By: Andrew Bermudez
(Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Headquarters; November 21, 2014)
We're back with another Archive Collections, this one focusing on storyboards! So, without further ado, let's get started!
Storyboards are a very important part of any film's pre-production, as they help alleviate the headache of planning shots as you go, which can give some less-than-satisfactory results. This is especially important for animation, where careful planning is crucial to ensure that everything reads properly on-screen. For that planning process, several thumbnails of different shots are compiled. These are the storyboards. For Mustache Maniacs Film Co., storyboards have been used extensively for pre-planning several animated films. Below are storyboards from some of these films.
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
First up are a series of storyboards for A Battle to Remember. For this film, the storyboards gave more of a synopsis than a shot-by-shot direction of the film, as it focuses mostly on the piece of caution tape's role in the film. However, some of the special shots envisioned for the film were first realized in this storyboard, such as the shot of hiker's clothes changing at the end and setting up the caution tape. Looking back at this work from a personal standpoint, it really shows that I badly needed life drawing lessons back then.
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| Graphite and Marker on Paper; By Raul Flores |
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| Graphite and Marker on Paper; By Raul Flores |
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| Graphite and Marker on Paper; By Raul Flores |
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| Graphite and Marker on Paper; By Raul Flores |
Here, unveiled for the first time ever, are the color storyboards for An Afternoon at the Zoo! Unlike the previous set of storyboards, these are very concise in telling the whole premise of the film, as nearly every shot is included, even the fade out. As you can see here, the finished film changed very little from beginning to end; the only change made was that the chimps do not pelt the trapped Rude Family with cookies at the end of the finished film. Before we move on, here's a fun fact: the film was originally going to be called A Day at the Zoo. However, the named was switched to An Afternoon at the Zoo, mainly because the producers thought it sounded better.
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
Here is a small selection of storyboards from Forest of Fear, or at least one of its deleted scenes. Just like the storyboards for An Afternoon at the Zoo, these were intended to direct the camera, in order to make production happen faster. However, these storyboards represent a part of the film that never made it into the final cut. In the original version, Mary and Leo were going to stop at Billy Lugosi's laboratory, where Mary would be frightened by the werewolf. You can even see a panel depicting a truck in towards Mary's face; that's what those arrows indicate. For the record, a truck in is movie lingo for a zoom in.
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Pencil on Paper; By Andrew Bermudez |
Sometimes, storyboards can reveal problems in a film's staging long before the first frame is captured or the camera starts rolling. Such was the case with Gone Ice Fishin', which is featured in these rough storyboards. As you can see at the beginning of page 3, the ice fisherman and polar bear "cross the line," or seem to swap places, only to return to their original positions after the sunset shot. Catching this error ensured that this portion of the film was fixed, as animating that portion of this film without storyboarding first, but with the problematic staging in place, would have wasted hours of drawing the polar bear in the wrong orientation.
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| Colored Pencil and Marker on Newsprint; By Raul Flores |
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| Colored Pencil and Marker on Newsprint; By Raul Flores |
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| Colored Pencil and Marker on Newsprint; By Raul Flores |
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| Colored Pencil and Marker on Newsprint; By Raul Flores |
Of course, how can we forget to include the most honored Mustache Maniacs Film Co. film, New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable, in this storyboard showcase? Featured here are pages 3 through 6 of the storyboard when it was compiled into a standard storyboard format that could easily be shared with the cast and crew. Emphasized in these storyboards are the sailors' interaction with the dodos and the destruction that the humans cause. It should especially be noted that the order of events depicted in these storyboards is very different from the actual order of events in the finished film. Also sketched out, but never realized, was a truck in on the rat's eye as it ran towards the camera.
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| Digital Paint; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Digital Paint; By Andrew Bermudez |
While we're on the topic of storyboards, here are the storyboards for the never-released animation Tenth Anniversary Dance-Off. It was originally conceived for Bricksinmotion.com's Animation Celebration Contest, but was never actually animated due to an equipment malfunction and lack of enthusiasm for the project. As you can see from the storyboards, the film was going to start off with Seth Masterson giving an introduction, then the soundstage turning into a dance party hosted by Papa Dodo. Around him, several Mustache Maniacs Film Co. characters would dance to the song "Happy Crazy Birthday." My personal favorite panel is the storyboard of Patrick playing air guitar with his shotgun.
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| Graphite on Index Card; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Graphite on Index Card; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Graphite on Index Card; By Andrew Bermudez |
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| Graphite on Index Card; By Andrew Bermudez |
To wrap this showcase of storyboards, let's give you a look into the future with some storyboards from the animation Alms Pouch, coming summer 2015. In these storyboards, you can see the plans for Willie Swipe's introduction in the film and how he interacts with Martha Parker. Something else that you can see in the storyboards is a layout of each character's structure, in order to give the illusion that these characters occupy three dimensional space. While these storyboards have no background elements at the moment, there will be elements for the background, like trees and skyscrapers, in the finished film.
With that, as long as we continue to make films, we will continue to make storyboards in order to plan complex staging and to visually convey unusual and complicated scenes, along with more typical visual storytelling. Thank you for reading this edition of Archive Collections! See you next time!
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