Storyboardland Sketchbook

Storyboards with a splash of color!

2009-08-20T17:03:00.006-04:00

Keeping a board loose, doesn't mean ignoring details. Who are the people? (right down to their Manolo Blaniks) I like to use color to block out the action and most importantly to set the mood of the story. Is it an action thriller, romance, comedy?

I once heard storyboards described as "acting with a pencil." It's a great description that takes you beyond the blueprint that directors require. I think that's why I get frequent assignments for script treatments, when film projects are being pitched.

Storyboard Queen's Sketchbook

2009-08-20T16:30:00.008-04:00

I'm always asked about my style. Am I a comic book artist? As an art director in the advertising business, this is the way I've always drawn my own boards. When you're burning the midnight oil, you don't always have the luxury of sending them out to a storyboard artist. Over the years, I've had friends and other art directors in the business call me to do their boards, usually the day before the presentation. The business still hasn't changed. lol

This is how it all begins with simple sketches. In fact, many clients are perfectly happy to present concepts in B&W. It saves time and money, especially with budgets running so lean these days.

Kickin' StoryBoards Old School!

2009-05-27T11:06:00.016-04:00

This post is strictly for shameless self-promotion because as my 12-year old godson says, "Aunt Barb I really really like how you're kickin' storyboards Old School!" These are some old key frames from the movie "Blade" and a "Catwoman" movie prom0 tie-in with IAMS cat food.

My passionate love affair with Milton Caniff!

2009-05-25T12:57:00.004-04:00

At the grand old age of 10, I fell madly and passionately in love with Milton Caniff. It was on the back porch of my great aunts’ farmhouse in Keswick, Va. Thank goodness, nobody throws anything out in the South. I was rummaging through a stack of old newspapers and discovered Terry and The Pirates, an old vintage comic strip. We’re not talking Archie and Jughead here. This action-adventure drama featured realistically drawn adventures in the far east and had a serious bent to it, unlike many of the comics of the day (1930’s no less). Terry Lee grew up in the strip opposite characters such as Pat Ryan, the soldier of fortune and “two-fisted journalist”, Connie, the coolie and interpreter, and his nemesis, the Dragon Lady ( Side-note: actress Joan Crawford was the inspiration for DL. Just look at those eyebrows!).

I was hooked! The impact Milton Caniff had on comics cannot be overestimated; he was the first cartoonist who brought realism, suspense and sensuality into comics and he inspired many artists with his beautiful drawings, earning him his nickname, “the Rembrandt of the comic strip.”

Caniff’s mastery of light and dark, his talent for action scenes and camera angles, and his flair for dramatic storytelling all contributed to the popularity of Terry and The Pirates. Another strength of the strip has been its reliance on realism. What we think of today as the modern graphic novel owes its existence to this prolific artist.

Posted above are a couple of key frames of one of my Milt Caniff-esque exotic femme-fatales, always fun to draw (Monica Bellucci inspired).

A Dr. Strangelove kind of day!

2009-05-25T12:54:00.004-04:00

Practiced slam dunking every new sketch into the trash basket this morning. Still not NBA worthy, I decided to stop worrying and love the bomb. Popped Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic, “Dr. Strangelove” into the DVD and watched Gen. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) fondling a phallic cigar while launching an unauthorized nuclear strike against Russia. (Wonder how many times Monica Lewinsky watched this movie?) It is arguably the best political satire of the century, a film that pulled the rug out from under the Cold War by arguing that if a “nuclear deterrent” destroys all life on Earth, it is hard to say exactly what it has deterred.

“Dr. Strangelove” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) are Kubrick’s masterpieces. The two films share a common theme: Man designs technology that functions with perfect logic to bring about a disastrous outcome. The U.S. nuclear deterrent and the Russian “doomsday machine” function exactly as they are intended, and destroy life on earth. Don’t think he ever counted on Gatorade as a weapon of mass destruction? Is this how to destroy the planet on a budget?

Some key frames for a script treatment. A very touching and poignant story. Two soldiers fall in love and are tragically separated by war.

Is virtual better than reality?

2009-05-25T12:49:00.009-04:00

Still hiding from the military, in a New Delhi safe house. Can’t make contact with the only agent who knows the truth behind the General’s assassination. How will this script end? I spent sometime today on a popular website, relatively new to me: http://secondlife.com/ “When reality gets hard to take, there’s an escape to a parallel universe — a virtual world without end where real people create online personas. Anything is possible.” Sound familiar? And to think I’ve had this software inside my head all these years.

At 8, I drew inspiration from Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter who had both fabulous adventures and fabulous love affairs. When she wasn’t in danger of her life, she was in the middle of a steamy romance — except, of course, when she was doing both at once. Her steadiest beau was the alluringly mysterious Basil St. John — whom she eventually married, but not before getting 36 years of storylines out of him.

At 18, I drew inspiration from Dale Messick, who created Brenda Starr. And got paid for it!

Posted above are more Brenda-esque kind of sketches for a script treatment: “A woman’s happy marriage falls apart with the return of her drop-dead gorgeous former lover. It’s three hours of passion, romance, sex and heartache. In other words, it’s pure Bollywood. And when it comes to the box-office, it’s magic. Just like the markers I used to draw it.”

Welcome to my world!

2009-05-25T12:21:00.007-04:00

Before frogs sold beer, they were a storyboard. Before Harry met Sally, they were a storyboard. The fact is, all great productions start with storyboards. And if the storyboard doesn’t get sold, neither does the idea. But my title “The Storyboard Queen” goes back to my earliest years in advertising. Trying to break into broadcast between my days as a student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and my first position as a Junior Art Director at Young & Rubicam, I shamelessly peddled my drawing skills and film background. It was then that I was crowned “The Storyboard Queen” for life. And for money, of course.

This is going to be an online creative journal of my work and my life as my alter ego, “The Storyboard Queen”. That way, when I disappear off the planet, periodically, and people get the urge to send me food and water, you’ll know where and what I’m up to. A word of caution: Please bear with me. As you all know, I’m a visual type. The spoken word requires effort for me. Photoshop cannot save me. I’m working on some storyboards today. Right now, just finishing a coffee break. Doing revises of a script treatment for a Bollywood film. So far, it has all the right ingredients: romance, sex, hunky guys, sex, beautiful, bad (they take no hostages) women, sex, special effects (maybe, for the sex?).

Here's a peek at some of the original frames.