Storyboard artists draw scenes before filming student production ‘Only Human’ to create visual for cast, crew

With a stack of index cards, junior Ashley Thomas sat in her residence hall working on the storyboard for the all-student production, “Only Human.”

On the front of each card, a pencil sketch depicts the camera angle of one particular shot in one scene of the film. The scene and shot numbers are written on the back.

Thomas and two other storyboard artists each drew more than 300 storyboards in preparation for the film.

“It’s a lot of framing and knowing what’s going to be in the scene,” she said. “You have to have that eye for it. It’s all got to be in your mind.”

Though the three artists lack experience in storyboarding, Thomas said it helps to get a new perspective on filming.

“Filming has a tendency to become redundant,” she said. “People not in film have a completely different set of ideas.”

Majoring in photography, Thomas said she has never done storyboarding before but wanted to expand her skills outside of fine arts.

She said she heard an announcement about getting involved in the Bloomington Artists Agency, a student-run production and management company, at a networking night she attended and became involved in the “Only Human” production from there.

Each scene of the film is broken up into shots, Thomas said. The three storyboard artists were assigned several scenes based on how many shots the scene contained, she said.

“One person did not get a great deal more,” Thomas said. “Everybody does a mix of all of them.”

The storyboard artists for the film went to separate meetings with the production team to discuss each shot they were assigned, said fellow storyboard artist and junior Cristina Vanko, who is also an illustrator for the Indiana Daily Student.

“They would argue over the scenes,” she said, “and listen to everybody’s thoughts.”
Vanko added that the producer makes the final decision, and most of the drawings are simpler than what people might expect.

“You don’t need as much detail as you think you need,” she said. “I just used pencil and cardboard, nothing fancy. If I did, I’d probably still be working on them.”

Vanko said she received an e-mail from a fine arts adviser and attended the first call-out meeting for “Only Human.”

Interested in comics, Vanko said she decided to get involved because storyboarding is the closest thing to comics offered on campus.

Vanko said the main difference between storyboard drawing and drawing for a fine arts class is students do not get the chance to make things up while they are drawing in the classes.

“You get to be a little more creative with storyboarding,” she said. “You’re not just drawing an apple in front of you.”

Storyboard artist and junior Alysha Balog, who is studying graphic design and is interested in comic book drawing, said she received an e-mail from an academic adviser about the call-out meeting for the film. Before the film, Balog said her only storyboarding experience came from a three-minute project she did for a class.

Storyboards help actors, directors and others involved in the film get on the same page, Balog said.

“They focus the film a lot,” she said. “It makes it easier for actors to see what looks they’re going for.”

The cards are similar to a miniature version of what the crew is going to be seeing, Thomas said. However, the shots might still change during the filming of the scenes, she said.

“I didn’t realize how much it would help,” she said. “It’s not like just anyone can draw a scene – you have to include every detail in the background. It takes artistic ability to envision and recreate the scene.”