Basic Storyboard Design Part 1

To all Aspiring Film directors/scriptwriters/Storyboard Artists/ Actors/Actresses/Producers etc. Here's something for you:)

Storyboard design is a wonderful module. Firstly, it deals with the art of drawing and story crafting to life in television dramas or films. Generating Ideas is important as it equips one with the skills of thinking on the spot and giving alternatives. This allow one to be innovative and to have plenty solutions to tackle a problem in a practical sense. Random ideas when added or used in a story produces different storylines and it affects the climax curve of the story differently. The " beats"( moods) of the story will also vary based on the circumstance characters are in. Storytelling is the art of telling a story with these different elements: Introduction, Struggle, Conflict, Resolution/Conclusion. Introduction begins the story and gives the readers or veiwers of the film to understand the overview or synopsis of the story. Usually the introduction gives ideas about the initial part of the story. The struggle is what the persona or the main character tries to achieve. Conflict is the problem or obstacle introduced that delays the progress of the main character. This usually comes in the form of villains or crisis. Conflicts can be tangible or intangible. Script writing format is usually in the form of pannels which comes after a synopsis about a scene. The pannels consist of the setting(Interior/Exterior), Action/Dialogue, Props/Cast/Sounds FX. After that, the camera shots play a important role too. Examples of shots include Extreme Close Up, Close Up, Mid Shots, Over the Shouler Shot, Long Shot,Worm's Eye View and Bird's Eye View. Shooting techniques include Canting Shots and Panning (right to left) Shot, Dolly & Trucking( Shots).



In Visual Imagery, Force Fitting, Distortion, Combination and Metaphor exists in which different objects can be used to create a new idea or object. Force Fitting is taking parts from different object/terms and “forcing” it on to something completely different to create a new object. Distortion is changing the way an object / term originally look / meant through pronounciations, word form, different meanings of the word etc. The list goes on. Metaphors are used in written works to compare different things. Its commonly found in poetry and prose. Camera Composition plays a role in storyboard design.


In Camera Composition, the focal point is the spot where your eyes are drawn to when you look at a image. The focal point is usually found in the clearer element. A scene has foreground, middleground and background. Some techniques include leading the eye, framing, rule of thirds, 180 degree rule. Comics are a common form of visual art where heroes and characters portrays drama and excitement. This is a result of dynamic angle of the characters are drawn to create the emotions and nature of the characters. Perspective drawing helps to create 1 Dimensional, 2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional drawings. Vanishing points must be correct and eye level is determined in perspective drawing. Human Anatomy is important when drawing male and female figures in storyboard pannels. Knowing the muscles and the body parts of the male and female gender gives the storyboard artist a edge as he helps to make the character animated. Gestural Drawing shows the actions and body language the character shows. First draw the rough sketch. Next, Draw the muscles and the features. Finalise with the final curves and lines to draw the full figure to finalise the picture.  Emotions is also important to convey nature of character. Eyes and Mouth speak the most about a person's emotions.

Final Year Project Many university students know the hassle.and chore of doing research for their final Year project. As a third year student, I have to work on designing a distillation plant. This is when Process Flow Diagrams, Process & Instrumentation diagrams, Equipment Specification Sheets are important. Much research has to be done to understand a distillation system and how it works before we can draw out the flow diagram of the distillation column system. I am still in the progress of doing the project. Its only the 2nd week and all of us are preparing and giving ourselves deadlines for each submission of component of project to our lecturer.

COMPASS Song Writing Masterclass 8

This Song writing masterclass shares with aspiring song writers tips in writing and improving their songs showing song writers how their new songs can improve for better quality. Personally, this is my first experience for going to any song writing lessons. I have learnt a lot and am inspired to start writing a song. What will be a challenge for me now will be Chord Progression and Relative Pitch.

The masterclass was held on a sunday afternoon at Esplanade Library in Singapore. I am creating my song with lyrics and presenting it to the next masterclass.

Basic Storyboard Design

Story is about a sequence of events. Before one can write a story, one must craft a big picture or overview of how the story is going to be. Circular Viewpoint of characters help. For any character, ask the following 3 questions. 1) Who is this Person. 2) What is he/she doing? 3) What is he/she thinking? Basically, Storyboards are boxes drawn that shows each scene broken up into different frames which tells the story. By making use of the camera directions and movements of the character, one can draw the storyboard effectively. One can also adjust the position of a person or object in a frame to give it a different effect. It was a great and enjoyable lesson as we learnt the 4 main components of a Story 1) Introduction 2) Struggle 3) Conflict 4) Climax 5) Conculsion/Twist Genres of diffeernt films are important in deciding the story line for each type of film. If you have any questions, you could ask.

Final Year in School

It has been a great Holiday break.  As always, the first week of school is always more relaxed with less amount of workload. This is rather an interesting semester as I have been doing my daily studying for this week so far. Running is also more regular for me as I train for my fitness test that I would be taking next year before enlisting into National Service in Singapore.

Logos Hope(OM Ships)

Here are the photos I have taken on board Logos Hope when it was docked in Singapore on 22nd December 2011 at harboufront(Vivo City)

If you want more information about the boat:
1) http://www.omships.org/

Character Bible

Character Bible gives a summary about the characteristics and personalities of each role in a script and helps the actors and actresses to better express themselves as that character as they will understand how they are like. Here is a step by step tutorial of doing character bibles.

1) Have an idea of where the story is going. Does it take place in hours or over years? This will affects the type of people your characters will be.

2) Decide on the desired type of characters in your script. Be thorough abut this decision. Know everything from age to race to religious affliation, family background and everything in between.

3) Research your characters. Once you know who they are and where they are going, give them realistic representations in your script.

4) Know about your characters and that includes their family. Be clear on where your character fits into their family and the relationship they have with them

5) Include a basic summary of each character you write. The basic summary will include age, weight, height, gender, schooling, occupation, where they are originally from and where they currently live.

Write a detailed biography of each character using the information you've accumulated in Steps 1 - 5.

To help you, here's extra resources on the web to help you:
1) http://aldric.wrytestuff.com/swa368283.htm
2) http://www.ehow.com/how_2049246_write-character-bible.html