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I strongly suspect this is something I should’ve done, like, ages ago. After yesterday’s technical recce, I think Mr Forster noticed how much I kept deferring to Mr Meikle and recommended I do some. Sure, I’d blocked some of the action with the actors during the workshops, but I’d avoided thinking about angles and coverage and owing reverses. ‘S what a DOP does, innit? (I think it’s what a continuity person does – and it’s a role we can’t afford on this film.)
So I’m storyboarding. This is the most drawing I’ve done in years. Trying to relax and not over-focus on heads being in proportion to bodies. Trying not to freak out over perspective.
The important thing about storyboards is the time they save. Instead of waving your hands about and trying to describe a camera move you want to steal from a favourite De Palma film, just a couple of chicken scratchings reasonably clear and simple pictures puts everyone literally on the same page at the same time.
Until that cathartic moment, I’m storyboarding. And grateful for the practice, decades ago, of countless pictures of alien invaders being greeted by human soldiers backed up by tanks, jet fighters and a death star.
