Reverse Engineering

Storyboarding 1 Reverse Engineering STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS

The goal of this lesson is to provide students with a greater understanding of the storyboard by having them reverse engineer a segment of a favorite film or cartoon.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES: Upon successful completion of this lesson, student will: 1. Have a fundamental understanding of what a storyboard is and why they are used. 2. Identify the most common camera shots, and understand how they are used and why. 3. Be able to identify and explain the different camera movements 4. Understand and explain different camera cuts. 5. Be able to discuss the fundamentals of staging as applies to their selection. 6. Be able to discuss composition as applies to their selection.

INSTRUCTIONS: Storyboards are essential to filmmaking. Whether we are discussing animation or live action, every film made today is storyboarded first, before going to camera.

A great deal of the direction of any film happens in the storyboard phase of production. The storyboard is a visual blueprint that literally shows anyone involved what they shot is supposed to look like.

However, I do not expect first time students to be able to create even passably good storyboards without first having studied the process, so that is what we are going to do first.

For this assignment you will select a film or cartoon, and from the film or cartoon you will selection a segment that is between 15-30 seconds long.

You will then storyboard this entire segment.

You storyboard must: 1. Be from a segment of film that runs approximately 30 seconds in length minimum. 2. Consist of a minimum of 6 -12 frames (two pages) (this is more important than finding something that is exactly 30 seconds long.} 3 pages would be better but no more than 4. 3. Accurately represent every single shot, cut, and camera movement in your chosen segment. . 4. You must correctly label the type of shot and all camera movements on the storyboards. In a dialogue sequence it is common to indicate what dialogue is being spoken. 5. Be of a character driven story. That is classroom appropriate. Poor judgment is rewarded with a poor grade. 6. You must give me a link to the film sequence you have boarded with accurate start and stop times (this is important. If I don’t have this it’s really hard to grade the rest)

Do Not: 1. Chose a monologue, soliloquy, and long speech for your segment. 2. Chose a segment that does not cut away, or focuses entirely on single shot. EVALUATION: Student work will be evaluated based on the following criteria.

1. Did the student follow all of the instructions for the project. 2. Do you have at least 6-12 frames. More frames = more effort = better grade 3. Are each of the camera shots correctly labeled. 4. Are each of the camera moves correctly indicated/ 5. Is the action and movement of the characters correctly indicated. 6. Is the action clear, readable, and understandable. 7. Is the story clearly communicated in the images. 8. The quality of drawing is good enough for me to identify which character is which is which consistently in every frame. 9. Your drawings accurately represent the film you are boarding. a. Your frame composition matches b. You haven’t skipped anything. 10. You have given me the link.