Sullivan, Alexander, Mintz, and Besen
Jim Story: former Disney Feature Animation Story Artist
Instructor of Story at University of Central Florida, Orlando
Q: What background skills do Storyboard artists need to be successful? What
would you tell a student to do to prepare themselves for this profession?
Jim Story: Let’s put drawing skills aside for the moment, for me it’s most important to be an interestedCopyright observer of the Taylorworld and theand life goingFrancis on around 2013 you. Story’s boil down to human personalities in relationships, if you don’t have any insight into different
types of personalities or how human’s interact by way of analytic experience, reading and
observation then it will be difficult for you to create interesting characters through their
behavior in relationship.
Think of it as if you are an animal behaviorist writing about a troop of baboons
without ever having observed the social structure of baboons. They are primates, I am a
primate therefore I can write about them.
Experience and observation has to be thought about, analyzed and broken down
into motivation, action and reaction, then it can be translated into ammunition you can
use is creating believable characters in believable relationships.
Character is made evident by behavior – posture, walk, clothing, and little pieces
of business that are unique to the character and give the character dimension.
Observation supplies us with this kind of “business” we can give to a character.
For example in Sylvain Chomet’s Belleville Rendezvous, Madame Sousa (who
wears glasses) has an endearing habit of pausing, staring open-eyed for a moment Sullivan, Alexander, Mintz, and Besen
thinking, and then very quickly shoving her glasses back up her nose with her index
finger and acting.
This is a wonderful film to view over and over. It is entirely a Visual Story as
there is no meaningful dialogue.
Secondly, your brain is a computer, and the old saw “Good data in, good data
out” holds true. “No data in, trash and junk out” is the result of not paying attention to
this truth. A strong understanding of what story is about – that is what it does for us Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 beyond entertain us - and story structure is essential. Visual Structure goes hand-in-hand
with Story Structure. See and read story in the form of film, plays and novels, then
analyze what you read and see. Look at drawing, painting and illustration and analyze
them, they can give you compositional, stylistic and dramatic input.
Q: Training?
Jim Story: I didn’t have formal training; my apprenticeship was served at the movies,
reading comics and the funny papers. Now there are lots of schools both public and
private that provide training. Some studios provide internships but require a high skill
level before being accepted and there is a great deal of competition the a few openings.
Research the school programs carefully before selecting.
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Q: Books?
Jim Story: Books about story, both written and visual can provide the basis to help your
analysis.
Some that I think are important and use in my teaching:
Joseph Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces
Robert McKee, Story
Bruce Block, The Visual Story Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013
Q: Lectures?
Jim Story: Both Robert McKee and Bruce Block have lectures that you can attend.
Q: Websites?
Jim Story:
ASIFA Hollywood – www.animationarchive.org
National Film Board of Canada (Animation) – www.nfb.ca/animation
Yale Film Analysis – classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/index.htm
Animation World Magazine – mag.awn.com
Q: Other Sources or kinds of experiences?
Jim Story: Museums of all kinds (human art and artifacts and natural artifacts) are both a
source and an experience. Travel, widely or locally, see environments experience places
and draw while you are there.
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Q: Are there special characteristics that you find professional story artists have in
common. What makes the successful ones successful?
Jim Story: The story artists I’ve known are of all types. Some are good with humor,
some with drama, some with action; some are extroverts, some are introverts but all are
students of life, people and film. Success is made from talent, drive, opportunity and
your skills as a visual storyteller.
Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 Q: Is great story telling ability or humor something one can learn or is it an innate
skill that some people have and others do not?
Jim Story: You can learn the principles of storyboarding and depending on your
motivation, you can become very good, but it is a gift that artists have in varying degrees.
Whether you have a little or a lot, like everything else it depends on what you do with it.
My name is Story but that hasn’t genetically endowed me with extra-liberal amounts of
storytelling mo-jo.
Q: What is your top ten list of “must see movies” to help a person understand good
film/animation-film construction and story telling? (to make one a better storyboard
artist)
Jim Story: Being Visually Literate in both live action and animation is extremely
important for a story artist.
Film preferences are largely subjective.
Here are the top 11 Animated Films of all Time voted by ASIFA members
And compiled in 2001. Notice there is only one feature (Allegro Non Troppo) Sullivan, Alexander, Mintz, and Besen
on this list.
