Cinematic Storytelling: Final Product

Hey all! We're just about done with Cinematic Storytelling. All that's left is to add sound effects and color to my final project. Man, this part was tough, but I think it turned out well. In my mind, I could see this story taking place with this song playing in the background:

Anyway, here are my fully colored storyboards, complete with sound effects, dialogue, camera movements, and shot descriptions!

And that's my final for Cinematic Storytelling! I hope you enjoyed seeing the progression. I'm all caught up now, update-wise, so keep an eye out for drawings from my next class, Advanced Life Drawing for Animation. Wish me luck!

Until next time.

Cinematic Storytelling: Dialogue

Hello again! This time around, we're going to look at creating dialogue and introducing it into a storyboard.

My first assignment for this class was to create a series of 5 different characters of all ages, genders, and lifestyles and try to create dialogue that felt natural to them. Next, we had to create a short scene using mostly dialogue full of subtext, in which characters say one thing but visual cues give the words different meaning. You can find both posted below.
Note: any plagiarism of these stories (for any reason) is illegal and can lead to severe punishment if you get caught. So if you came to my blog just to take my ideas, think twice and try to be creative on your own, because you're only cheating yourself if you steal my work.

Character Dialogue Exercises

Jake Thornton, 4, somewhat precocious, yet childlike in his mannerisms.

• “Hey! That wu-nt vewy nithe.”
• “I dun wanna go to the growthery thtore!”
• “When I gwow up, I wanna be a ath-tro-nut!”
• “Mommy, why do girlth have wong haiw?”
• “I am a supahewo! Cappan Thtwongman!”

Sarina Valdez, 16, bubbly but a little dim.

• “Awmigawd, that was the dumbest class EVARRR!”
• “Like, do you think Mike will ask Rachel to the prom?”
• “You can buy shoes on the internet? Ohmigosh, no way!”
• “I wanna ask Travis to come to my party, but ever since he dumped my BFF it’s been sooooo awkward.”
• “Let’s go to the mall!”

Bryan Peterson, 72, grandfatherly.

• “Just because you’re blue today doesn’t mean the sun won’t shine tomorrow.”
• “Phew, that takes me back!”
• “Kids these days, they don’t get nearly enough sleep.”
• “Tell ya what…if you help me weed my garden today, I’ll take you out for ice cream.”
• “A family and a good pipe are all a man really needs.”

Yvette Umelautte, 33, strict (and successful) businesswoman.

• “Harrison, I want those reports on my desk by tomorrow, no excuses!”
• “I will be meeting with the head of the European branch today. I trust that no one will do anything to tarnish our image.”
• “Clippinger, do you have the files for the Trinity contract?”
• “You have to understand, Michaels…I’m simply looking out for my company’s best interests, and I’m afraid letting you go falls under that category.”
• “If I catch one more person playing Farmville on company time, I will make sure that farming will be all he or she is qualified for.”

Peter Grayson, 22, outgoing, relaxed in his mannerisms.

• “Hey bro! Wanna hit up the club later?”
• “Man, that was a great set.”
• “Awesome! Next round’s on me!”
• “Oh man, I think Sheila’s gonna kill me.”
• “Whoa, I was hammered last night…hey, where’d this tat come from?”

Not-So High School Sweethearts

FADE IN:

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

PAUL and SANDY sit on the bed, facing each other. They are hunched over a stack of papers, talking. Paul keeps glancing surreptitiously at Sandy.

SANDY

I just can’t seem to get it! I thought chemistry was supposed to be all about making liquids change color and explode. Why do we have to learn all this math?

PAUL

You’re just making this more complicated than it is. You are a smart girl, you just don’t want to do any work.

SANDY

Well, duh! Why do you think I’m having you help me?

PAUL

I’m not always going to be here to help you whenever you need me, Sandy. And you’ll only be able to rely on your looks for so long in life.

SANDY

Flatterer.

