Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Oh okay. Well I want to storyboard the project but should I storyboard with the shots and blocking that I think will be best? Or should I with the ones that I think will abide with the laws the best, even if that means only one actor on camera at a time?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Given the length of time you've invested and it's your own funds, which don't have a time limit, it would be better to wait until later in the year before thinking about filming. You can then see how things are panning out.

I'm sure people will make Covid 19 dramas because there are some great stories in the middle of it, but your story isn't one of them, you need more than people wearing masks.

Here's an item on making documentaries in 2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entert...-arts-55404163

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Oh okay, but I don't really like making documenatries and want to stick with fiction though, as I feel I will do better there though. I can look at that though.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

He didn’t mean make documentaries Ryan. The difficulties in the video are common. Please try not to take everything so literally. I know it’s hard, but we talk about something, then you totally miss the point.

You care about your movie. You have no fixed timescale, so rather than spoil it and produce something everyone will always label a COVID production, just wait. Make it properly, with a happy cast and crew.

This COVID thing is not a joke, and it’s not something that only happens to other I’ll and frail people. The people ignoring the common sense rules because they don’t think it applies to them. They are idiots. I’ve lost two people in nine months who should not be dead. I really understand how Tom Cruise lost it. Good for him!

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Oh okay thanks. I guess I take things literally because when it comes to filmmaking I am literal about it. I don't take things as jokes in that area. But is that bad of me? Yes I don't want to loose anyone for sure. I just thought that testing everyone per day would be good, but maybe not?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Best not work on a professional film if you take things too literally, because there's often a lot of humour and power games going on. If you take things literally you''ll end up getting lost.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I think I take things humorously a lot better in person, when shooting for sure. It's just if I am asking for advice and someone tells me something or send me something I assume they may be serious. But good point. But I guess having people be tested doesn't do a lot of good then on productions now, or will it help? I don't want to put people at risk any more than other productions of course.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

The problem is that testing is designed to show the presence or absence of the virus at the time of testing.

It's useless to tell you how healthy the cast and crew are, just that at the test time, they were OK, but an hour later, if tested again, they might pass the threshold and fail. The danger has not been reduced. If you did a risk assessment, the test would hardly change the risk level. With any illness where you are infectious before you have symptoms, the test really solve nothing. My wife works in a hospital. She has not been tested once. It was decided that most staff probably had had it early on, and their healthy status is evidenced by the fact they don't feel ill. Testing somebody positive or negative would do what? For new staff there may be a point, but for existing staff - being tested positive would mean going into isolation, when they may well have been infectious six months ago, and just have antibodies. This is why employers have such a hard time. Young people in particular have an invulnerable attitude but the people they may well infect could die? Forget the legal stuff - morally - how would you feel if your production killed somebody - maybe your DoP caught it by the lighting guy sneezing, and he took it home to his elderly mum who has asthma? It would be your fault morally - possibly also legally? If you do not NEED to make the movie now, why do it.

You'd also come on here and say you have a live scene so how do you rewrite it so the two people can get close without being less than a certain distance apart? We'd say don't do it. You'd ignore this and ask if it could be done with a split screen, and how best to do that. We'd say don't do it, you'd then ask about green screening, and we'd say don't do it and you'd ask that as you are going to green screen it and put them closer together in post, would this impact on the realism of the scene - and so on? We know your way of thinking pretty well now.

We have a pandemic. People are dying. Making a movie in your spare time, with an amateur cast, no moment and few resources can wait till it is over. If you did make it, are cinemas in your area actually open for people to watch it?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I think we’re partly to blame. In the previous thread we advised to him not to compose a sound track before filming. While that’s the logical order of production we weren’t suggesting he rush into filming in the height of a pandemic.It’s really funny he seemingly never takes our advice and on the rare occasion he does, he doesn't acknowledge it, instead he draws the wrong conclusion and jumps off into another tangent. He really has knack for getting himself into impossible situations.

Ryan before you replan to death a new approach, maybe you should contact your cast and crew to see if they want to film in a pandemic. If they don’t then that will quickly put this whole idea to bed.

We get it you’re bored, but just find something else to do.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Well I guess I am just worried it will get worse if I wait. Right now it's only five people allowed on a shoot, if it's not a professional production company. Where as in a year from now it could be zero people allowed for all I know. I don't mean to sound insensitive, I mean for jobs in general and feel we might well make business investments now while we can.

