sketches + story

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 18:50:43 -0700

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 18:42:39 -0700

Questions Answered

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:57:05 -0700

OK: how to get in touch with me, things about storyboarding, internships, and drawing style

Anonymous asked storyshots something along these lines:

Hi Emma, What’s the best way to contact you for panel/school project interview/school lecture/to critique my boards/to transfer piles of money to you? Are you in LA?

You can find me on LinkedIn (which has messages) or you can email me directly on gmail at coats.emma . I am in LA.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

my buddy and I created a storyboard for a few short animation films but we don’t know how to find an animator on the cheap. Do you have any good ideas?

Finding an animator on the cheap is like finding a unicorn. It’s entirely possible that it’s mythical - and a GOOD cheap animator is even harder to find. Animation is an extremely time-intensive art. My advice is:
Teach yourself to animate - you can get YOURSELF to animate your film cheaply extremely easily. This isn’t as impossible as it sounds, and pretty soon people will be trying to get you to animate THEIR films. OR:
Write and board a short that’s so magnificently amazing that people clamor to have the honor of working on it. You’ll know it when you do this - you tell someone about it and they want to work on it WITHOUT you asking them to.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Could you recommend some resources for learning how to draw?

Get yourself some printer paper or a sketchbook and a pencil and just do it! You can copy art that you like, you can draw the things around you in life (sleeping pets are nice and easy). You have to put in the hours doing it - no book is going to teach you more than pencil mileage will.

vesiel asked storyshots:

Hey there, saw your askbox was open so I thought I’d throw one out there… I am a storyboard artist as well but so far my gigs have been live-action commercials and music videos. What can I add to my portfolio to show to animation companies? My goal is to board full-time in animation, but it seems I’m currently “stuck” in live action.

Board up some short films, and make sure to pay attention to the “appeal” in your drawings. Appeal is a vague word, but it’s an important element in animation boarding: it’s the drawings that seem to have a life of their own.

uniqueyounork asked storyshots:

Hey, I’ve done seven years of storyboards for ad and live action tv and film…but my style is rough and I have no training in animation or character design. where would you suggest someone start? I’ve tried on my own, sketching out characters, but I know there must be a great book or class that would help me discover this side of my trade. I’d like to expand the fields I can work for, do you have any resource ideas?

Board up your own short films!

Anonymous asked storyshots:

who was the first person in the world

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hello my name is Joy…I want to become a storyboard artist and i looked up storyboard artists at pixar. since you worked at pixar i was wondering how did you get to work at pixar? I am trying to intern there and I keep checking (since nov 2012) their website to check for summer internships that will open up. When should do you suggest I apply for this summer 2013? Thanks for any information.

Internships usually open up in spring - in fact they’re probably open right now. Keep checking and most importantly, keep drawing and storyboarding your own short films! You’ll learn a ton from a Disney, Pixar, or Blue Sky internship, but you’ll also learn a hell of a lot boarding for yourself.

worstwizard asked storyshots:

Hi Emma, I’m starting this quarter at SCAD’s sequential program with the hope of becoming a story artist, and I’m looking for a way to spend my summer productively. Where would you recommend looking for internships? I’m having trouble finding them anywhere but the big feature animation studios where I’m worried about being lost in the crowd… any advice? (my school says it offers help finding them, but summer deadlines are right on top of when I’d be able to start using those services :( )

I don’t know a whole lot about internships, but for animation check out Disney, Pixar, and Blue Sky. Moonbot may be more in your area too. You can always try finding animation studios and emailing them about an internship even if they don’t have one listed.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hi Emma, here is an old buggar question. Storyboarding and flimmaking seem to have taken on an importance of their own. What is your take on when the medium and message become more important than historical fact? I am thinking particularly about Lincoln where the mistakes were silly. By treating it as a fairy tale the message was cheapend IMHO. Your thoughts?

Stories do change through retelling, and even documentaries or history books leave out things that don’t fit the narrative… things often have to be abbreviated or removed from stories in films to streamline them. I think it’s just one of the things that comes with the territory - Disney’s Jungle Book is not much like the book; the movie 300 is not historically accurate; Lincoln is true to the spirit of the story but maybe not all the facts.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hi Emma, i have a question on drawing style. I have been drawing in manga style since i was a kid, and several years ago i found the existence of animation and have been loving it since then. But some time ago i realised that people in animation have this unique/cartoony feel in their drawing/design and i have a hard time achieving that. it makes me wonder what do you think about manga style? and do you have any tips to change drawing style? every time i tried exaggerate,etc it doesn’t felt right

The only problem with manga drawing style is when that’s all you can do - it’s the same with Disney drawing style. It’s best to be versatile. Draw tons of things, stop paying attention to style, draw from life every day and your own style will develop on its own.

bobben49 asked storyshots:

re: anonymous’s question about the lack of fat and ugly lead actresses. I’ve noticed that if the actress is playing a villainous lead like Kathy Bates in “Misery” or Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratchet in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or Charlize Theronmade, made up to be ugly in “Monster,” then they can be fat or ugly! But if they are a romantic lead whether good or evil they are going to be hot and curvy (Marlyn Monroe) thin cool and beautifully unobtainable (Grace Kelly) or Meryl Streep.

