Thread by @looseyliu

so i think the MOST important job of a #storyboard artist is not creating dynamic angles or cool images, but shooting scenes & telling stories with a POINT OF VIEW!

Who are we following? Whose eyes do we see the story thru? [a thread] #feboardary

@looseyliu ofc, it's important first to know WHOSE STORY IS IT? (you usually find the answer by asking, 'which character experiences the most change'?)

as we break films apart into smaller pieces, that question then becomes: whose SCENE is it? or whose SHOT is it?

@looseyliu maybe the 'cheapest' way to put the audience in a character's POV is thru voice-over, and it's generally pretty effective in how directly it affects ur experience of a story - the character is telling you exactly how they see it!

@looseyliu for shot design tho, there are several ways to put us in a character's POV. the simplest and most essential are: (A) pointing the camera AT the character; and (B) a POV shot on what the character is SEEING. most of the time, u create a scene using BOTH shots together:

@looseyliu a common variation on a POV shot is over-the-shoulder (OTS). Cam is placed in roughly the same spot as our character: we stand in their shoes, see what they see, & still get some of them in frame. This shot is EVERYWHERE! (& often used for dialogue scenes too)

@looseyliu tbh those 2 shot types are so powerful that they're often all u need to establish strong POV

but here are just a few of the OTHER things that can focus ur eye on a character & cue who 'owns' the shot/scene/story (I'll elaborate on some...)

@looseyliu Whose eye-level do we shoot from?

Think how wildly different this kitchen scene (or the entire idea of the film) would be, if shot at human eye-level instead of a rat's POV!

Other stills that tell Remy's story quite well:

Who maintains stillness in a shot full of motion?

u can use contrast of motion to focus the audience's eye on a subject (ie. on the character who OWNS the shot). 'No Country' did it this way... ** TW: strangling

Or, simply in the staging/orientation of the characters, does one stand out? is one maybe taller than the rest?

Or, is one character staged more frontal to camera, while others are in profile? Centering Danny with a gentle push-in also helps us focus on her (I absolutely love these shots from Midsommar - it's so clear this is HER story)

I think 'Drive' (2011) does an absolutely stellar job of shaping POV: our main character (Ryan Gosling) hardly speaks & does no voiceover, but the story is all about him - and boy do we FEEL it! (hope to do a dedicated film study in other thread/s)

Thoughts? What other creative tools can we use to connect the audience to a character's POV?

(Note- A lot of examples here are pulled from the blog evanerichards.com, which has a TON of gorgeous stills from a long list of films worth studying. A great resource!)