Five things about storyboarding that students should know
Lately I see more and more students and young artists who are considering a career in story. They share their work on social media, looking for story jobs or portfolio reviews, and take classes by professional story artists to grow their skills. There are a few things I noticed keep coming up in their work, questions and ambitions that make me think back of my own days as a student.
This year it’s ten years ago that I graduated from art school. I studied traditional animation, but from the first year on I’d been putting the emphasis of my studies on story and storyboarding. When I got my degree I figured it shouldn’t take too long before I’d get a job as a story artist. It turned out to take a bit longer than I expected. I would need more than five years to get my first real animation story job.
These are five things I wish I’d known back when I graduated.
1. Story is hard
Sometimes you hear story artists talk and you wonder, why are you even doing this job? Mark Andrews will say that story is hell, Ronnie del Carmen says that in story you get your heart broken on a regular basis, and there is a whole meme of Miyazaki stressing while he’s working on his films.
Story is doubt, insecurity. Your job as a story artist is to come up with ideas. To do this well you have to pour your heart and soul into them, only to have your suggestions scrutinized and discarded right away. You spend years working on a film and in the end none of your drawings will ever be seen by the audience.
You’re a jack of all trades. You’ll have to know screenwriting, story structure, acting, animating, editing, drawing, cinematography, . . . This means that it takes time to get good at it. You’ll have to study story and watch tons of movies. There are people who land a job in story straight out of school, but a lot of story artists are a bit older when they get their first job. And that’s fine because . . .
2. There is no set path
Because there are so many aspects to story, no two story artists have the same skill-set. Some are better at drama, others can do the most amazing action scenes. There are gag guys (and gals!) and there are people with a strong sense for story structure. If you want to learn story you can take screenwriting classes, or do improv, or do a photography course. You can write short stories, draw comics, or make a short film.
Because of all this there is no one way to get hired. You’ll have to find your own path and it might not be where you expect. What this means is that there isn’t a list of skills that you can tick off and then you’re a story artist. Instead you should do things that interest you, make work that you want to make. Don’t try to follow somebody else’s map to success, instead focus on your own personal growth. It might help to keep story in mind when you take classes or go out sketching but really the best thing to do is enjoy yourself because it is going to take time for you to get good and . . .
3. You have to get good before you will get hired
When I was a student I thought that the way into story was: go get an internship at one of the studios, then get good and then get hired. Every year I’d apply for the Pixar internship, it was my holy grail. I was convinced that one day the people there would recognize my potential and I’d be accepted. It never happened. Here’s the thing, to get such an internship you have to be good already. Although it is true that they will look for potential when selecting interns they are not going to teach you the basics.
So before you should expect anyone to hire you, for a job or an internship, you should get your basic skills up to par. I know I just said there is no checklist, but there are some things you should be capable of before you’ll even be considered for a job:
You need to be comfortable with your draftsmanship, your drawings don’t have to be pretty but they should be clear. You have to draw fast and your drawings should show some understanding of perspective and gesture. You have to have a basic understanding of film language, know shot types, understand shot progression and screen direction. You need to have an interest in film, there is nothing wrong with being a Marvel or a Star Wars fan, but you need to have seen more films, especially the classics. If you haven’t seen too many films yet, it should be clear that you are working on that.
A lot of young artists are working on portfolio pieces, but if you still need to work on those basic skills don’t worry too much about a portfolio. Use your time to study films and board sequences, they don’t have to be great and they don’t have to be finished. (is there even such a thing as a a finished storyboard?) If you’re having fun making them, I promise you that pretty soon your boards will be fun to look at too.
Don’t be too concerned with the end result. There is nothing that kills creativity faster than the need to make something perfect. Sure your portfolio is important but it might be less important than you think because . . .
4. Your resume is more important than your portfolio
This is the tricky one. To get a job the thing you need more than anything else is experience. Studios only hire people with experience. But how to get experience if they only hire people with experience? It’s a real catch-22.
The first time people told me that my resume was more important than my portfolio I didn’t believe them. It made no sense. If you have a great portfolio somebody must be willing to hire you, right? The problem is that a portfolio only shows so much. It’s hard to tell if you can work fast for instance, and are these your own ideas or did somebody else help you come up with the story? And, maybe the most important one, are you easy to work with?
Studios and recruiters don’t like to take risks. Animation is expensive and hiring someone who is unable to do the job costs time and money. If you have experience it shows them that you have done the job before. I know people who got hired without even showing their work!
Getting that first job is even harder than you might think because official job openings rarely lead to you getting hired. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t apply, but keep in mind that it probably is more about the recruiter discovering you and your work than it is about you getting hired. Your best chance of getting hired is through your network, so it is important that you meet recruiters, artists and fellow students because in the end . . .
5. It is all about people
Most opportunities will come from your network. It can be through former class mates or teachers, but also via people you’ve met on social media or at festivals and conferences. It’s good to go to animation festivals and conferences, you will meet like minded people and awe-inspiring artists. The big festivals and conferences (Annecy, CTNX, Lightbox, etc.) draw the largest crowds and the biggest names but even at a small scale local film festival you will meet inspiring people.
And it doesn’t stop once you land that job. Most artists feel that their best jobs weren’t necessarily the best paid, or the greatest critical successes: they were the jobs with the best people. It is so important that you are a nice person, even if you are an awesome artist. Filmmaking is a team sport, so try to serve the film, the director and your coworkers. If you are kind and nice to work with people will want to work with you again. People talk and if they have nice things to say about you, it will lead to new opportunities and long lasting friendships.
So that’s it. Five things I wish somebody told me back when I graduated. Although, to be fair, I probably wouldn’t have listened if they had. And that’s fine too. If you’re starting out as an artist and this all sounds too serious and careful, just keep on dreaming and working. But if you’ve been grinding away at this and you're wondering if you’re ever going to make it to where you want to be, knowing these five things might help you.
