Crane: A moving shot that uses a camera crane to move the camera through the air, allowing movement on an X-Y-Z axis.

Pan: A side-to-side movement of the camera, where the camera rotates around its base. The resulting motion is what you would see if you stood in one place and turned your head from side to side. Often used to follow a figure across a frame.

Tilt: Similar to a pan, but the camera tilts up and down. Analogous to tilting your head up or down. Usually used to reveal something, like a character who just ripped his pants.

Pedestal: Raising or lowering the camera, usually by adjusting the tripod on which the camera is mounted. Creates a “rising periscope” point of view. Very rarely used in features.

Zoom: A lens movement from a tight to a wide shot (zoom out), or a wide to a tight shot (zoom in). Good for that “caught-on-tape” look.

Dolly counter zoom: A shot where a dolly and a zoom are performed at the same time. In the resulting shot, the framing of the image stays the same, but the depth of field changes dramatically. Objects in the background foreshorten and appear to float backward. The most famous example is in Jaws, when Roy Scheider sees the shark in the water on the crowded beach. His POV of the shark is a dramatic dolly counter zoom.

Slow reveal: Usually a pan, tilt, or dolly that reveals something that at first wasn’t apparent. A woman laughs at a table, pan over to reveal that her husband just spilled his wine.

Computer-Generated Storyboards

There are a good number of computer-based previsualization tools that can make your storyboarding work much easier. Hand drawing storyboards can take forever, so even if you have great drawing skills, these programs let you create professional-quality storyboards with detailed sets, characters, and symbols in a fraction of the time it would take to make them from scratch. Even if you’re an experienced illustrator, the convenience and speed of CG storyboards can be a real time and money saver. You can draw some key frames by hand and rely on the software to fill in the rest.

Many storyboarding apps include the ability to automatically import your script from a screenwriting program, sophisticated Web-based storyboard sharing, and more. At the high end, previsualization apps help you create a full 3D virtual set that mimics your location and lets you program camera movements with the real limitations of the physical space in mind. They offer several different rendering styles and have advanced expandable libraries of objects, characters, backgrounds, and so on to help you create very specific environments. At the lower end, storyboarding apps let you quickly build a 2D environment by dragging and dropping a set of predrawn objects, characters, and backgrounds that are often customizable.

102 The Digital Filmmaking Handbook, 4E

Here are some of the top apps that are currently available:

nPowerProduction’s StoryBoard Quick: Available for Mac or Windows, StoryBoard Quick has been around longer than any other dedicated storyboarding app. Providing a simple interface, the program lets you drag and drop characters, props, and locations to create nice-looking colored storyboards. Although primarily a 2D environment, characters and certain objects can rotate in three dimensions. Because it offers robust import of screenplay formats and export of finished boards to print or the Web, StoryBoard Quick is an excellent solution with a very short learning curve (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4

StoryBoard Quick provides an easy-to-use interface for creating your own storyboards.

nPowerProduction’s StoryBoard Artist: Offering sophisticated 3D storyboard generation, StoryBoard Artist allows you to create more complex storyboards than you can build with StoryBoard Quick. In addition, the program lets you create animatics complete with multi-track audio. An excellent tool for any type of previsualization, StoryBoard Artist is especially good for complex action and special effects scenes (Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5

StoryBoard Artist provides a true 3D environment for quickly building sets, blocking positions, and adding storyboarding symbols.

nFrameForge 3D Studio: Also a 3D storyboard app, FrameForge is built around the idea of creating a 3D environment that mimics your set and features sophisticated controls for the built-in cameras. You can easily build a 3D model of your actual location using blueprints or measurements, set up the lighting with models of real cinema light sources, and choose from a list of popular high-end cameras. You can even choose the f-stop, the focal length, and use accurate 3D models of camera accessories, such as jib arms and dollies. If you want to know that your RED camera on a Fisher jib arm will be able to track your lead actor down a hallway and out the door, FrameForge will help you find out. FrameForge also offers a special application for previsualizing stereoscopic productions (see Figure 5.6).

nSketchUp Film & Stage: SketchUp is an excellent 3D modeling program that was originally designed to provide a way for architects and designers to quickly create 3D visualizations of their designs. The Film & Stage plug-in provides a few extra features that add additional storyboard and previsualization functionality. Like StoryBoard Artist and FrameForge 3D Studio, SketchUp Film & Stage offers various render styles that look like beautifully hand-drawn or painted storyboards.