A sample of what this day hike can cover....
-What is story? All comes down to entertainment. Is our story a page-turner? High-concept gets attention. Executing a page-turner will engage your audience for the long-term.
-Being a one-man or woman show. Learn to write and then execute your own stories. Never be waiting for others to give you permission to proceed. Develop as full a skillset as possible but prioritize writing/storyboarding.
-Telling your story in as efficient/compressed/graphic novel manner as possible, but have the skillset to board also in a very animated/cinematic way.
-Architects vs gardeners on the writing side. outlining/structuring vs stream-of-consciousness writing. writing/boarding simultaneously from rough beat outlines. developing an instinct for pacing/finding what is interesting about each scene/moment. Multiple, intersecting storylines. Theme. Stakes. Intention/obstacle.
-Graphic novel style boarding. Conveying only the essential. Finding a visual shorthand to board almost as fast as you can write. Design characters and BG's on the fly (Good Hunting was designed on the fly and won an Emmy). Going down unknown story tangents... writing by the seat of your pants. Investing as little into the boards as possible so you can go fast and discard things that aren't working.
-Tell your story in one image. 5 images. 15 images. 40 images. etc. Every level of compression has different requirements, challenges. Prep and brainstorm until you feel you are saturated and can dive in:
-Exploring your story in a straight-ahead stream-of-consciousness "gardener" way. Trusting your unconscious inner story-teller. As characters emerge they will begin to take on a life of their own and will dictate the action. create a worthy, high-stakes goal for your protagonist that can sustain audience interest over a feature, a mini-series, a full season time-frame. Not all heros and goals are created equal. Long-term investment on only your most interesting/personal ideas.
-Perspective grids, camera lenses. simplified forms, composition. basic figures. Finding the best composition/staging/choreography to tell story.
-Animated boards. roughing out action with simplified figures, stickmen in a solid 3D grid-based bg. lens choice.
-Shot flow, cutting.
-Conflict, goals, entertainment
-Is it a page-turner or just a technical exercise? We can stay engaged with a page-turner almost indefinitely as long as we are wrapped up in your hero's impossible-seeming quest. Tell a great, entertaining story. Deeper themes, meaning will organically emerge.
