While I try to remain constant and busy with acting gigs, ultimately, I feel that as long as you’re an artist, you’re willing to try other forms of expression. I haven’t picked up a pen/pencil to seriously sketch since High School so, when the opportunity came up to work on storyboards for a feature film was producing, I pounced. The feature film is called DARK HARVEST, and according to the sypnosis:
When the son of a farmer discovers an evil presence that threatens his family and the small rural community where he grew up, he is forced to confront a darkness that hides in the shadows, something that cannot stand up to the light of day, but is watching and waiting to begin its Dark Harvest.
Now, you may be wondering how it was I came about the opportunity–TWITTER. Emerging Artists put out a call for a storyboard artist and some samples, and I happened to have a few mobile device taken photos floating around my harddrive. I submitted, and the rest, as they say, is future.
My first day of working on the project –two additional essentials: laptop + coffee
Here’s the teaser trailer:
At the time of writing this blog, I’m a month or two in to actually storyboarding and the experience has taught me a different edge of patience. I’m no longer drawing for leisure or ‘perfection’, I’m drawing to contribute to an established story, to help define elements and refine the visual story. Afterall, showing is definitely better than telling, right?
Here are a handful of photos I took with my phone of some panels before I submitted them.
My hopes are that the images translate...
Anyway, after a handful of meetings with the director, I had a better idea of certain things he was looking for in various scenes—the fun part, and also one of the most challenging was deciding how I wanted to tackle other aspects of the scene. How do I deliver an image that can help be the glue that puts everyone on the same page? Two things were quickly evident as I started working on panels: 1. Thank god I watch, nay, observe movies outside of just pure entertainment and 2. Thank god I maintained a (decent) level of proficiency sketching throughout the years.
So far, my total page count (with three panels each) is roughly about 50 pages and counting…
As far as keeping my sketching skill maintained (not that it’s supreme or anything), I doodle…a lot.