PAUL

Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it.

SANDY

Whatever. Can you at least explain this formula to me?

Sandy points at a page. Paul shifts position to see better, ending up directly next to Sandy.

PAUL

Alright. Let’s see here…

Paul reaches down towards the book, accidently brushing Sandy’s hand. Paul immediately pulls his hand back.

PAUL

You know what, I think we’ve studied enough for the night.

SANDY

What? But we’ve only been at it for half an hour! Besides, we have a test on Monday and I know I’ll flunk if you don’t help me!

PAUL

I know, but if we keep trying to overload our brains with chemistry tonight, we’re less likely to retain it come Monday.

SANDY

I’m starting to think that you don’t actually understand anything on this subject.

PAUL

Your words hurt, Sandy.

SANDY

Whatever. It’s just so frustrating, you know? I try and try to understand this stuff, but it’s like a foreign language. Have you ever faced a puzzle you just can’t seem to solve, no matter what you try?

Sandy picks up her papers and walks out of the room. Paul gathers up his materials and begins to follow, pauses.

PAUL

(quietly)

You have absolutely no idea.

I had a lot of fun coming up with those. So much so that I've been thinking about writing some more. As of right now, though, I don't have much time, so it'll have to wait until life slows down a bit.

Now that I had a sense of how to create dialogue in a scene, next was to add it into my storyboard. This proved to be a bit tricky, as I had intended for Cat Nap to be entirely silent. However, I managed to scrape together some good lines of dialogue, which I will now post.

Like I said, not a lot, but it works pretty well. We're not quite done yet, though. We still need to add some sound effects, music, and a little color!

Until next time.

Cinematic Storytelling: Camera Movements

Hey all! This time I'll be posting some assignments relating to camera movements within storyboards. We learned about multiple types of camera movements, including:
Pans
Dollies
Zooms
Tracking
Tilts

We were first asked to create a story of conflict between two characters, in which one character enters a scene, is confronted by another character, a fight breaks out, and the loser runs out of the cameras range. My storyboard turned out to be a bit..."out there" when compared to the other students work, but I enjoyed creating it. I wrote out shot descriptions next to each panel.

Now that we had an idea of how to create camera movements, our next step was to add them to our storyboards, along with accompanying shot descriptions. I added several frames to help the scene flow better, including a transition between Harry getting up off the floor and into the bed.

My storyboard is pretty much completed shot-wise, but we still have some finishing touches to add. Next time we look at a very important facet of modern cinema: Dialogue!

Until next time.

Cinematic Storytelling: Character and Personal Profiles, plus an Updated Storyboard.

Hey all! This time, I'm going to post the profile I was supposed to create for my character, listing off personal quirks, background, likes and dislikes...anything and everything to give my character depth. I also will be posting a profile I created about my best friend, as well as a portrait of her that I drew as part of the assignment (her name, as well as those of her friends, have been changed to protect their identities). Well, here we go!


Character Profile - Harry Dreesen


This seemingly unremarkable man is Harry Dreesen, a 29-year old with an average body and a seemingly unremarkable demeanor. He was born in a suburb of Chicago. His parents are fairly laid back with him and his two sisters, Libby and Ashley. As the middle child, Harry had a fairly unremarkable childhood, though he always had difficulty living up to his older sister Libby’s example. He made fairly good grades in school and did not have any trouble making friends, but he is a fairly private person, with only a few close friends. His best friend Shaunda is one that he had met in college, and while Harry had a fairly big crush on her, he respects her wishes not to be committed to a relationship at this point.


In the scene, Harry has come home from a long day at work and is extremely tired, wanting nothing more than to sleep. Because he is inattentive when he’s sleepy, Harry does not realize that he has disturbed his cat, who seeks to disrupt Harry’s sleep as he disturbed it.