One movie that breaks the rule: Muriel’s Wedding (Tony Collette put on 40 lb to play Muriel).

jcruzbra asked storyshots:

hi, I’m a spanish 17 year-old girl and I have to admit that you’ve got my dream job! congrats for everything! I just wanted to ask you what have you studied to get where you are right now. thank you in advance!

I studied animation at CalArts, but dropped out after my first year. The most important thing I did was to keep pushing myself and learning and to never stop drawing - and those are all things you can do on your own, wherever you are.

Hello, Emma! Thank you for ideas and wise answers. First of all, forgive me, my English so poor. I, like many people, dream to work Story Artist in Pixar. But it realy long way, and own writing skill must be on high level. Is any criterion to understand, my idea intresting or not? How to see what realy will be intresting for other people? Sincerely grateful…

Tell it to other people. If you have an idea for a story and start to tell someone else, they will either be bored or interested… that’s a good start. If they’re bored, figure out why!

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Do you know of any reputable online art schools that I can go for an animation or illustration degree through? I’m nowhere near any art schools, not allowed to dorm, so I want to learn as much as I can with the resources available!

Go check out AnimationMentor. It’s not cheap, but it’s a great animation school.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

hi. Just wondering (on average) how many frames did you have to draw on a daily basis for the story artist job (at Pixar)? Did they make you re-draw the same sequences many times, even if you thought they should have been finalized? I’ve heard that an animator (at Pixar) only averages roughly 100 frames a week — true? I’ve also heard you don’t have to animate your frames, an editor does it for you — true? Thanks.

Frames drawn totally varies. Sometimes you’re tying down drawings that have already been done. When rough boarding, it can be anywhere from 50-100/day, sometimes more. You often do a lot of poses, which is essentially animating, but editors cut it all together; all that means is that you don’t have to time the animation.
You do have to go back into sequences many times. Sometimes it’s just to fix certain parts, other times it’s a total re-do. Whether you think they should be finalized or not really doesn’t count for much - there’s ALWAYS room to make something better.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

i’m a korean student. can i go to PIXAR internship?…

I do not know. Check the Pixar website, or send them an email!

Emma Coats | LinkedIn

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:14:03 -0700

Emma Coats | LinkedIn:

My linkedin - because tumblr is terrible with correspondence and facebook is creeping me out. If you want to connect like pros hit me up there.

Some samples of basic basic basic character exploration. Getting...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:22:00 -0800

Some samples of basic basic basic character exploration. Getting specific can make a huge difference with character design and boarding… not that these are super specific. Just a little bit.

Questions and Answers

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:35:29 -0800

Your questions, my answers

Anonymous asked storyshots:

I have a question from the Drawing from films post! What do you think bout Christopher Nolan’s movies? I was thinking about giving Inception a shot.

You can do the exercise with any film. With each filmmaker you’ll start to notice their specific visual style. The most important thing your first time through is to actually do it, so just pick a movie or filmmaker you love — eventually you’ll get to Lawrence of Arabia and it’ll blow your mind.

jtbozz asked storyshots:

hey emma! what’s gonna put me above all of the other applicants for the next story artist opening at pixar? like, what is gonna make ‘em be like “daayumm, hire this guy now.”? I have a ways to go before I apply, but what do they look for other than a rock-solid portfolio and an award-winning personality?

Rock-solid portfolio and winning personality are about it, as far as I know. Tons of industry experience and great reputation are a plus, I guess, but not strictly necessary…!

Anonymous asked storyshots:

My question/s: in your opinion, what’s the difference between a story artist and a director? Can any story artist direct? What about an animator? I have the impression that some of the recent flops in animation are, in some degree, related to poor direction. Thanks a lot. Alberto.

Story artists are kind of like directors for their own sequences - of course you have to defer to the actual director when they disagree with your take, but you’re making decisions about camerawork, acting choices, pacing, and even editing. The thing about storyboarding, though, is that you don’t have to make trade-offs quite as often as when you’re responsible for the whole movie. In a sequence, you may have a moment that doesn’t work, so you try something else. In the grand scope, having a moment that doesn’t work may affect the whole movie. The story artist is playing chess; the director is commanding armies (to put it in the most epic terms).
Recent flops in animation being related to poor direction? That’s a hard thing to say. Once you see a movie being made, you realize how many things can go wrong along the way. It’s a wonder that anything is decent. It’s very rare that you can find one person to lay the blame on.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hey, lately I feel like my drawing skills aren’t good enough, and I’m being a bit paranoid I won’t get into CalArts when I have to start my portfolio in a couple of years. What are some exercises that I can fit into my daily schedule that will help me in the long-run if I do it every day?

