This was my mission as we began the storyboarding process for George Washington University Hospital’s new TV campaign that included four 30-second commercials. From the onset, it was an exciting proposition and a huge responsibility to take concepts envisioned by the Contrast Creative production team and bring them to vivid life.
What are storyboards?
Back when I was a kid, I remember reading comic books, each frame unraveling a key moment in a superhero’s latest adventure. Once in a while, a movie director would bring that frame-by-frame action to life in an exciting, fast-paced film that included spoken dialogue, explosions and music.
Storyboards, like comic books, capture the snapshots of action while allowing the viewer to fill in the small moments in between.
They are a visual representation of what will be shot in a commercial or video and help both a production team and clients to preview the end result.
The storyboarding process
As a graphic designer, I am brought in after a script has been approved and the sequence has been signed off on. I sit down with the producer and director, and we discuss the vision for each spot in exact detail. We talked about the key images that would help tell the GW Hospital story from wide sweeping shots of historic monuments to tighter more intricate shots of surgical instruments.
The producer describes a scenario, and the director gives feedback about the realism, about how feasible those concepts are: Can we gain access to a certain location to get the shot? Will that scene bust the budget? We discuss how physically and financially viable the vision is before I begin creating the storyboards.
Once we are all on the same page, all of us go out and search images that represent the vision. We share these images with each other and then describe how we think the shot should look. We may combine an emotion from one photo with an action from another.
When I was planning the GW’s storyboards, the producer found an image showing light streaks that she had imagined would be part of one shot. The image contained nothing else that made sense for our current project, but she was able to communicate the vision.
From there, I create rough pencil outlines. This stage allows us to evaluate: is this the progression I had in mind? Or is it missing an image that would help us sell the concept to our client?
The images need to explain and help our client visualize our concept for their spot.
Because we are presenting as few as 12 drawings for a 30-second spot, we are relying on the client to fill in the remaining frames with his or her own imagination. Once the pencil and black-and-white storyboards are approved, we go back and add color.
While you want the images to be accurate, we also want clients to see and understand our concept. We may choose a color palette instead of adhering to strict realism; the consistency helps the piece as a whole. In the case of GW’s storyboards, we wanted all images, from the Capitol to the surgical suite, to be cohesive.
There is always a time element to drawing the images. I may concentrate more on the details to help sell the big image, like the monument, but omit the unnecessary details like specific leaves on the trees. For close-up shots, I try to focus in on the textures of the surgical instruments.
After I create the first four or five frames, I bounce the images off the producer again. Do the images have the right feeling? If they have a blue tone, does it look too technical? If they are too bright, they may have the opposite effect. With GW Hospital, the video would be shot during cold winter nights and as the sun was rising. My coloration needed to evoke that crisp, clean feeling.
Once we have the first four or five locked in, I can finish the rest with little to no input. In certain cases, the producer may come to me and say, “The only car we could rent for that shot was black” or “At that hospital, nurses only wear blue scrubs.” So I may need to adjust my colors. In other words, the reality of planning for a production may affect the storyboarding process.
How storyboards are used
One of the first ways the storyboards are used is to sell the concept to the client. They may request three concepts to choose from, and the storyboards help them visualize the different story lines so they can make an informed decision. Our goal when presenting concepts to a client is two-fold: to sell the concept and to eliminate any mystery about what the end result will be.
The clients may use the storyboards to present to decision-makers within their organization or to gain feedback from focus groups.
After one concept or more is chosen, producers use the images to plan for production day. They may refer to the storyboards as they purchase props or make schedules.
On production day itself, a producer or director may consult the storyboard to assure that what she promised the client is being carried out to the fullest extent possible.
Seeing the images come full-circle
In the case of GW’s storyboards, these visually stunning 30-second spots look like my original images have jumped off of the paper and taken flight. The drawings themselves have successfully worked their way through concept development, then every phase of production to finally land in people’s living rooms or on their laptops via the finished commercial. As a storyboard artist, it is always incredibly satisfying to bring our team’s creative vision to life.
View the GW Hospital TV commercials here: Branding, Vision, Time, Destination.