Customer Reviews

From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From word to image
Marcie Begleiter

Storyboarding and the filmmaking process

This is the best book to have on storyboarding. As Chair of the Digital Media dept. at Otis College of Art and Design, I read and review tons of books to see if they would be of use for our undergrads and graduates. Though there are several books that cover storyboarding, none are as effective nor as useful. This goes beyond a mere lesson in the formatting of a storyboard. There is a deep understanding of the subject because Marcie is a long-time professional feature film storyboard artist. The book does cover the feel and look of a storyboard, yet it goes beyond that by providing examples from the grand history of film. Just one of the nice features of the book is the excellent list of DVDs that contain storyboard examples and visualization documents. Marcie tells you what a storyboard is for, how to make one, how to make them effective and then even how to get a gig as a storyboard artist. It is all here for you.

I am teaching an advanced motion graphics course at a California University, and for my students I needed a good book on storyboarding. I looked at about half a dozen of them (in-print and out-of-print). This book is by far the best. It is systematic, it is clearly and concisely written, and it uses reproductions of real storyboards of real films. It is adequate for the beginner and useful for moderately experienced graphic artists and illustrators looking to repurpose their skills for the field of storyboarding.

All of what this book says could have been said in 5 or 6 pages. There are a few basic concepts the book covers that are worthwhile, but I found it to be heavily padded and very basic. A much better book is Profores' Film Directing Fundamentals, which comes at storyboarding and other visualization tools from a director's viewpoint, rather than an illustrator's.

Marcie's book is an excellent, concise, and very well organized compendium for how to approach visual storytelling. Furthermore, this volume is supported with still images, drawings, and illustrations from classics in film history.
I would highly recommend it as a textbook for both beginning artists as well as established professionals. Also, please pay special attention to the chapter dealing with composition, as it will allow you to enjoy, and hopefully design, films in whole new way.
A must have!

I have been through the pre-production process more than a few times and have always struggled to accurately transfer my ideas to paper. I was looking to increase my skills in this area and a friend suggested I pick up this book... WOW!, was I blown away. This book walks you through the entire process of getting the ideas swimming around in your head onto the paper with such clarity and ease that I was actually shocked. If I had to recommend a learning tool to a filmmaker, be they director or a member of the art department, I would not hesitate to recommend Ms. Begleiter's book.

I'm sure this is a wonderful book for would be storyboard artists who work very closely with a director or very tightly to a script. Unfortuately as a comic book writer/artist that's not me. With all the wonderful prior comments I was sure this book would cover visual storytelling generally, but it has little of that. Nothing about creating drama through lighting or how to tweak each frame's composition to squeeze the most drama out of the situation. While the book discusses camera angles it does little to tell us how each of these angles has an effect on viewer. All in all this book is great if you just want to record someone else's script visually on to paper. If you're looking to understand the visual storytelling behind the script I would look elsewhere.

This wonderful book combines clear and concise "how-to" instruction with historical overview and stories from the trenches of the industry. Whether you are a writer looking to express yourself visually, or an artist looking to tell a story with pictures, this book will set you firmly on your course. And for people like me who are interested in becoming a storyboard artist and director, the journal stories give you a true sense of the role the storyboard artist plays in the creative process (as well as some of the horror stories that take place in the movie industry). This is the best-written, most comprehensive book I have ever seen about the process by which scripts become films, and the role of the "below the line" worker in bringing the vision to the screen. I would encourage anyone who is interested in filmmaking, whether as a vocation or as an avocation, to buy this book immediately!

From Word to Image by Marcie Begleiter is a worthwhile investment to ANYONE looking to get into storyboarding.
The well -thought-out book takes her 2-day seminar and packages it for easy access to anyone working on improving their visual storytelling techniques.
I had taken her seminar some time ago and have been following my notes taken during the seminar ever since. Now the book is available and the material has been updated, so it's like I've taken an advanced class from the same instructor.
Highly recommended!!!!!!

This is such a cool book for anyone interested in putting together a film. I am interested in directing and cinematography at the moment and this book taught me things that even my specialized textbooks didn't. It's easy to ready, and over before you know it. Feels good too.

There is not much I can add to what's been said in the previous reviews, but there is ONE thing I found here that I never read anywhere else, and just that would make the book worth it's price. From page 160, I quote:
"If we dispense with the steps of drawing an overhead and plotting the points of the set into an elevation, then we need a quick way of determining the placement of the vanishing points by eye. The suggested placement is one-half a frame's distance outside the frame on either side, for a natural, 50mm lens length appearance."
I've read a lot of books on perspective, and, even though they will tell you everything about vanishing points, this is the first (and only book) I read that tells you WHERE to put the damned things, to depict a scene with a "normal" view. (Thank you, Marcie - you're a life saver!...)
My particular area of interest is comic book artwork, (just like reader Jason Briggs), but I consider ANYTHING that can make the art look believable as an invaluable asset, and everything she teaches here, is of immense value, if your objective is to render scenes that will make the reader feel as if he (or she) is actually seeing the picture. For someone interested in the same aspects as Jason, who is interested in the psychological aspects of the craft, I would recommend the books by Will Eisner - that's right up his alley. (What I can't imagine is where he got the notion that this book would contain what he was expecting to find - there is nothing in the reviews, or written on the cover, or in the table of contents, that suggests what he inferred.)
That said, my opinion about the book is: if you know NOTHING about storyboarding, be it for the movies or TV, this will be the first best step you can take. AND, if you ALREADY know something about storyboarding, it will serve as pointers to guide you, so you won't forget any important aspect of the craft. (And there are LOTS of them...) The author managed to cram a ton of information into 223 pages, without making the book a heavy reading, and that's no easy feat! And the "war stories" she tells are also very insightful, and sometimes even funny. Thank you again, Marcie!