Draw from life. Be the kid with the sketchbook. Take it everywhere with you. If you’re in highschool or college, there is no reason not to be filling up a sketchbook every month. Draw your friends, draw your pets. If there’s a community college or university or art studio nearby that offers life drawing, go draw naked people. Failing that, take your sketchbook and a pair of sunglasses to the pool with you. Draw at the zoo. Draw at a farm. Draw cars and bikes and people at Walmart. Draw everythinggggggg. You’ll be glad you did! It’ll build a foundation for you and CalArts loves to see volume.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

How did you break into the business? Ive heard a lot of people say it’s all about who you know, but is there hope for those of us without connections??

Just because you don’t have connections now doesn’t mean you will never have connections. Be friendly, work hard, be useful, always keep learning, and you’ve got as good a chance as any of a career in the animation industry.

Next-five-shots exercise based off this photo. The idea is to...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:50:00 -0800

Next-five-shots exercise based off this photo. The idea is to take a photograph and make up what the next five shots would be, if the photo were a still frame from a film.

Obviously this photo is from a film about fantastically tragic sadness.

Other takes:

@lbtreiman - Fish whisperer

@jtbozz - Beanstalk

@khfr - Mermaids

@santiagocasares - Starfish

Drawing from films Drawing from films is a ridiculously useful...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 10:24:00 -0800

Drawing from films

Drawing from films is a ridiculously useful exercise. It’s not enough to watch films; it’s not enough to look at someone else’s drawings from films. If you want to be in story, there’s no excuse for not doing this.

The way this works: you draw tons of tiny little panels, tiny enough that you won’t be tempted to fuss about drawing details. You put on a movie - I recommend Raiders, E.T., or Jaws… but honestly if there’s some other movie you love enough to freeze frame the shit out of, do what works for you. It’s good to do this with a movie you already know by heart.

Hit play. Every time there’s a cut, you hit pause, draw the frame, and hit play til it cuts again. If there’s a pan or camera move, draw the first and last frames.

Note on movies: Spielberg is great for this because he’s both evocative and efficient. Michael Bay is good at what he does, but part of what he does is cut so often that you will be sorry you picked his movie to draw from. Haneke is magnificent at what he does, but cuts so little that you will wind up with three drawings of a chair. Peter Jackson… he’s great, but not efficient. If you love a Spielberg movie enough to spend a month with it, do yourself a favor and use Spielberg.

What to look for:

Foreground, middle ground, background: where is the character? What is the point of the shot? What is it showing? What’s being used as a framing device? How does that help tie this shot into the geography of the scene? Is the background flat, or a location that lends itself to depth?
Composition: How is the frame divided? What takes up most of the space? How are the angles and lines in the shot leading your eye?
Reusing setups, economy: Does the film keep coming back to the same shot? The way liveaction works, that means they set up the camera and filmed one long take from that angle. Sometimes this includes a camera move, recomposing one long take into what look like separate shots. If you pay attention, you can catch them.
Camera position, angle, height: Is the camera fixed at shoulder height? Eye height? Sitting on the floor? Angled up? Down? Is it shooting straight on towards a wall, or at an angle? Does it favor the floor or the ceiling?
Lenses: wide-angle lens or long lens? Basic rule of thumb: If the character is large in frame and you can still see plenty of their surroundings, the lens is wide and the character is very close to camera. If the character’s surroundings seem to dwarf them, the lens is long (zoomed in).
Lighting: Notice it, but don’t draw it. What in the scene is lit? How is this directing your eye? How many lights? Do they make sense in the scene, or do they just FEEL right?

This seems like a lot to keep in mind, and honestly, don’t worry about any of that. Draw 100 thumbnails at a time, pat yourself on the back, and you will start to notice these things as you go.

Don’t worry about the drawings, either. You can see from my drawings that these aren’t for show. They’re notes to yourself. They’re strictly for learning.

Now get out there and do a set! Tweet me at @lawnrocket and I’ll give you extra backpats for actually following through on it. Just be aware - your friends will look at you super weird when you start going off about how that one shot in Raiders was a pickup - it HAD to be - because it doesn’t make sense except for to string these other two shots together…

Little white mouse out for bloooood

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:14:00 -0800

Little white mouse out for bloooood

Photo

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:36:00 -0800

New Year, big question

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:03:00 -0800

Today I am answering one question:

Anonymous has multiple questions:

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hi there, I’ve been reading a lot of your stuff, and I’d like to have some clarification on your opinions and thoughts. First, what do you like and dislike about Raiders of the Lost Ark? I watched it a couple of days ago and while I enjoyed it, I felt many of the realistic performances wasn’t consistent with the caricatured storytelling and the running time was about fifteen minutes too long for the amount of action in the film. What’s good and could be better in your eyes? What would you change?

What I like about Raiders: the hero who fails & keeps trying. The hero who seems constantly overwhelmed, and gets taken down a peg every time he gets cocky. A girl who matches up to the hero and doesn’t take shit from him.