Harry works at a firm that specializes in packaging and marketing. He works as the secretary for the head of public relations, using his easygoing nature to help screen calls and spread the department’s policies to the other workers. He lives in a small suburb of Chicago in a modest but modern home. It is sparsely decorated, with family pictures in the entryway. The kitchen has some artistic photos of food and wine on the walls. In Harry’s room, a poster of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as Doctor Who and Amy Pond adorns the wall over his bed. There is also an Xbox and a laptop on a desk on the wall opposite his bed, with a 22” tv hanging on the wall above the Xbox.


Harry loves to go out for sushi and drinks every week, though he also enjoys eating Italian and Thai food. Harry can not stand intolerant people, and will verbally fight back against any instances of discrimination regardless of circumstances. While his fervor is admirable, more often than not it gets him into trouble. However, outside of those situations Harry is incredibly laid back, and he likes to joke around and generally get along with everyone.


Harry has black hair that is usually worn spiking forward slightly, though not overly so. He usually wears jeans, a white t-shirt, and a button-up shirt, which is frequently left unbuttoned. At work, he wears khaki dress pants and a nice button-up shirt, usually red as it’s his favorite color. Harry frequently listens to oldies and indie music, though he sometimes listens to country as a guilty pleasure or when he’s feeling stressed.  He likes action movies and comedies, but refuses to watch horror movies. He talks quietly, but his voice has a mellow tone that carries well and makes people stop to listen.


Harry is fairly reserved with his emotions, but he unconsciously runs his hand through his hair when he’s feeling nervous or uncomfortable. He also ends most of his questions with a drawn-out “eeh” sound.




Friend profile - "Kim"


What is the character's backstory? This must include the following:
What are the character's name, age, gender, and body type? "Kim", 22, female, slender
Where was your character born? Madison, Indiana
Who are his or her parents or siblings, and what was his or her childhood like? "Kim" lives with her mother and father when she’s not in school. Her sister, "Mary", is usually in Korea teaching, but occasionally comes home for family get-togethers.
Who are his or her friends, and who is his or her significant other, if any? Apart from me, "Kim" has several friends at college, including the ridiculously accident-prone "Lacy" and her kind but easily frazzled roommate, "Alice". "Kim" doesn’t have anyone she considers a boyfriend, though she constantly gets teased for hanging out with me so often.
What does your character like to do in his or her spare time? "Kim" loves playing video games (mainly Tales series titles), watching anime, and watching crime dramas.
What is your character's job? "Kim" does not have a job at present, though she is planning to apply at the campus bookstore at her college.
Where does he or she live? She lives in St. Charles, MO when she is not in school, which is located in Maryville, MO.
How is the character's home decorated (name at least three personal items found in the place where the character lives)? Her apartment is fairly plain, though she has stuffed animals on her bed. She has a picture of her family over her desk, and she has a dolphin curtain on the shower.
What is the character's favorite food? Being Korean on her mother’s side, she loves Korean food, especially Kimbap.
What annoys the character most? In her own words, “stupid people.”
What is your protagonist's personality like?
Is the character bubbly, surly, funny, quiet, stupid, clever, shy, bold, or something else? "Kim’s" fairly quiet when she doesn’t know someone, but is very boisterous around people she knows. She is extremely intelligent, and has an extremely large sense of humor.
What color is the character's hair? Dark brown
What sort of clothes does the character wear (personal style)? She mostly wears loose-fitting clothes like sweats and boy’s t-shirts, though she occasionally wears jeans or nicer clothes for special occasions. She refuses to wear dresses or skirts, as well as heels of any kind.
What is his or her favorite color? Green
What kind of music does he or she listen to? Her favorite groups are Celtic Woman and Girl’s Generation (K-Pop girl’s group). She also loves country and showtunes.
What's his or her favorite movie? Tossup between Tokyo Drift and Fast Five.
How does the character speak (fast, slow, with a stutter, with an accent, quietly, or loudly)? Fairly quickly, with a midrange pitch and occasional pauses as she searches for words.

