thoughts on storytelling

The storyboard is a universally accepted step in the process of making an animated film. But how often do we question why we actually make the storyboard? Generally the answer is that the storyboard is a tool to make the plot of the screenplay visual. In my opinion this is not a good reason. Everything in a film, from the screenplay down to each individual shot or sound, should be there to help convey a message or theme. If we, while storyboarding, focus on the plot, which itself also is a tool to convey the message, we're only focused on illustrating a tool that tries to convey the message and not on illustrating the message itself. This may seem like nit-picking, but in my opinion, if we want to make a film that really moves our audience, we need to use every possible chance to improve on the how the message is conveyed. If we only storyboard the plot of the screenplay, we don't take the storyboard as a chance to improve.

The wish of making a feature film has been with me for several years but I have always had too big fear of failing, because of lack of knowledge, lack of skill or of finance or because of some other excuse, that I've never tried to fulfill my wish. I only spent my time trying to educate myself and "waited for the time to be right". But theoretical knowledge is only knowledge in theory until applied in practise and experienced, and waiting for the right time is waiting for something that never will happen since waiting never makes anything happen. I've decided that now is the only right time for Concrete Babylon to happen.