What I dislike: It’s not something that is hugely meaningful, it’s just for fun - I wish it would be more than that. I wish Marion got to do more after the Well of Souls… I often lose interest after the truck chase (could be what you’re saying about 15 minutes?)

I wouldn’t change a thing, though! I’ve learned how hard it is to make movies work while working on them and directing my own; I could sit and talk about stuff like “That manaical laugh from Belloq is over-the-top at the beginning” but the interesting thing is, if you start moving or removing pieces, the entire thing changes. If the over-the-top villainous laugh disappeared, would the other pulpy stuff feel even more out of place? In a way, the laugh sets your expectations - get ready, this movie is going to be a little over-the-top.

Also dude how arrogant would I have to be to think I could do things better than Spielberg!? The guy’s a film genius! All I feel comfortable saying is what I like and what I dislike as an audience.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

My second question is about Pixar storyboarding, and comparisions with independent work. I do not claim to be an expert on this subject, but from previous readings in other How To books and internet readings, I’ve read that Pixar Storyboard artists make anywhere from 80-150 drawings a minute for a reel with an unchangeable script, with very few creative choices involved. Obviously you’ve been involved with this system, what do you think are the pros and cons with ‘Techncial Storyboarding’?

The creative choices vary. Sometimes (even at Pixar or big studios) you get a general pitch of a scene instead of an unchangeable script. Sometimes you get a script, but the director is open to improvements from you as you go. Sometimes you do have to take the script pages and simply execute them as written, and that can be fun (when the pages are fantastic) or frustrating (when the pages don’t quite work, or when the writer writes something like “a giant space battle happens”).

What it really comes down to is doing your best at what you’re being asked to do, and making sure to ask questions so you understand what they want you to do.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

My third question is about Brave. The core of the movie is about communication. The mother character has accepted her old age, while her daughter is in the heart of youth and they don’t connect; they have different expectations. The mother portions work very well, but the daughter scenes don’t because the writers do not understand the dynamic of an aggressive selfish kid. Merida never learns perspective or recognizing the problems in her community even begins to looking beyond herself. I have a brother who is just like Merida, and my dad criticizes him more than Merida’s mom. One of the things that he will do, is that he won’t talk about his problems to himself, he’ll find a surrogate (Like me!) to dump his dirty laundry on. We went on a 12 day camping trip in the wilderness. Everybody we were with told me: “Why do you put up with such a selfish person as your brother.” Finally, my brother did something to get me really angry on this camping trip, and I finally explained how I REALLY felt about his selfish behavior, and he listened to me, something he rarely does. He said he was sorry, and that I should do more things in my day that I enjoy. Brave needs a moment like that, it happened with my own mother and father. This is a universal emotion that isn’t properly tapped into in Brave.

And finally my actual question: Brave is a movie with a lot of room for improvement; the people who made it do not understand the dynamic happening on the screen. What needs to change about the studio system to allow for more balance and serendipity in an artist’s career? Thank you very much for your time, I love reading all the tips about story you have to share; they are an enormous educational help for a hobbyist like myself, and I look forward to seeing your live action movie, thanks!

Damn, dude! A few things:

You mention your brother. It sounds like you love him, but up until the moment he listened and apologized, he sounds unlikable, unsympathetic (how your dad saw him).

Would you want him to be the main character of a movie? Would you root for him to succeed at what he was (selfishly) trying to do? You understand his motivations, I bet - even understanding his motivations, would you root for him?

The answer isn’t always yes and it isn’t always no. Some movies successfully pull off a selfish character, some movies fail, and some adjust the character to be less selfish/more relatable/more likable to try and avoid the problem.

Your perspective also changes as you get older - if you’re close to being a kid, write this stuff down so you remember it! When you are a kid, your perspective is a kid’s: everything is the best or worst thing that’s ever happened to you, everything has to be dealt with immediately, everything is intense and out of control! When you’re an adult, your perspective is an adult’s: you have ideas about how the world works, you can modulate your response to situations, you can plan ahead and connive, you can take a step back and look at problems from the outside. When you’re a parent, your perspective is a parent’s: I don’t know what this entails, having not been there yet, but it’s definitely distinct from a kid’s. It’s probably difficult to jump back and forth.

I don’t know if you know about the difficulties Brave went through in production - a director change, mentioned here (dig around on the internet and you can find more press in early stages with Brenda, and when she was removed from the film).

To answer your question about what a studio could do: This isn’t realistic, but a studio with nothing to lose. If you’ve got nothing to lose, you can try anything!

Thanks for your words about my film - I’m sure there will be plenty you want to see improved in it, but look for it later this month!

In life I was vermin In death I am a prizefighter

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:59:32 -0800

In life I was vermin

In death I am a prizefighter

The apartment I’m living in now has a floor-to-ceiling...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:39:00 -0800

The apartment I’m living in now has a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows in the bedrooms. Sitting on the floor watching the city go by is relaxing, but watching space would be even better.

