Darren Webb: How to approach a sequence

The quote below is from storyboard artist Darren Webb. It originally comes from this great article about the role luck and mentors played in his career. The whole article is definitively worth a read, but I lifted this little part because I think it is such a great way to approach a sequence.  

Sam shared with me his approach to starting a sequence, what he would do when handed a stack of animators roughs.  He said, flip through the entire scene, just live with it a while, look at the action the expressions, the timing the choices the animator made and then find that ONE drawing that truly defines the entire sequence.  There will ALWAYS be one drawing that is key, the key to the whole shot and that is the drawing you clean up first, that is your guide to everything else.  Then work backward from there to find and identify your breakdowns and in-betweens and so on.

Now that sounds simple, but it's actually quite profound and that is they way i've approached every sequence i've ever story boarded or every page I've written.  Find that one moment and that defines what the scene is about and then everything else is there to support that moment.

I've actually had other people in the industry that i work with ask me how I approach a sequence after certain pitches and ask for help with their sequence and I use the very approach that Sam taught me, despite all the other words, direction, action on the page, what is the scene truly about, because it really is only about one thing and once you've found that, the rest of the choices you have to make will all fall into place.