inception dream-only the client side could draw. Our end was disabled.
I recognize that the creator or author of the work has primary control. But, especially today, creative collaboration has to involve all the voices. Whether it is because the storyboard software allows everybody to get involved at a granular level-my theory- or because the client is just micro-managing, bug-ugly crazy, some projects are a struggle to get done and are best left to those who have the stomach to be constantly kicked.
To create a group project, like a piece of software, a song or an animated project, everybody’s got to matter. There has to be someone driving (Faux Z, Springsteen or my ex-client) but they have to listen to and acknowledge other voices can contribute to get the best product. Inspiration comes from everywhere as these films demonstrate and, as long as the lawyers don’t get involved, everybody should have a good time on the journey of creating.
More later…
The idea of techne –the Greek word for skill-was first introduced to me by Peter Drucker. He describes it as skill that managers need to be aware of and focus on. In What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly elaborates on the concept. He refines the term to “art, skill, craft or even craftiness.” He calls techne “the ability to outwit circumstances.” This is an essential quality of the freelance boarder. I’ve always said there are boarders that are smarter, faster and better, but I’m craftier. And I care about the craft and the process.
I feel I have to know what technology can accomplish and how it solves the client’s problem. Sometimes one uses Storyboard Pro, sometimes a pencil. It is also important to know how the client is misusing the technology and when to walk away.
In a separate but related internet rambling I saw a video of Neville Brody discussing the need for designers to know the processes in which they work. He said Cassandre and Lautrec had to know what nascent lithographic processes could do to produce their work. Brody embraced web design early on and says it is incumbent on the designer to know what the technology can do to exceed and succeed with it for his client.
The new Kelly book has a number of quotable chapter titles. “The Unabomber was Right” and “Lesson From Amish Hackers.” My favourite Kelly quote from New Rules: “No one can escape the transforming fire of machines.”
As I read, I’ll post more, but I read slowly and I post slower.
See Kelly’s The Technium to the right.
Walter Murch was in town this last night for a screening of Apocalyse Now Redux ( Blu-ray soon) and in a second night, his talk on the future of cinema. It was a very respectful crowd and he had some great things to say about 3D (it goes against evolution-of how we see) the balance between preparation and chance (editing with your eyes closed) and perseverance (on the bad response to Return to Oz, “you have to suck it up and move on.”)
As anyone who has read The Conversations, you will know that Murch is an erudite philosopher on the historical antecedence and art of cinema in general. Urban and witty, he used the discussion to field questions for two and a half hours.
The lecture explained his theory of the fathers on cinema. Beethoven, Flaubert and Edison. Each had an effects Beethoven (the change from formalism to dynamics in music) Flaubert (descriptive to novelistic realism) and Edison, with Dickson, for first combining sound and image.)
The best moment came when an audience member asked about video games and Murch stepped to his already opened Mac to display a series of slides that concisely explained his thoughts. A grid that displays Repeatable and Unique experience against Communal and Individual. Cinema is Communal and repeatable, Theatre is communal and unique, Video, individual and repeatable and Dreams are individual and unique. Games became a graphic covering all of these quadrants. A true editor, I think he prepped for that chance question.
I particular liked his references as a freelancer. He is aware of where his next paycheque was/will come from. He confirms the freelance ethos of the difficulty in being too selective, as he needed to make a living. He’s currently directing an episode of “The Clone Wars.”
There’s a good career overview here. Other than The Conversations -which gets a little esoteric-the essential Murch book is In the Blink of the Eye. Behind the Seen is a great observation of both his working methods applied to Final Cut Pro and how a large budget feature is edited.
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Previs
Here’s a short do on the state of previs these days.
Previs Documentary – Part 1 from Previsualization Society on Vimeo.
Casual Notes 
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