"The Cat" by Tove Jansson, from The Summer Book

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:27:00 -0800

nyrbclassics:

(Pssst. Our Tove Jansson collection is currently available at 40% off the retail price.)

IT WAS a tiny kitten when it came and could drink its milk only from a nipple. Fortunately, they still had Sophia’s baby bottle in the attic. In the beginning, the kitten slept in a tea cozy to keep warm, but when it found its legs they let it sleep in the cottage in Sophia’s bed. It had its own pillow, next to hers.

It was a gray fisherman’s cat and it grew fast. One day, it left the cottage and moved into the house, where it spent its nights under the bed in the box where they kept the dirty dishes. It had odd ideas of its own even then. Sophia carried the cat back to the cottage and tried as hard as she could to ingratiate herself, but the more love she gave it, the quicker it fled back to the dish box. When the box got too full, the cat would howl and someone would have to wash the dishes. Its name was Ma Petite, but they called it Moppy.

“It’s funny about love,” Sophia said. “The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.”

“That’s very true,” Grandmother observed. “And so what do you do?”

“You go on loving,” said Sophia threateningly. “You love harder and harder.”

Her grandmother sighed and said nothing.

Read More

I’ve been reading NYBR’s translations of Tove Jansson’s books - Summer Book, Fair Play, and The True Deciever. If you read and liked the Moomin books, with quietly honest & philosophical undertones underneath all the adventure, you’ll probably find something great in these. I’m learning valuable things about being an artist and making art from the characters in these books, approaches to problems I’ve been struggling with.

If you haven’t read the Moomin books, what are you waiting for!?

I’m glad she wrote them. They’re like letters from the big sister you never had.

Questions, answering some questions -

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 23:08:00 -0700

Ways to practice pitching, animation programs, stagnation and sound.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

I just realized I don’t give a shit about working in finance even though I just finished my degree. My real passion is creating really cool worlds (since I was 10) and characters and playin out situations in my head and as of late I’ve started actually writing this stuff down. Any tips for how I could become a Story Artist like you did at Pixar?

Drawing is a huge part of being a story artist, so get cracking on that. Just start doing it, really! If drawing isn’t your thing, write short stories - and finish them. Finishing them is really important, so you can think about what you learned from the experience, and what you’ll do differently next time, and start working on the next thing. If drawing IS your thing, write super short stories and start storyboarding them out.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Do you know if there’s any specific animation software that’s ideal for a Cintiq tablet? I already have an animation program for Mac but it isn’t very good because the rigs come out very stiff and robotic. So I want to go with the hand-drawn approach (of course this is hand-drawn into a computer) for my short film. Any ideas/recommendations? Cause I don’t want to invest all this money into the cintiq and get a mediocre animation program

As far as I know, Toon Boom is pretty good, and they have demos you can download to try out their programs. Check them out!

arythusa asked storyshots:

Hi, Emma! Lately I have been feeling that my story skills have been stagnating. I feel like I have run up against a wall—I know I need to improve on a bunch of things, mostly in story structure, clarity, and pitching, but I don’t know how best to go about it. My usual solution would be to just draw, draw, draw, but presently I am not sure that is the best way to go about addressing my specific story problems.Halp prease?

That’s a tough question… you’re right, drawing won’t help your story structure or your pitch skills. You can really only get better at those by doing - and it’s pretty brutal to do those when you’re struggling with them.

A way to practice & get better at pitching is to take a video of yourself pitching one of your ideas. This is mortifying, but you have to get over that part of it. Then take a video of you relating the plot of a movie you have seen, or a short story you read, or a TV episode you watched. The second video will be a good pitch, I can almost guarantee - this is because you know it exists, you had a response to it, and you are now sharing that response with someone. Watch both, and notice the differences between how you talk about YOUR idea and how you talk about this pre-existing idea.

The best pitch is when you come off like you’re telling someone about the amazing movie you watched the other night, or walking them through a scene you thought was the best thing ever.

Clarity you need outside eyes for. When you get feedback from people, ask them specifically where they bumped or got lost and had to reread your story/ask you to repeat yourself. Do it enough and you will figure out what people are confused over, and you can address it.

Story structure: Get away from the stories you’re attached to. Think about characters who might be interesting, and what they might want. Think about, do they get it? What might get in the way of them getting what they want? What bad things happen to them? What hard choices do they have to make? A structure will usually present itself. It just takes practice to get quick at it.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Loooving your Q&As!! Thank u! Btw, am curious, how sound fits your workflow (scoring and soundfx) and your story development?

When you board for TV, you often have a ‘radio play’ to draw to, so you’ve already got certain music cues and dialogue delivery to listen to. When boarding for features, that’s rarely the case… in my experience, the board artist doesn’t often use sound in their workflow. Editorial gets the boards from the story artist and cuts them to dialogue & sound effects, as well as temp music pulled from soundtracks.