As for if theaters will be open to watch the movie, I thought that if I made a feature it didn't have a chance of going to theaters, and thought it would go straight to streaming anyway at best.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Currently, the odds are that life will get close to normal by the summer.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I don't mean to brag, but I really think if we try hard enough, here in the USA we can keep the current situation going til mid 2023.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I guess I just had trouble seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with covid. Well I could just get back to storyboarding it then. And storyboard the shots I actually want, rather than shots for covid restrictions.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Had you already set a shooting date for the script that is the finished, storyboard hardly touched and composer totally confused. It does seem you’re nowhere remotely near shooting so why are you even worrying about changing things. Finish the script. Produce your story boards then fix a date. This means for you, the summer doesn’t it?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Yeah the summer would be nice. I can finish the storyboards then. Out of all the storyboarding programs that are free, is there one that is better than the rest. I've tried a few but they are not as good. Unless the paying ones are worth getting.

I've tried just drawing it myself, but I have trouble keeping the characters looking consistant which can lead to confusion as to which character is which in the more complicated shots.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Practice is the best method of improving drawing.

Just put a distinctive feature on each character, so that they stand out from the others.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

or just write their names literally anywhere on them, or near them.

Yes, shockingly, products that are NOT given away for free are often superior to competing products that ARE given away for free

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Oh well, it's just the paying ones, you can move the characters around in 3d environments where as I just wanted still images. But I guess the paying ones are better for those as well. Is it worth doing the storyboards before having most of the locations yet, or is it still good to do preliminary ones to get ideas of how it will all be, and related to budget do you think?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

If there is no light at the end of the tunnel then we will end up with a much smaller world population, a collapsed world economy, and everyone trying to figure out what their new life will be. Certainly an amateur movie will have no significance to the universe. In which case you won't be making amateur movies in the future. So maybe you should temporarily stop all the endless mental flagellation and instead consider a new hobby, and possibly figure out what you will be doing -- for real -- a year or two from now.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

If you don't know what the locations look like, it's difficult to do detailed storyboards.

You can do rough ones, which may or may not change, but I recall doing a short where the storyboard artist (who later did "Game of Thrones") came down on the location recce. The director talked him through the shots he was thinking of and on the shoot you could often pick the focal length of the lens based on the drawings.

Other storyboards aren't as detailed. just blobs with big noses, while others, produced by ad agencies, had hardly any detail and often ignored apart from key points. The latter were often intended for the clients and the director was expected to do better,on the actual production.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I have never used a PROGRAM to do a storyboard in my life! 3D environments!! Sounds like you want your storyboards to be a movie in themselves. I often have to provide drawings for people to work to. I'm rubbish at art, but plans I am rather good at. So I can draw 2D or 3D plans in various projections using paper, or on a computer. Computers are great, but I learned a long time ago that sometimes the time taken to do them is pointless - the question is who are they for? What will they be needed for? The number of times I have discovered what I was provided with was originally a plan with DO NOT SCALE FROM THIS DRAWING, that got copied and copied each copy distorting the sizes. I'd then redraw it and things didn't fit! a wall clearly parallel wasn't, a clearance height lower in reality so things wouldn't fit. I'd spend hours on a drawing with details that were not needed. A storyboard is able to tell the story, you can see where the camera is and you can see which way it points. You can see who is close, who is distant, how the features fit together - the door on the left, the switch on the wall right, the window with curtains closed, the church visible in the distance. Storyboards answer huge numbers of questions. Crew can set up in the right way, even actors, many of whom cannot read a plan well enough to find the location, can see if they are close to where they should be. Nobody is surprised by the fire engine in the car park - this kind of thing. Then the Director wants things moved a little or a lot. None of this requires high definition computer generated reality, because I've never seen a still that matches the storyboard exactly.

Some people are artistic and have great storyboards, others are almost stick men, but stick men with hats, or holding things, or with happy sad faces? If you have a big production budget then spending money on software might be OK, but you also have to have time to learn how to work the thing. I'm very happy with technology, but my storyboards are four or 8 rectangles on a sheet of A4 in landscape.

Have you some great purpose for really detailed rendering? Whatever you do, they will still be wrong when the camera is looking at the scene and you will need to tweak.

My experience of technology and actors is that you still need to explain. Giving them a piece of paper doesn't work. If you give it to the DoP they will still want to adjust things, the lighting people will still move their kit. Sound won't even bother to look at them, and the other people will glance and still ask questions. Look at the published story boards for well known movies - theyre often scribbles. How many of those had art quality renders?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I'm gonna give this one to Ryan.

programs like frameforge allow you to create or recreate an entire set in perfect detail and pose characters, props etc anywhere. Basically you could recreate (if you wanted to spend the time) a house with correct scale, window placements etc etc.