Allegro Non Troppo, Bruno Bozzetto
Cow, Alexander Petrov
Creature Comforts, Nick Park
Dnevnik Diary, Nedeljko Dragiç
Jeu Des Cudes Elbowing, Paul Driessen
Girl’s Night Out, Joanna Quinn Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 The Man Who Planted Trees, Frederic Back
Satiemania, Zdenko Gasparoviç
Street of the Crocodiles, The Quay Brothers
The Street, Caroline Leaf
To this I would add these recent features that are personally meaningful to me. They
rekindled my faith in the future of animation:
Spirited Away, Hiayo Miazaki
Belleville Rendezvous, Sylvain Chomet
Iron Giant, Brad Bird
I also recommend a through study of the history of animation, now over 100 years old,
and in particular Canadian (the Canadian Film Board has a wonderful site) Western and
Eastern European animated film and Asian animated film.
For live action, see the AFI’s 100 Film List.
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Q: Do you have any favorite sequences – what are they?
Jim Story: Shamus Culhane’s sequence of the Dwarfs marching home from the mines
singing “Hi-Ho” from Snow White. It was the sequence that galvanized my 8 year old
mind and turned me to a life of the imagination. It still is amazing: eight different
personalities; eight different walks; eight different pieces of business all choreographed
so it seems to be absolutely natural.
The sequence in Chomet’s Belleville Rendezvous when the three sisters meet Madame Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 Sousa under the bridge as she is playing the spokes of a bicycle tire and the sisters go into
a very funny rendition of the title song. This brilliantly sustains a believable
serendipitous moment that sweeps you up in the seeming spontaneity. This is what every
story event should be like.
Q: Have you looked at any student storyboards? What do you think is most often
lacking in them?
Jim Story: I have seen many as I’ve been teaching storyboarding for the last four years.
Here below are a few of the most prominent student stumbling blocks:
1. A tendency to “lock down” the camera and to view everything at the same size as
if it were on stage.
2. An inability to be expressive with pose and with facial acting.
3. An inability to use visual contrast in line and tone producing story drawing that
are “hard to read”. Sullivan, Alexander, Mintz, and Besen
4. A lack of visual interest by way of camera angle or staging that results in flat
drawings.
5. An inability to use acting as to involve the viewer and to motivate the camera.
6. A lack of understanding of the role of visual continuity.
These stem from weak drawing skills and not having been really engaged in looking at
film or reading and thinking about its visual construction.
Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 Q: What were some of the big “lessons” you learned when you first began as a “new
hire” story artist?
Jim Story: Biggest Lesson Learned: When you pitch a board, don’t describe what’s
there, it should be self-evident if you have done your job. Supply what’s not there- the
animation, energy, voices, sound effects.
Q: How much freedom do you have to interpret how a scene is to be presented?
Jim Story: That varies with the state of the story. I’ve begun before scriptwriters were
hired, with just the scenario and I’ve worked from a script. I’ve not been bound to the
script and there is some back and forth between writers and artists.
Q: Are you encouraged to explore unique and adventurous solutions to story telling
problems or are you given very specific guidelines and expectations.
Jim Story: At Disney, the door was always open to a different take on a scene or
sequence.
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Q: Can you describe your process? Do you thumbnails, what drawing materials do
you use? Do you do key shots first and then work in between or do you work
“straight ahead”.
Jim Story: I like to begin with lists of things. I write down possibilities and thoughts and
thumbnails until I have an approach firmly in mind. I then, write the continuity down
drawing for drawing as fast as I can as I play the movie in my head. I may amend some Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 of it as I replay the movie and review what I’ve written. I then begin with thumbnails
working down my list and revising as a go if I see the need. Lastly, I do the up-size
drawings roughly at first and put them up on boards and view them as continuity. I will
call one or more people in and go through the boards with them and listen to suggestions
and revising before I do the final drawings.
Q: What do you find are the main obstacles you have to overcome when you are
storyboarding a scene? (in order to avoid the scene from being boring, confusing,
too complicated, etc.?)
Jim Story: Trying to make something more entertaining or interesting or funny than it
needs to be. You can get much too carried away with cleverness.
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Q: How would you describe the difference between story boarding for film and any
other kind of sequential artwork like comic books or book illustration?
