Who helped Cameron Crowe to visualize how he’d shoot the scenes for his latest movie ‘Elizabethtown’? Neil Paddison speaks to Alex Hillkurtz, the storyboard artist behind Crowe’s latest fi lm.

ITH TEN YEARS experience a pile of storyboards in your hand, as a storyboard artist, work- you’re really prepared. Wing on movies as diverse as Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Lost How do you start work on a new in Space, Alex Hillkurtz is the ideal per- project? son to answer questions about what must be one of the most enviable jobs Usually I’ll meet with the director for in the fi lm industry. two or three hours at a time and we’ll go through one scene like this one [the Having just completed work on Eliza- bethtown, which will be released in Because when ‘Usually I’ll meet with the director for Australia this October, Hillkurtz took you’re working time out in January this year to talk on a fi lm there two or three hours at a time and we’ll about his work as a storyboard artist. are hundreds of go through one scene like this one different people So, what attracted you to the job? involved. Every- [the Vanilla Sky car crash]’ body needs to be ISSUE 39 I’ve been a fan of movies forever, and making the same movie; otherwise it’ll Vanilla Sky car crash, see pictures on

SCREEN EDU I’ve always drawn, so when I learnt be just mass chaos. And fi lm produc- right]. We’ll spend a couple of hours that I could combine these two things tion is such an expensive thing to do talking about different angles. We’ll by drawing for the movies, I thought, – an average sort of Hollywood fi lm look at other movies to pull references C ATION ‘That’s not bad, and you get paid for can cost about £100,000 (A$240,000) from other car chases that we’ve seen it too!’ per hour. So, as a director, you want or whatever and then I’ll go away to walk in to a set in the morning and and I’ll draw it. I’ll take a day or two 24 Why is a storyboard important? know what you’re doing. If you’ve got and bring it back and talk again. In ISSUE 39 SCREEN EDU C ATION

25 ‘I worked on Con Air a few years ago and that film has an insane amount of action: explosions, car chases, aeroplanes and army guys running along, and it’s just mayhem all the time!’

the computer allows me some amaz- ing choices. I can draw in layers, so a background can be replaced with the click of a button, and elements can last few years or so, I’ve been draw- be shifted around or scaled differently ing directly into the computer, which within the frame. It’s also great to have I’ve grown to love because of the thick black ink that I can erase if I options it gives me. I use a Wacom make a mistake. tablet connected to my Mac laptop. With the tablet I can draw directly onto Do you have to do a lot of redrafting? the pressure sensitive screen. The software I use is Corel Painter, which On an average film I’ll end up with replicates all the traditional tools I grew about a thousand drawings. But to get up with: pencils, pens, airbrushes and to that point, I will have drawn about that time, he may have thought of paints. It’s really an incredible program, three or four thousand drawings. Half something to add, and maybe I’ll have and I’ve found tools within Painter that of your job is revising what you did first thrown in a couple of shots that I think give the results that I’m after, without time around. may be good. creating that ‘computer’ look. ISSUE 39 What’s the most difficult film you’ve

SCREEN EDU What equipment do you use to pro- It’s always a good idea for me to go ever had to storyboard? duce your storyboards? back to drawing on real paper with real tools so I don’t forget the basics, but I worked on Con Air a few years ago C ATION Technically the only equipment needed to produce storyboards is a pencil PREVIOUS PAGE: PHOTOS AND STORYBOARD DRAWINGS FROM VANILLA SKY THIS PAGE FROM TOP: and some paper, and there are plenty STORYBOARD DRAWINGS FROM 50 FIRST DATES; CON AIR; 50 FIRST DATES. RIGHT PAGE CLOCKWISE 26 of people who use just this. In the FROM TOP LEFT: ALMOST FAMOUS; VANILLA SKY; 50 FIRST DATES; LOST IN SPACE ‘Vanilla Sky is this intense sort of drama, whereas Adam Sandler movies are just kooky! The mood of the crew takes on the character of the film, so on an Adam Sandler film everyone’s sort of relaxed and joking around’