There's an example on their site of how the DP/director/whataever used it to figure out if a certain sequence on Downton Abbey would work with two locations that were 600 miles apart or something by recreating them and verifying they had enough room in a hallway for a dolly to work etc.

For someone of Ryan's obsessive detail and seemingly endless free time, it might be perfect.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Wow! That's pretty decent. I wonder how difficult it is to master? 800 is a fairly steep price for an amateur though? Petty cash for Downton though.

I think Ryan should buy it and show us the renders, then we'd understand better.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Jeez, didnt know it cost that much but yes its pretty powerful...can even do some rudimentary animation so you can watch a dolly shot or something play out, not just export stills.

Im sure its as difficult as anything else...Pro Tools, an NLE, whatever. Work with it for a while each day for a few weeks and once you know where everything is in the menus and keyboard shortcuts and quickest ways to execute common tasks one could probably do things reasonably fast.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Maybe you could produce Ryans movie as a animated one - he not have to worry about locations and cast and crew and you could dub the audio on? Could be an interesting concept. I've got a draughting app that lets you design rooms, add furniture and things (and people) - and it lets you animate a camera for a walkthrough. Never occurred to me but you could set up a scene like this. It also has lighting options too? Never thought about using this?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Yes it does lighting too. I've only messed with a little bit, but seems very cool if you need that much preplanning detail (which some productions do). Honestly, for anything I'd work on, a scout and some simple diagrams for lighting plans, shot list, etc. would probably do, BUT I'm small time.

Yes, I can see Ryan's movie as an animated piece, sort of a saturday morning cartoon thing. Maybe all the characters are children. I dunno. Just thinking out the box here.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Imagining this made me laugh

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

There are two versions of Frameforge, the Core version and the Studio version. The former would be the one for indies, it's $12.99 per month subscription, if you don't want to pay the $500 full purchase price,

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Joking aside, if the plan drawing element is good enough, I actually could use this to visualise stage sets. The existing stuff does the lighting very well but is limited in the textural detail so people are limited, so while you can do a guitarist, downtown abbey would be tricky! Hmm.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Im sure there are plenty of youtube vids about it and theres a demo/trial you can play with that has limited features and assets (people, props etc)

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Well I also thought about doing an animated movie because of covid, but it was said on here before that animation would cost more than live action shooting.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

They were joking, Ryan.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Yeah I thought so. But when it comes to using frame forge, I have watched tutorials, but are you suppose to print the storyboards on paper after? Or are you suppose to have a laptop on set for reference to the storyboards, instead of paper?

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Literally whatever works for you.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Who is on your distribution list? Will they be able to cope with a screen, as in laptop, pad, phone etc, or does their role mean paper is better? Some folk will already have paper for other things, while others will be using a pad or similar already. For my normal crew of 6, two always want paper, the other 4 don't even have a pen!

One thing - test your preliminary versions on them to see if they can understand them. Never assume people have the skills you assume they have. People are extremely variable!

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

It depends if you're paying people and the time involved in doing the animation. If you can do the animation yourself, it just costs your own time.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

Yes I would have to pay an animator to do it, and I assume that might cost more than having to pay a small production crew to help shoot a movie.

Well I could storyboard in frameforge or something like that, and be ready for paper or latpop depending on what they prefer later, if that's best. It's just that frameforge might be overkill to use, if they want paper, in which case, you do not get the camera movement that frameforge supplies. So maybe therefore a cheaper program might be better if more people prefer paper.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

You're the director, it's mostly for you, rather than other people. You can show the crew the scene on your laptop on the day of the shoot or on the recce, actors won't be be that interested, since they have other considerations than the shots.

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

For my pantomimes, I would have from the production company, accurate plans of the sets and during the rehearsals when the actors got confused about where things would be I'd pull out the folder and show them a plan. 90% of them would instantly glaze over and obviously just not get it, so I'd pull out photographs of the set showing where everything was. So many times we'd get to the real stage and their set for the first time and I'd inwardly laugh when they'd misunderstood everything. All they want is for the director to say you start sitting here, you get upon and walk too here. This is what I meant about giving them what they want. Some on the distribution list may just not be interested or need them.

Ask your self what the storyboard is for - who wants them and what use are they. Stick men and a scribble can be photocopied and cost nothing. Putting hours into a storyboard using software could be a big waste off time (and money).

Re: I'm having trouble storyboarding a movie because of covid restrictions.
 

I would assume itll be him, the dp, a sound guy, and the actors. MAYBE one other grip/electric?