Storyboarding is Back! New Class 31st October

Francesca "Chess" Adams

Storyboarding is back at Escape Studios! We're running a new class in storyboarding here in Shepherd's Bush, starting on Tuesday 31st October 2017.

The course costs £995 (inclusive of VAT) and is an 8 week part-time evening course, designed to fit around jobs and families.

The class is designed and delivered by industry professionals, including the very talented Francesca Adams (see left). Francesca is a board artist at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation houses. There will also be a live industry brief to give our students experience of what an industry storyboard test is actually like.

What's this all about?
This class is an introduction to the art and craft of storyboarding, taught by industry professionals.

Who is it for?
Anyone who wants to learn storyboarding, whether for live action, animation, commercials, or your own private projects.

What's involved?
The course is divided into two parts, over 8 evenings. We believe strongly that learning involves doing, so every class will involve in-class exercises, completed with speed and spontaneity, to get your creative juices flowing. Then, each week, you'll get a homework assignment to bring in for review the next week.

Details Summary
Course: Storyboarding
Duration: 8 weeks
Start date: Tuesday 31st Oct
End date: Tuesday 19th December
Principal Tutor: Francesca Adams
Price: £829.17 (ex VAT), £995 (inc Vat)

Below is how the course breaks down, in a little more detail:

Francesca Adams boards at Blue Zoo Animation

Part One - Introduction to Storyboarding

Week 1 - General Introduction to Storyboarding: Introductory Exercises. Creativity, ideas and inspiration for stories. Gesture drawing, fast sketches, and research.
Week 2 - Creating images which tell a story: Single images that tell a story. Gag drawings. Situations and character-driven ideas.
Week 3 - Standard industry storyboarding process: Script, beat boards, story reel and animatic. Movie structure analysis. Camera and Layout. Reverse-storyboarding a pantomime sequence.
Week 4 - Character Design and Art Direction: Introduction to principles of design and visual development.

Part Two - Storyboarding Technique
Week 5 - Structuring a Scene: How to break down script pages. Progression and punctuation in a sequence. Staging.
Week 6 - The Performance: Story beats, narrative structure, pacing, cinematography.
Week 7 - The Animatic: How to edit, cut and time storyboards in Premiere, to create a storyboard animatic. Music, sound effects, voice over and dialogue.
Week 8 - The Pitch: How to pitch your storyboards. Acting, performance and delivery.

What is expected of students?
You'll be expected to attend at Escape Studios in Shepherd's Bush one evening a week from 7:00pm-10:00pm. And there will be homework!

There will also be an additional 8 weeks of online mentoring, where you get to practice your skills. It's going to be a great course, designed to train story artists to work in this growing field - where (by the way) there is a serious skills shortage here in the UK.

To find out more, take a look at the Escape Studios official storyboarding course page here.

Finally, to take a quick peek behind the scenes at Pixar, and see a story pitch by Joe Ranft, one of Pixar's most awesomely talented storyboard artists, watch the video below:





The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2017, follow this link.   To apply, visit the official page here.