Practical DV Filmmaking-Storyboards and Visual Tools

The book Practical DV Filmmaking by Russell Evans is a guide to DV film production. The book covers all topics from pre to post production giving advice on the best ways to achieve the best effect when producing DV video. The section of the book that I found most helpfull for the Digital Video Production brief that is going on at the moment was 'Storyboards and Visual Tools'.

The section begans by explaning the importance of planning your video in a visual style so that when it comes to the production of the video every shot has been though about in such detail that the viewer will be able to see the meaning behind every shot. there is a quote from film professor Haig P. Manoogian,

"It is often remarked that people listen but do not hear. What is true of our hearing is also true of our sight. We see, but do not percieve. The successful filmmaker must see for us [and] must open our eyes, provide meaning for what we see and thereby break through our isolation."

I think this statement is very true and a very important part in making a video. For example in one scene there might be several key compnents that are vital to the understanding of the scene and a viewer may not notice these components by a simple camera angle but mutilple shots including close-ups may be needed to gain an understanding of the ideas behind the scene.

The article explains that as the stortyboard is the 'blueprint' for a film it is vital that every shot/angle is covered in detail to provide all of the information needed in the film, including sound, music, images and the effect that each of these have when juxposed with one another.

The article helped me with one of the issues that i had when createing my own storyboards which was the detail of the drawing i thought that a fantastic piece of artwork was need to give the producer an idea of how the scenes were going to look but the article states that the images created only need to show a clear precise image from which another person could go ahead and create the film. it also states that it is best to use a bold, black maker pen when creating a storyboard as it has more impact than that of the pencil with which most people would create a storyboard.