In terms of filmmaking, I’ve learned over my past few projects that it’s never too early to be thinking about the sound of a film. Sound is such a powerful storytelling tool, but easy to forget about during early stages… and production… and part of post… but when you forget about it and have to scramble at the last minute, it definitely sounds rushed and not of a piece with the rest of the film.

After learning that lesson on my short film Horizon, I started to write with sound in mind. Music sets the mood for a film, and the sounds you hear are just as important as the visuals.

Writing as a drawing tool

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:55:00 -0700

Writing as a drawing tool - yeah, that sounds weird. If you wanted to work with words, you’d be a writer, right?

This isn’t beautiful writing, though. This is organizational, planning writing that I’m going to talk about. Writing out a scene beat by beat. Outlining an entire story.

Full disclosure: I’m not a visual thinker.

If I’ve only met you a few times, I recall you in terms of a general impression and descriptive words. I have no picture of you in my head. It’s kind of crazy that I’ve gotten this far in this field without a mind’s eye, but using writing as an intermediary between intention and drawing has helped me a lot. If you’re a visual thinker you probably have your own methods of working, but either way I hope this is useful.

When I jump straight into boards or thumbnailing, it can be easy to get lost or forget the point of view I intended to convey in the scene.

When I work straight ahead - in either writing or boarding - it’s easy for me to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities. The farther down the rabbit hole you go, the harder it is to distinguish which choices are serving your goals, because this option is awesome — wait, and this one is, too. All of them are interesting and worth pursuing, and sometimes you forget where you were going in the first place.

While that exploratory work is useful, it can be deadly when I’m crunched for time.

Not LITERALLY deadly but deadly to productivity for sure.

So that’s where writing comes in.

When I write down where the scene should end up, what each character is doing, that’s one thing I don’t have to constantly grip in my mind. I’ve got it on my notepad, and my mind is freed up to explore within the constraints I’ve set down.

It all seems clear in my head, but it helps to write it down. Seeing the whole thing down on paper gives me a good look at where the disorganized areas are, so I can make adjustments. When I go straight ahead, it’s easy to tell myself I’ll figure it out when I get there… but this brings me to another point:

Writing is so, so much faster than drawing.

I’m not talking about flowery description. I’m talking about basic “she goes there, he feels this, because of this she does that,” etc. You can knock this out in five minutes. Even looking at the bare bones it’s easy to see where you’re losing the spirit of your pitch.

I’d much prefer to find out that I’ve lost the spirit of my pitch in five minutes than an hour later, after thumbnailing the whole thing.

Here’s another advantage: I can write down my plan, approve of it in sound mind, and have that paper with my plan for the scene or story written on it when I am:

tired
drunk
in the throes of self-doubt
seduced by the compulsion to change everything at the last minute
wondering whether this was ever a good idea and what is on TV (very subtly different from the throes of self-doubt)

If you’re not convinced, you’re not convinced.

If you are, here are some guidelines:

When you’re beating out a scene, think about WHY the audience is watching - like, what do they want to find out? Think about what they probably EXPECT will happen (so you can support that) and what ACTUALLY happens (so you can surprise them with it).

Write down everything that happens in the scene. Descriptive words help (because again, when you’re tired and can’t decide what the acting should be, you can look at your descriptive word and just do that).

She looks up, confused.
Above: wasp nest on a tree
Wasps buzzing around it
She is horrified
She runs

For an outline - for your whole story - things are a little different. A general guideline I use for writing out an outline is that each of the following gets a paragraph:

the concept of the story
who the main character is
what is her place in the world
what goes wrong (inciting incident)
how does she try to fix it (act 1 break)
brief description of complications (act 2)
what really goes wrong (midpoint)
low point
resolution (act 3)

It seems counter-intuitive that almost half of the outline would be setup for the story, and that the end would be just one paragraph, but this really does work and make sense when you need to see your whole story in just a few pages.

So next time you have a story idea, try writing some things down before you start sketching your favorite moments. Maybe you’ll like it.

A 1 hr talk by Michael Arndt (writer of Little Miss Sunshine and...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:17:00 -0700

A 1 hr talk by Michael Arndt (writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 - Oscar win & Oscar nom respectively). He’s great at breaking things down and clear explanations… and he’s great at explaining endings.

Interestingly he talks about how he was watching a kids’ beauty pageant on TV and how it would be great to see a little fat girl get up there and you think she’s going to embarrass herself but that she would be great… so in a certain way he held that idea of the end and worked backwards into the rest of the story.

This week: tough questions

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:38:00 -0700

This is like Dear Abby, but my only expertise is in making stuff up.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hi Emma, Something I’ve noticed in the movies a LOT is that male leads seem to be allowed to be ugly, homely, or fat. This very rarely seems to be the case with female leads. Sure, there are exceptions: America Ferrera’s roles in Ugly Betty and Real Women Have Curves, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toni Colette in Muriel’s Wedding, etc. Can a female lead be ugly, homely, or fat, and can that movie be successful? Why aren’t more female leads fat?

