The Art of the Storyboard: Storyboarding for Film, TV, and Animation (Paperback)

by John Hart (Author) "When I was studying art in high school, I thought that the greatest place to get a job as an artist would be at Walt..." (more)
Key Phrases: storyboard artist, analytical sketch, receding planes, Citizen Kane, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'While this book seems targeted at professional storyboard artists, beginners who want to take a more professional approach toward productions will find it valuable. It is chock full of valuable advice for anyone who wishes to create a visual representation of a production before rolling tape.' - Videomaker -- Review

Review
'While this book seems targeted at professional storyboard artists, beginners who want to take a more professional approach toward productions will find it valuable. It is chock full of valuable advice for anyone who wishes to create a visual representation of a production before rolling tape.' - Videomaker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240803299
• ISBN-13: 978-0240803296
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Amateurish and unfocused, January 17, 2002

By A Customer

After searching for books on storyboarding for a class, I found and read a handful of them. This book was a big disappointment. For readers looking to learn about the CRAFT of storyboarding, I strongly recommend "From Word to Image" by Begleiter. However, if you like personal anecdotes, personal preferences, Hollywood history trivia, uninspiring graphics, and little teaching content, then Mr. Hart's "Art of Storyboard" will give you much of that. I am giving it two stars instead of one, because there are few books on storyboarding and because there is nonetheless some useful content (but it could have been put in 10 pages).

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Competent drawings of freeze-frame stills from rented movies, October 17, 1999

By A Customer

Most of the examples in this book are re-drawn stills from classic, famous or easily recognized movies and shows: Potemkin, T2, Stagecoach, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane. So basically it's somewhere between "drawing off TV" (aspect ratios vary) and a recapitulation of "Shot by Shot", Stephen Katz's excellent book. It's hard to get permission for the original boards I'm sure, and nobody expects Mr. Katz to simply showcase his portfolio -- but his selections neither impress with detail and virtuosity nor provide a comprehensive overview of the craft and business.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a book about storyboarding?, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

One of the main problems with books about storyboarding is that very few actually outline and explain how to execute it without going into too much theoretics. Like a cookbook, I would like to be instructed step-by-step on how to create storyboards: how to decide which angles best suit a written outline; differences in storytelling metric scenarios (quiet scenes, action scenes, etc.); and what would lead me to decide on how to visually set up a scene properly. All this book does is delve into the loooong history of different films, rambling on and on about significant key storyboard shots in the movie. Unfortunately, none of it is instructional. Worse yet, the examples the author uses are his own pencil sketches, which are lifted from actual scenes from an established movie. This does nothing for his credibility as a storyboard artist, especially if he didn't board the sequences himself. While it is important to explain specific key shots in a film to aspiring artists, using re-drawn sequences to fill an entire book is almost insulting to the very subject one is trying to learn from.