Last Call for Storyboarding on June 6th

Chess Adams boards on Digby Dragon at Blue Zoo

Storyboarding is back...our next evening class in storyboarding starts at our Shepherd's Bush campus tomorrow, wednesday 6th June, and we still have one or two seats left.

This 8 week evening class is led by the very talented Francesca "Chess" Adams,  a story board artist at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation houses.

Chess brings her experience of working on shows like Digby Dragon and The Go Jetters, reflecting the huge increase in animated content being created right here in London in recent years. If you'd like to sign up, there is still time to book a seat.

Francesca "Chess" Adams

What's this class all about?
This storyboard evening class is an introduction to the art and craft of storyboarding, taught by an industry professional. There will also be a live industry brief to give our students experience of what an industry storyboard test is actually like.

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

What's involved?
The course is spread over eight evenings. We believe strongly that learning involves doing, so every class involves simple in-class exercises, completed with speed and spontaneity, to get your creative juices flowing. Then, each week, you'll get a more complex homework assignment to complete and bring in for review the next week. This way, you're getting meaningful feedback on your work over the full eight weeks of the course.

Summary
Course: Storyboarding
Duration: 8 weeks
Start date: 6th June 2018
End date: 25th July
Principal Tutor: Francesca Adams
Price: £995

Course Detail (subject to tweaking)

Francesca Adams boards at Blue Zoo Animation

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.
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.

There will also be a session on Panelforge, the free storyboarding software pioneered by Blue Zoo.

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. We create a Facebook Group (closed, of course) for our classes, which also helps us keep in touch with our Escapees, and post job alerts.

Why study storyboarding?
Skilled storyboard artists are always in demand, and industry tells us that there is a serious skills shortage here in the UK. Storyboarding is a complex craft that involves the ability to tell a story visually using both traditional drawing and also (increasingly) 3D skills. Storyboard artists must also understand acting, performance, cinematography - and also have a sense of fun and entertainment about their work. Above all, they must learn to be clear. Great board artists often become directors - storyboarding is a route to the very top of our industry.

Success Stories
To see one of our recent Success Stories, read this post about Escapee Fred O'Rourke.

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

Inspiration
Finally, to take a quick peek behind the scenes at Pixar, and see a story pitch by the late (and much-missed) Joe Ranft, one of Pixar's most awesomely talented storyboard artists, watch the video below. Storyboarding hasn't changed a whole lot in the years since it was pioneered at the Disney Studio in Burbank. It's still about story, story, story.





To sign up, find the official page here.

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 2018, follow this link.   To apply, visit the official page here.