Copyright Taylor and Francis 2013

Transcription

1 Frank Gladstone Frank Gladstone has been working as a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher for more than thirty years. From 1973 to 1989, he managed his own Emmy award-winning studio, Persistence of Vision, Inc., producing commercials and educational films, and has since worked for the feature animation divisions at Disney, Warner Bros. IDT/Starz Media and DreamWorks. He is currently President of his own animation consulting firm, Gladstone Film, Inc. 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 (or just to be good at storyboarding for their own films)? Training? Books? Lectures? Websites? Other Sources or kinds of experiences? Frank Gladstone: Draw well and be able to simplify designs. Understand perspective and staging. Study film and become very familiar with cinematic fundamentals (especially basic editorial principles) and have a solid background in literature. Q: Are there special characteristics that you find professional story artists have in common? What makes the successful ones successful? 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? Frank Gladstone: Have a thick skin! Do not be adverse to collaboration and change. Not unlike aptitude at sports, much of story-telling and even humor can be learned (or at least practiced), but some of the ability is innate.

2 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) Frank Gladstone: There are many, many more than ten. Most of Hitchcock s films, all of David Lean s work, Murnau s Sunrise and The Last Laugh, Welles Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil, King Kong (the 1933 version not the new one), Casablanca, much of Martin Scorsese s work, especially Raging Bull, Chaplin s City Lights, Bad Day at Black Rock (for composition), Sunset Boulevard. For animation: Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo, Toy Story, Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Satoshi Kon s Millennium Actress and most of Miazaki s films. Q: Do you have any favorite sequences what are they? Frank Gladstone: The mountainside car chase from To Catch a Thief, The opening and closing sequences from City Lights, the barn raising scene from Witness, the ballroom sequence from My Fair Lady, the opening sequence from The Last Laugh the Marseille sequence from Casablanca, Make Em Laugh and Singin in the Rain from Singin In The Rain, Lampwick s transition from Pinocchio, Waiting for the Cat Bus, from My Neighbor Totoro and the flying sequences from Kiki s Delivery Service, maybe 10,000 others.

3 Q: When you look at student story boards? What do you think is most often lacking in them? What were some of the big lessons story artists are likely to learn when they first began as a new hire story artist? Frank Gladstone: Often, students don t know what to draw and what to leave out. Boards are often too complex, too rendered. Of course, there are some who don t put in enough definition. There are often problems with camera placement and direction, editorial transitions, etc. Students need to be aware that a storyboard is not just as series of connected illustrations. They are, rather, part of a film and must work that way. Q: Can you describe your recommended process? Do you thumbnails, what drawing materials to use? Do key shots first and then work in between or do work straight ahead. Frank Gladstone: Thumbnail, thumbnail, thumbnail! Then take a shot at doing a rough board from beginning to end. Go back in to add transitional shots that you might have missed. Show the board to others for feedback and make additional corrections. Finally, tie-down the drawings. I prefer a very broad, soft-lead pencil. Others like Sharpies, grease pencils, etc. Nothing too dainty. Many today are using digital tablets. I think, going forward, that will be how most boards are done.

4 Q: What are some of the main obstacles one has to overcome when storyboarding a scene? (in order to avoid the scene from being boring, confusing, too complicated, etc.?) Frank Gladstone: Understanding the story: The biggest obstacle, I think, is for the artist to stay on track and not digress from getting the story points across. Many times, artists will get caught up in being clever or innovative, and forget that, first and foremost, there is a story to tell. Secondarily, are problems with drawing and cinematic issues. Finally, at studios where board artists have to pitch their sequences, pitching skills can be real obstacles for folks who are naturally shy. 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? Frank Gladstone: Book illustration is, by nature, done with the knowledge that the audience will spend time with a drawing that has to get the idea of the story across in one image. Comic illustration, while sequential and often cinematic, unlike film, can be selective in servicing continuity and transitions. Storyboards, on the other hand, will not be seen by folks other than the production crew and are illustrations of cinematic and dramatic continuity rather than illustrations designed to be perused.