After creating our character profile, we were told to redraw our storyboards to include details which were mentioned in our character profiles. I used Photoshop and my VisTablet to create the storyboards, since they gave me more control and a cleaner product than pencil and paper would. I also ended up deviating from my original storyboard, deciding that my original idea would take up far too much time.

I hope you like it! I had fun creating it. Next time I'll be talking about camera positioning and shot types, so stay tuned!


Until next time.

Cinematic Storytelling Final Project: Initial Storyboard

Hey all! This time, I'll be posting my rough storyboard for my final project. Our goal is to create a scene that relies purely on visuals rather than dialogue and narration. Let me know what you think!

I had a lot of fun creating this. I'm still struggling a bit with keeping character consistency, but hopefully the point came across.

Until next time.

Cinematic Storytelling: Creating a Visual Story

Hey all! This post is going to introduce my Cinematic Storytelling class by talking about my first two assignments for it. My assignments were:

• To create a visual story in which a male and female character meet on a park bench and encounter conflict, without any dialogue,
• To create a visual story in which a character sets out to deliver a gift to his or her fiancee or fiance, encountering at least 10 obstacles along the way.

This post is going to be a little bit different, because there are no pictures to go along with the stories. Hopefully you're the type of viewer who likes reading, because that's what you get to do now, ha!

Before I post my stories, I have to say that any plagiarism of these stories (for any reason) is illegal and can lead to severe punishment if you get caught. So if you came to my blog just to take my ideas, think twice and try to be creative on your own, because you're only cheating yourself if you steal my work.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy my stories!

Picture Perfect

A young woman, Sarina, is sitting at the end of a bench in a park, her face scrunched in concentration as she reads a novel. Seeing a movement out of the corner of her eye, she looks to her right and sees a somewhat handsome young man (Rob) settling in at the other end of a bench. Rob is holding a sketchbook and a pencil, and gives her a small smile and nods in greeting. Sarina returns his smile and returns to her book as Rob begins drawing on his sketchpad. 

After a moment, Sarina looks up from her book, looking at Rob with an expression of curiosity. Rob looks up, catches her eye, and quickly looks down again, looking embarrassed. Sarina closes her book and scoots next to Rob, moving her head in order to see what is being drawn. Rob spots her trying to look and tilts the sketchbook away from her. Sarina looks up, surprised, and sees Rob raise his eyebrow in an inquisitive manner. Sarina grins sheepishly and moves away a bit, returning to her book. However, her foot is twitching, and it’s easy to see that she wants to know what he’s drawing. 

She looks up again within seconds and sees that he has returned to drawing. She looks back down and waits for a few more seconds, then glances back in Rob’s direction. Keeping a grip on her book with her left hand, she slowly reaches out her right hand towards the sketchpad. Rob shifts his position slightly, and her hand instead brushes on his knee. Sarina pulls her hand back as though electrocuted and peeks up at Rob’s face. Rob has stopped drawing, and is staring at her with challenging eyes, as though daring her to try it again. Sarina lowers her eyes apologetically and scoots back to the other end of the bench, turning away from Rob slightly, though not before catching a glimpse what looks like a smirk on his face. She buries her face in her book, blushing furiously. Her eyes stare unmoving at the page, and her right hand is clenched in a fist on her leg. 

Within moments, Rob forcefully tears the page out of his sketchbook, crumples it up, and gets up, dropping the paper on the seat behind him as he slinks away, hands in pockets. He does not look back. Sarina waits for a few seconds before pouncing on the paper, opening it up and staring eagerly at the picture. On the paper is a beautifully drawn portrait of Sarina’s own face, with the words 

“(555)867-5309 

Call me! Rob”

written underneath. Sarina stares at the page, a bewildered expression on her face, before her mouth quirks upward and she laughs to herself, folding up the paper carefully and placing it between the pages of her book. She closes the book, stands up, and starts walking in the opposite direction as Rob, chuckling to herself. Rob, meanwhile, is strolling slowly away, smiling happily.