In Vanilla Sky, Tom Cruise ends up on Times Square in New York City and it’s completely deserted. He ends up sort of freaking out and running down the middle of this completely empty street. As I was drawing I was thinking, ‘This is the most expensive shot I’ve ever drawn!’ It was kind of cool because you think they’re going to have to shut down a hundred streets. I think they and that film has an insane amount of movies are just kooky! The mood of had probably one hundred and fifty action: explosions, car chases, aero- the crew takes on the character of cops just blocking off intersections. planes and army guys running along, the film, so on an Adam Sandler film and it’s just mayhem all the time! It was everyone’s sort of relaxed and joking Some of your drawings are pictures a lot of fun, but it was really in-depth around – there’s a much more down- of entire sets, rather than story- and there was so much detail that had to-earth feel. boards – do you have to do those to be thrown in. too? Do you have to take the potential Which film did you most enjoy work- cost of making the film into account I’ll probably do one per scene, instead ing on? when you plan your storyboards? of twenty or thirty storyboards. They

tell you about the colouring and how ISSUE 39 I’d say Almost Famous. We had a re- You really just throw all your ideas the lighting is going to be, how many ally good bunch of people and a good on the page and try not to think too extras, and so on. It’s a more moody SCREEN EDU director. I really liked the story – it was much about the costs, within reason. I drawing that gives a feeling of how it’s a lot of fun to do. Vanilla Sky was fun, mean, you’re not going to start from a going to look, whereas storyboards C too. I got to go to New York to do that. shot in outer space and zoom in, but are really a sequential, editing, camera ATION Also, 50 First Dates. Each film is really that’s your first pass, because drawing angle sort of tool. different – Vanilla Sky is this intense is relatively inexpensive in the grand sort of drama, whereas Adam Sandler scheme of things. 27 ‘Almost Famous [...] had a really good bunch of people and a good director. I really liked the story – it was a lot of fun to do’

Do you get sent to locations?

A lot of times nothing has been of- ficially decided because I’m hired onto a project so early. They don’t know where they’re going to film, so I’ll draw out a scene and then they’ll find a lo- cation and I’ll have to redraw the scene you sort of build up a little group of what’s going to happen and how it’s because it’ll change. people who you recommend if you’re going to happen. busy and who recommend you if (Flicks through portfolio) This is Vanilla they’re busy. Have you worked on any animated Sky, where poor Tom Cruise gets in a films? car and ends up going over a bridge. Are you the only person to work on I’d seen this location before I drew the storyboard for each movie? I did work on a movie that never got that, so I knew really specifically what made. It was so frustrating, but I that bridge was going to look like and A lot of times there’s only one story- worked on it for almost a year – it was I had all sorts of photos to reference board artist per film – it depends on going to star Jim Carrey and it was that, which was a huge help. the film. We were talking about Spider- going to be mostly animated. It starts man earlier and I think they had six out just regular and throughout the How do you get work – do directors guys working on that movie. The entire course of the movie he actually turns call you? movie needed to be drawn because it’s into a fish and spends the rest of the so action-heavy and there are so many film swimming around the ocean, and ISSUE 39 Yeah. I’ve got to a point where I’ve visual effects. It’s so intense that they all that was going to be animated. I