5 Q: How would you describe the difference between story boarding for animation and Live Action? Frank Gladstone: Live action boards are mostly about action or visual effects sequences and usually not about acting. Where actor are represented in live-action boards, it is more about placement in the shot that expressing emotion. Animation boards deal not only with action sequences, but also with the emotional ones. They are meant to represent not only the environment, camera placement and shot selection, but also give the initial performance cues to the voice actors and the animators. Q: What are some of the tricks you use to prevent pitfalls - to keep your ideas and images fresh and dynamic? 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? Frank Gladstone: Always allow some incubation time, but also give yourself a deadline for commencing the board. When I am stuck, I give myself time not to think about the problem (usually overnight) and then come back to it the next day. I also find that watching an old movie or two (not necessarily a favorite or a classic...most any movie will do for me), usually gives me some ideas.

6 Q: How much does one work by themselves and how much does one work in a team? Should you think about story structure a lot or is it OK to just work intuitively and refine things later? Frank Gladstone: Story structure comes first! It does not matter if one is working alone or as a team (which is the usual state of affairs for large-scale productions). The story must be understood and accounted for. I have witnessed, many times, whole feature films going completely off the rails because folks were being intuitive, being oh-so-clever and actually losing the story in the process, which would ripple into other people s work as well. One can be inventive within a sequence, but must always understand where they are and push the story forward. Q: Should Storyboard artists worry about editing transitions (fades and cross dissolves) or match cuts and pans at this stage of the process? Frank Gladstone: Yes! This may change at the animatic stage, but a story reel has to work as a film as well. Q: What would you say about staging? Are there any basic principles that you think on needs to apply to their work? Frank Gladstone: Good staging is fundamental to clarity in one s boards. It is part of knowing what to draw and what to leave out and is an elemental part of visual storytelling. Cinematic use of space, perspective and placement (both camera and actor) should be accounted for. This is where a fundamental understanding of film composition comes in.

7 Q: How many times is one likely to re-draw their original drawings in other words, approximately how many drawings do you actually make before you complete one 100 panel story sequence? Frank Gladstone: This depends almost entirely on whom you are working for. Q: Do you think of a storyboard artist as an actor, cameraman, editor, designer and/or all of these things in your job? Frank Gladstone: Yes. Q: Have I left anything out? Frank Gladstone: Probably. Q: How does one address the emotional content of a story as well as the specific action or event? Frank Gladstone: By understanding story context, subtext and acting. This is one of he reasons many board artists were animators first. Like animators, storyboard folks have to understand acting (acting workshops help), and how acting choices help to establish both narrative context and subtext. Of course, like actors and animators, board artists should develop good and consistent observation skills.

8 Q: How important is presentation? Should one refine their drawings a lot before they are presented to the bosses? Frank Gladstone: I actually find that finely detailed boards are often difficult to read. Better to be clear than polished. As the famous architect MiesVan Der Rohe once said, Less is more. Q: Who are your heroes (past and/or present) in the storyboarding world? Frank Gladstone: There are many folks that I think are great, but to try and list them all would be not only difficult, but I would, inevitably, leave some terrific folks out. Heroes is a loaded concept, anyway, though I think that everyone would agree that the late Joe Ranft would fit that particular description. Q: What about drawing? Does one draw any from observation, photo and film references? Does one usually find they have to overstate the action, acting, etc in order for it to read in the storyboard or is it OK to leave that problem to be solved by the animator? Same with issues like lighting and atmosphere and environment, should one address these or is that Layout s domain? Frank Gladstone: To me, it makes no difference what sort of reference one uses to get to a state of clear and comprehensive drawing. I ve addressed the clear drawing issue as well as the other aspects of cinema, in prior questions and believe that all should be part of the boarding process. Storyboards are the jumping off point for everything that follows. Leaving things for other people to do without at least an initial plan from which to develop is, I think, an invitation for loss of focus and disconnected decisions later on.

9 Q: Can you tell me anything about your experience with the script writing, treatment and general conceptual story building process you ve been a part of. Frank Gladstone: After nearly thirty-five years in the business, I have done all of that. I ve seen some ideas I thought were terrific land in feature films and television shows and watched others, just as good, simply fade from view before ever seeing the light of day. One never knows what ideas will survive and find favor with the general population. In the end, none of that really matters. What does matter is solid fundamental artistic and story-telling skills, a willingness to collaborate, patience with the process, and a strong sense of humor (a real saving grace for me).