Birthday Blitz

Wally leans back in his office chair in his cubicle and stretches his arms out, yawning. He glances at the clock on his desk, which reads 4:45 pm. Scratching his head, he leans forward again and begins to type on the keyboard. A flashing icon in the corner of his computer screen catches his eye, and as he turns his eyes towards it his fingers stop tapping on the keys. He sits frozen, staring at the words “Calendar appointment – Birthday dinner for Cecily, 7:30 (do you have your gift?).” Smacking himself on the forehead, then pulling his hand down his face to rest on his chin, Wally sits back in his chair, looking both horrified and angry. 

When the clock changes to 5:00, Wally closes down his computer, grabs his briefcase, and sprints from the room, shouting a quick farewell to his shocked-looking secretary. As he exits the building, he slips on a patch of ice, landing hard on his backside. Grumbling furiously, Wally picks himself up and hobbles over to his car, fumbling for his keys. In his haste, he drops the keys and, as he flails to catch them, accidently kicks them under the car. Wally pounds his fist on the car’s roof, then lies down on the cold, wet ground and scrabbles for the keys, finally grasping them and pulling them out. 

Pulling open the door, Wally sits down and starts the car. He immediately sees that his fuel gauge is on “E.” Looking livid, Wally pulls out of the parking lot and begins driving down the street towards the nearest gas station. He pulls into a stall and gets out, reaching for his wallet in his pocket. His expression changes to one of shock, and he turns out his wallet-less pocket. Wally starts searching the car furiously, finally finding the wallet between the seat and the center console. 

After filling up his car, Wally drives to the local mall, glancing at his watch the entire way. He reaches the mall, only to find the parking lot jammed full. Wally screams in frustration, but then sees a car pulling out of a parking spot at the end of the row he’s driving down. Looking pleased, Wally drives up to the row, only to see that the driver of the car pulling out is an old woman who is clearly having difficulty navigating her station wagon out of its spot. Drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, Wally looks again at his watch. 6:15. After another moment, the old woman pulls away from her parking spot, and Wally maneuvers his car into the newly vacated area. Wally gets out and walks quickly but cautiously to the entrance, as though remembering his spill earlier. 

Upon entering the mall, Wally consults the map and makes his way to Shower and Figure Factory, where he finds a lotion set Cecily had mentioned wanting a few days prior. Wally walks over to the register to pay, but when he swipes his card it’s declined. The cashier swipes it again to be sure, then asks if Wally has another form of payment he can use. Wally looks in his wallet, and pulls out its only contents: a hundred dollar bill. The cashier takes it, then calls over a manager to make change. Tapping his foot impatiently, Wally glances back at his watch, which reads 6:32. The cashier hands Wally his change, and Wally thanks her with a grunt. 

After making his way back to the car, Wally throws himself inside, starts the car, and pulls out of the parking lot onto the street. Driving down to the highway, Wally edges into the flow of traffic. After only a few moments, though, the traffic slows to a crawl. Frantic now, Wally has no choice but to wait until the flow of traffic takes him to a turnoff, which he takes. Winding his way through half-familiar streets, Wally manages to navigate back to his and Cecily’s apartment complex. 

Pulling into his spot, Wally grabs the gift basket and carries it inside, glancing down at his watch. 7:20. Reaching their apartment, Wally open the door, taking a few steps into the room before stopping in surprise. Cecily is sitting in her chair by the television, wearing pajamas. Cecily looks up at his entrance, eyebrow raised as she takes in his still-wet shirt front. Wally holds out the gift with a confused expression on his face. Cecily looks at the gift, then laughs. She points to the calendar on the wall, which has the words “Cecily’s Birthday Dinner”…

on the same day next week.

And there you have it! Hopefully you enjoyed my writings. Next time I will be posting a storyboard for what will be my final project. See you then!

Until next time.