The entertainment industry is a balance between creativity and business. If you look at things from a business perspective, you see that people like to look at glamorous, conventionally attractive people, and so you push for stories about glamorous conventionally attractive people.

If you look at things from the creative perspective, you feel that people connect with complex, relatable characters, who are struggling through dramatic situations… no matter what these characters look like.

Can a movie with an ugly or fat female lead be successful? You answered the question yourself, with examples - the answer is yes. Is it easy to get made? Probably not. Probably it is a real struggle with the business side to get checks written to get the movie made. Probably it is an exhausting struggle.

The films you mention were director-driven and I would venture to say that having the lead be unglamorous was a fight that the director fought and won. The thing is, though, that making movies is so freakin hard to do that you sometimes have to save the knock-down drag-out fights for what is really important to you. On these movies, I imagine the representation of the women was really important to the directors… so they fought for it. Maybe other directors would have compromised and done something differently.

What I take away from this is that if I don’t see what I find important and worth fighting for represented in movies, I am probably going to have to work my way into a position where I can be the one fighting for those things to be in movies. Frustratingly, there is not much you can do talking about it online… but fortunately, technology is making filmmaking cheaper and more accessible than it has ever been before.

Finding something you care deeply enough about to make a film about it is tough. Maybe you have already found something. What is the movie you want to see? Could you imagine yourself making it and fighting for what is important to you to see?

Anonymous asked storyshots:

I have several stories in various stages of completion but the main one I am currently working persists in steering itself in a Ghibli-esque direction. Any advice? Let it grow as it seems intent? I’m struggling to find an artist who can bring my vision to life. Thanks for the blog, really useful. - @eidenbeware

My advice would be follow it and see where it goes!

On the front of finding an artist who can bring your vision to life - this may come across as harsh, but if you are looking for an artist to do brilliant work, you are most likely looking for a collaborator, not someone to execute your vision. You want someone who can make what you have even better - and in order to attract talent of the caliber that can make your project really fantastically great, you should focus on making the story really excellently great. Focus on making the story the best you can possibly make it, and when it’s time to find an artist, look for someone who is already doing what you will want them to do. Already drawing things the way you imagine… and give them room to play with the great stuff you’ve set up.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

If someone had a full time job and could only eke out about an hour a day of learning time, what would be a good way to go about it? Advice on maybe planning out a regimen for each week or something like that would be appreciated, as well. (Also, I’m aware that an hour a day is woefully anemic.)

Pursuing anything on the side of a full-time job is super hard, I’m sure you know. One hour is not a lot. I’m trying to think of what I would find useful… maybe if you are interested in screenwriting, you read a script in your hour on one day, and then on the second day you write what you noticed/admired/learned/are critical of about it?

If you’re interested in drawing, just free drawing for an hour is a great exercise. It can be frustrating if you feel like you’re not good enough, but sometimes putting yourself in the frame of mind of “as long as I’ve learned something, I’ve succeeded” can make you feel better about doing terrible drawings. It’s not the drawings that count, it’s the practice.

Does that help? I would say it’s probably more useful to find a way to break up ‘doing’ into chunks of 1 hour rather than doing something like finding 1 hr videos or reading articles… Doing is the real hard part.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Do you offer workshops on story, or do you know someone else of equal caliber that does? I’m not after creds or long, expensive programs, but since I’m transitioning from one world (journalism) to this one AND since I mainly work solo (on the U.S.-Mexico border), it would be super great to learn storyboarding techniques specific to film & fiction & also meet a few other potential/future collaborators in an intensive workshop setting. Thx! devin

I’m just getting started in the idea of doing story workshops, but Matthew Luhn (story guy at Pixar) has been working with VanArts on the Pixar Artists’ Masterclass Tour where he explains the story process in animation and leads story exercises. Something like that would probably be really useful. I’m sure there are other workshops to be found online, and if you are able to make it to CTN that would be a great place to meet people & learn from them!

I don’t know of any story bootcamp kind of thing specifically… but I hope those suggestions help!

And here is one where man, I don’t even have to say anything. This is awesome:

sharpdreams asked storyshots:

Not a question, just a quote I wanted to share with you. This came to mind when you answered a question about salary. Back in my long-ago theater days, my favorite professor (Davey Marlin-Jones) said, “If you do a job for the money, you’ll always be underpaid.” He died about eight years ago and hardly a day goes by when I don’t think of some bit of wisdom he left behind.

Late question Monday

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:24:00 -0700

Have some more answers to your questions… your many, many questions

adams10nc asked storyshots:

How do I get permission to repost your “22 Rules of Storytelling According to Pixar?”

Just repost them, that’s how it works on the internet! I would be happy if you’d link back to my twitter account, @lawnrocket , where I am continuing to post story stuff. Pixar has requested that if you post it, you not call it “According to Pixar”, since they’re not actually Pixar’s sanctioned rules or anything.

misterkevinoh asked storyshots:

Say you wanna make a movie through Pixar, but the material seems a bit dark and unmarketable for children. Would Pixar still make it if the material was good?

