I’ve spent the past few weeks playing with storyboards, trying out various demos of software as well as drawing them by hand (might as well put that A-level in art to some good use) and discovered that, on the whole, storyboards are completely not what I thought they were. (For that matter they aren’t what the manufacturers of the software think they are for either).

I’ve tried about six or seven different pieces of sofware, ranging from the idiotic to the rocket scientific.

The more complex 3D modelling ones are great if you have three years to learn them, know exactly what your sets are going to be and don’t mind pissing off your actors with some outrageous ‘result directing’. For effective low budget filmmaking, a complete waste of time.

However some of the simpler ones, (the 2D ones like Storyboard Quick), have a band of gold running through them, which with a little bit of effort provides rich pickings.

My handdrawn storyboards are more than adequate, but way too easy to churn out (and not terribly good either). I could save myself a heap load of money just sticking to these, but for $300, I think getting hold of a copy of something like Storyboard Quick could more than pay for itself in no time.

Agreed, the learning curve is a little irritating and it does take a little while sometimes to set up new scenes and the lack of clipart seems a curse. But these are also blessings, if you’re prepared to dig a little deeper into your reserves and hunt for the gold.

These restrictions, I’ve found, have forced me to get creative, and repeating this process has taught me how to think around problems – the very same problems that will occur on set when I can’t get a wide enough angle on the camera and the gun keeps disappearing out of shot because I hired an actor with eight foot arms.

The three important lessons I’ve learnt from the exercise is that, firstly, the scene you have in your mind will never be the scene that appears on the big screen (most oftentimes, if you get it right it will be infinitely better). Secondly, the scene you create on a story board will not be the scene you shoot on film, if you want to allow you actors the freedom to come up with their best performances.

But the most important lesson I’ve taken from this exercise is that storyboards, rather than being important planning documents, are a seriously good proving ground for the script. You end up with a set of images that show up inconsistencies in the plot, problems with timing and dodgy dialogue.

They also allow you to play about with ideas of how to handle the shoot in terms basic blocking and cinematography without wasting peoples’ time and money on the set. But these ideas should not be locked down and taken as gospel, just kept in the back of your mind to try if the location and time allow.

I’m glad I’ve put the effort into this, as it’s been a real eye opener. It’s boosted my confidence that when I’m on set, I’ll be able to make the right decisions (or at least know what some of the wrong ones are).