From camera angles to character development
February 17, 2025 12:12 PM   Subscribe

“Storyboarding is an integral part of the process,” said the exhibition’s curator Melissa Harris. “Visually setting a scene and then plotting out its ebbs and flows may help the film team consider relationships between characters, figure out how to advance the narrative, or realize how to convey the essence of a particular segment.” from From ‘Raging Bull’ to ‘Un Chien Andalou’—A New Show Traces Cinema’s Greatest Storyboards [ArtNet]
posted by chavenet (4 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love this, chavenet. I've always been fascinated with story boards. I enjoy them artistically but I also admire the amount of pre-work that filmmakers put in. I am an impatient person and am slightly in awe when I see that, say, an artist has done a whole bunch of preliminary sketches and then a bunch of tests with different shades of paint etc. Storyboards fall into that category as well, this meticulous planning and thinking to bring the final work into the world.
posted by Well I never at 2:32 PM on February 17 [6 favorites]


Seconded. This is a great find and a testimony to the often-unseen effort that goes into making so much art seem effortless.

Not for nothing, but that shot from Wings of Desire reminded me of two things:
(1) When my spouse and I were first married, we had one Netflix account. This was before streaming, and before personalized accounts, and so it was just one big joint list of movies. I was stacking the list with German stuff I couldn't find at the local Blockbuster, but ... I was a little timid to put something with "Desire" in the title on that shared list, without any preamble or explanation. "It's about angels, babe, I swear!" Would've much preferred they left the title Der Himmel über Berlin
(2) I think it's actually the sequel "Faraway, So Close" where I still have no idea what actually *happens* onscreen, because the "wait, was that Peter Falk" gets sideswiped by "hang on, that's actually Gorbachev" and "Willem Dafoe?!?" By the time I recovered from all of that, I had forgotten to actually watch the movie.
posted by adekllny at 5:23 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]


Saul Bass's storyboards for Psycho feel like reading a graphic novel, they're so detailed, vivid and energetic. (But also see Harold Michelson's for The Birds!)
posted by mittens at 5:39 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]


This post has inspired me to create a Fanfare chat post! God willing I'll get to it today.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 1:34 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]


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