So… film is a business. Especially films with upwards of $100 million budgets. Say there are two movies: A & B. Movie A is unmarketable and dark, with an R rating. Movie B is funny and colorful and G rated. Movie B is guaranteed more money at the box office… why? Because children want to see it, and when a child sees a movie, a parent goes with them. That’s two tickets (at least) bought instead of the one that an adult will buy for Movie A.

That’s not to say that unmarketable dark movies don’t get made… but they don’t get made with the budgets you usually find at animation studios. ParaNorman, which is darker (and also lower-budget) than most animated kids’ movies, is still colorful and funny.

There’s this thing we say in animation: Why does this story need to be animated? Animation is so expensive that there had better be a good reason. If it could feasibly be made in liveaction, maybe animation isn’t the right medium for that story.

I can’t answer for Pixar, but those are some of the forces in consideration at big studios.

timtomwho asked storyshots:

Are you a self taught artist or formally educated? What were some of your biggest obstacles when it came to getting your career off the ground?

I’ve had 3 years of formal education: kindergarten, third grade, and freshman year of college at CalArts. As a kid, I homeschooled; after dropping out of animation school, I continued to learn about animation, illustration & story, all self-directed learning.

Biggest obstacle was just not being skilled enough. That’s one everyone struggles with.

The internet is a great resource for teaching yourself almost anything. You can find people who are already doing what you want to be doing, and often they are passionately posting their work. Mark Kennedy’s blog Temple of the Seven Golden Camels is a great resource if you want to work in story; Matt Williames is a great resource if you’re interested in 2d animation. All it takes is a little digging to find people like this in any field.

Eventually you get to the point where you are doing all you can and you’ve plateaued, and then the attention of someone experienced really helps. Ronnie Del Carmen, Enrico Casarosa, Ted Mathot, and Mark Andrews all gave me critiques which helped me enormously in knowing where my weaknesses were and where to improve. Professionals will sometimes also become an advocate for you inside a company, once your skills are up to par, and that is a huge help.

Basically, just practice and improve as much as you can. When you plateau, find someone to tell you why your work sucks. Practice and improve. Rinse and repeat.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Do you happen to know any Imagineers that have blogs, similar to yours, that I could follow and learn from? — emily

Sorry, I don’t… but if I were you I’d dig around on Google or Reddit to see if I could turn anything up.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Having not gone to one of the big animation or art schools, what’s the best way to break into storyboarding?

Just start doing it, honestly. If you can’t get hired to board someone else’s film, board your own. Beat out short stories and figure out how to tell them visually. Track down people in your area or online who want to do what you want to do and egg each other on. Nobody hires just for potential… you’ve got to show them you’re already on the way to realizing your potential.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Have looked everywhere, but can’t find it. (Animation Guild, job postings, friends in the industry, etc): what’s the salary range for a story artist/ storyboarder.

There’s an animation industry wage survey in the sidebar of this Animation Guild page. Honestly though, don’t get into this for the money, because that comes and goes. Get into storyboarding because you love storytelling and love drawing. If your feelings for those things are anything less than love, you will probably be really frustrated.

weirdellis asked storyshots:

I’m trying to transition from games to cartoon/film storyboards. Can I get a critique of my current blog where I showcase my boards that I’ve done. I’m getting set to do new samples and a new blog to showcase things. I’d like to be mindful of what I could improve.

Give me a link to your blog and I will try to get to it!

Anonymous asked storyshots:

I was wondering if you notice any bad habits or characteristics that beginners might have. Are there things a story artist/filmmaker/writer/director does that just scream “AMATEUR”? Are there also things that you wish people would do more of? ~ b

Things that call out amateur in storyboarding:

- staging characters against a flat wall

- Letting limitations in draftsmanship limit shot choice/camera angles

- Breaking the 180 rule

- Drawing 3/4 downshots for an establishing shot (camera up in the corner of a room like a security camera).

- Shoe leather (unnecessary travel shots/poses).

- Drawings fussed/labored to get ‘right’.

Really what you want to see is just clarity, a point of view, and someone being playful with the scene they’re boarding. Sometimes that takes a ton of work to get to; sometimes it just happens.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Being a writing person all my life (with an interest on cinematography), I recently joined a drawing workshop, and once I get enough confidence I’d like to learn storyboarding. Probably you got already asked about this loads of times, but which books would you recommend that focus on storyboarding?

Again, not a book… Mark Kennedy’s blog. Mark is a story guy at Disney, and his blog is an amazing resource for people looking to learn about story art & visual storytelling.

Anonymous asked storyshots:

Hi Emma, My name is Ivan Stojanovic and my question is: Do you prefer thumbnails like Glen Keane in storyboarding?

I am not 100% sure what you’re asking? I like how Glen Keane draws… but the way he draws isn’t how I draw. I do thumbnail out sequences before I storyboard them…

sketches + story

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