SCREEN EDU worked with a few directors a number really need a lot of people. drew a lot of that, but they ended up of times so whenever they have a new not making the movie. That happens project they’ll give me a call. When I You don’t always draw the entire film. occasionally – they spend gazillions of C ATION first started out, I had an agent who You usually only draw the stuff that in- dollars, then nothing happens! would get me a lot of work and I don’t volves action, or if there are car chases think I could have done a lot without or special effects, where everybody Does it help if you go to university 28 him because he knew who to call. But needs to really have a clear idea of and get a certain sort of degree, if of storyboard artists. I’ve seen some Yeah. That’s the first time one of my primitive software packages that cre- drawings has ended up on screen, so ate standard shots of people and cars, that was pretty cool. I was on set that that kind of thing, but there are just too day as they were sketching that out and many variables that go into creating a I had to give Tom Cruise a little lesson scene for a film, and no software pack- on how to draw, so that was pretty fun! age will ever be able to reproduce all the elements. If I sit down with a direc- In that scene where they’re drawing tor he might tell me, ‘OK, in this scene each other, the director had me do a the helicopter crashes into the build- bunch of caricatures of Tom Cruise. CLOCKWISE TOP LEFT: ELIZABETHTOWN; ALMOST FAMOUS; ALMOST FAMOUS; ELIZABETHTOWN ing, and our hero is thrown out, grab- Penelope Cruz needed to look at this bing onto the rope at the last minute...’ drawing and have a specific reac- There’s never going to be a piece of tion, so I just drew hundreds of these you want to become a storyboard software that has all that information in things, all different. You know, just Tom artist? it to create even this brief scene. The Cruise doing very bizarre things or just artist, working closely with the director, a huge toothy grin or him with a surf- A lot of people say no. I think for me it comes up with the most dynamic way board or whatever. None of them were really helped. I went to film school, so I to show the action. There’s a million on camera, but she would hold these made my own films and learned about ways to tell the same story, and the pictures and she didn’t know what they camera techniques, lighting, editing, personality of the director, the script were: she just cycled through them and everything that goes into making a and the style of the artist all create a and then her reaction would be so film. And I think I use that stuff every- unique set of boards for each scene. A natural. And so that’s what they ended day, because there’s a whole different computer just can’t do it. up capturing on the film. language – you have to be able to talk with a director and you have to What are the best and worst aspects Is there a storyboard artist whose know what all these terms mean. You of your job? work you admire? know, ‘crossing the line’, and ‘dolly- ing’, ‘crane’ and all these technical or The best aspect of my job as a sto- Yeah. There was one guy I met early artistic terms that I use every day. So ryboard artist is that I have a creative on. His name is David Lowery and he’s for me, it was hugely valuable. input into the films I work on. Every worked with Spielberg a lot of times project is different, but directors are and he’s a really great artist. When I How has the nature of your profes- usually open about wanting to hear ide- was first starting out, right after univer- sion changed since you started out? as from others. The best films to work sity, I was production assistant on some on are the ones where it’s a collabo- really bad films and I would just be the I’ve been a storyboard artist for about rative process, and I feel I’ve played guy that made copies and got coffees ten years now, and it has changed some part. There are hundreds of for everyone and I saw this guy and just somewhat in that time. More and more people working on any given film, and thought he had the coolest job. You people are using the computer to cre- I’m lucky in that I have direct access to know, he just sat in a room all day and ate illustrations, and that’s changed the director. We work closely to figure drew pictures and got paid. And he just the style of the drawings. It’s easier to out the look of the film, and how best seemed like he was having fun and I create accurate boards because I can to tell the story we’re setting out to tell. thought, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ import photos to use as a background It’s incredibly rewarding to see a film in for a drawing. I can also add a lot of the cinema that I’ve been a part of. Neil Paddison teaches Media Studies at detail relatively easily. But the overall Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, in nature of the profession hasn’t changed The worst aspect of my job is that it Lincolnshire, England. • all that much. It will always be about can be fairly isolating. Often, there’s communicating using pictures. What- only one storyboard artist on a film, so References ever tools you use to do that are fine, there’s little chance to compare notes Alex Hillkurtz’s career profile: whether it’s a pencil, or a computer. But and learn from others who do the same http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0384021/ it needs to be done fast and it needs to thing for a living. It’s always great to be

be done clearly. That will never change. part of an art department where there Dave Lowery’s career profile: ISSUE 39 are other storyboard artists. You feed http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523204/

Do you think that storyboarding off each other, and your drawings get SCREEN EDU software will ever replace the work better. Elizabethtown: http://www.cameroncrowe. of storyboard artists? com/eyes_ears/films/elizabethtown/ C In Vanilla Sky there is a scene where elizabethtown_cast.html ATION I’m not just saying this because I’m we see a drawing of Penelope Cruz. biased, but I don’t think storyboard- Did you draw that? ing software will ever replace the work 29