Jim Story: A storyboard deals with a moving image. You don’t have the time to study
the moving image that you have with comic or book illustration. A book or comic
illustration can say many things at once because you have the leisure to look in every
corner but a moving image is just about that moving image. Form Psychologists tell us
that humans can only deal with one small portion of a moving picture plane at a time. So Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 say one thing at a time and say it with clarity.
Q: How would you describe the difference between story boarding for animation
and Live Action?
Jim Story: I’ve not ever done a live action storyboard but I will venture my take on it. In
live action, you have to exploit what’s possible, but animation is the realm of the
impossible.
Q: What are some of the “tricks” you use to prevent “pitfalls”- to keep your ideas
and images fresh and dynamic?
Jim Story: I avoid “convenient” solutions. Convenient solutions don’t take an audience
anywhere. I always try to come at a problem from an unexpected direction; I don’t say
that I’m always successful. The unexpected is what an audience pays for though.
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Q: How do you research or find ideas when fresh ideas are not coming easily? How
do you wake up your brain, get inspired, and solve that “artist’s block” problem?
Jim Story: Perhaps I’m lucky, but my brain loves to generate ideas, but I need to give it
something to work with. I give my brain plenty of visual information and think a
problem through thoroughly, then I leave my brain alone and sure enough when I least
expect it, the solution will present itself. My little organic computer, like every
computer, does work better if it has plenty of data and I leave it alone to crunch. Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013
Q: How much do you do by yourself and how much do you work in a team?
Jim Story: I work by myself until I want input and then I rely on others in the story crew
to help me see what I’ve done in a new way.
Q: Do you think about story structure a lot or do you just work intuitively and
refine things later?
Jim Story: I analyze the story structure to understand the part my scenes have in it.
Once I know what the focus of my scenes or sequence should be then I can structure
them better.
Q: Do you worry about editing transitions (fades and cross dissolves) or match cuts
and pans at your stage of the process?
Jim Story: If they are important to the continuity, meaning or impact. I use them when I
need them are tools to help make a scene more effective.
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Q: What would you say about staging? Are there any basic principles that you
apply to your work?
Jim Story: Ask yourself: What is this event about? What do I want the audience to see
and get out of it? Then stage it clearly, being mindful of your answer. Make it
unquestionable in the minds of the audience where they are to look and what they are to
see. “The moving finger writes and having written moves on!” don’t let the audience
miss a word. Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013
Q: How many times are you likely to re-draw your original drawings – in other
words, approximately how many drawings do you actually make before you
complete one 100 panel story sequence?
Jim Story: This is before I show the scenes or sequence to the head of story or the
director as they will both have notes to address and may continue to have notes that cause
me to re-draw.
On average, each of my story drawing is done at least twice.
Q: Do you think of yourself as actor, cameraman, editor, designer and/or all of these
things in your job? Have I left anything out?
Jim Story: Yes, I look at each event from all of those perspectives. I’d add lighting, art
direction and set decorator.
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Q: How much do you think about the “emotional content” of your story as well as
the specific action or event?
Jim Story: The emotional content is uppermost in my mind when I plan any action or
event. I think of my job as chief supplier of that aspect of a film experience because it is
more a visual and musical value that of dialogue.
Q: How important is presentation? Do you refine your drawings a lot before they Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 are presented to the bosses?
Jim Story: My first presentation is extremely important to me. It’s here that I validate
the work that I’ve done on behalf of the story. If I don’t do everything I can to pull off a
positive reception of my boards then I’ve undermining my work and myself.
Q: Who are your heroes (past and/or present) in the storyboarding world?
Jim Story: The one and only Bill Peet of course Mary Blair, Vance Gerry, Ken
Anderson and recently Brad Bird,
Q: What about drawing? Do you draw any from observation, photo and film
references?
Jim Story: I draw from experience, and get photos and film reference when I need it to
put over a drawing.
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Q: Do you find you have to overstate the action, acting, etc in order for it to read in
the storyboard – or do you leave that problem to be solved by the animator?
Jim Story: “Pushing” action is the essence of animation and of storyboarding. The
drawing has to “emote” as much as the animation and more since it doesn’t move around.
Q: Same with issues like lighting and atmosphere and environment do you need to
address these or is that “Layout’s domain”? Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013 Jim Story: If lighting and layout are important to an event, I include my take in order to
give my drawings clarity and visual impact. If layout alters it or ignores it later, I’ve still
done my job as a story artist.