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Monday, July 20, 2015

"A Twofer Tuesday Sketch..."

A thumbnail and the final sketch...
Here's two sketches for the storyboard of a script I'm working on, on location in St. Francisville, LA. Unlike the previous post, this sketch was not first created in front of the director in thirty seconds, but it was drawn with an approval in mind before I go to the final frame. The client wanted the same dress that this character wears throughout the movie, practically. The pose was right, but she wanted the woman looking at the chord she is playing. I went online to find tons of ukulele files to draw from and chose one pic for the turned head kinda looking down and the strumming hand from another file.

Now, I just had to match the face of the character, including her bangs,  with the pose and put the dress, the face, and the strumming hand all together to make a final. Then, I added the background, which in this case, wasn't a perspective nightmare.

I never once considered how involved it could be putting subjects in the right setting, in the right perspective, and in the correct focal length. So frustrating...


Copyright 2015/ Ben Bensen III



"A Twofer Tuesday Sketch..."

Friday, July 17, 2015

"Just A Thirty Second Sketch"...

Making a quickie work...

I've been working on a job for over two months and slowly the deadline appears. But, as I get briefed on the upcoming scenes, the quick sketches, like the first one on top, need to be created with just enough information about the location, the body language, and the emotions, to help me remember the scene and fast enough to satisfy the whims of a director.

In this one hour dissection between me and the director/story teller, there were over twenty frames that needed visualizing, so speed is of the utmost. In this original sketch, the heroine witnesses a horrible crime with awe and fear. If you look closely, the next frame is the final frame created from that quickie and numbered, six in scene "26". I don't know if I created the exact emotion the director needed, but she did want the heroine to show more anger and less fear in her face.

I captured the "less fear part!"

One of the "joys" of this job is utilizing one sketch, in this case, one thirty second sketch, to use as a base for other scenes. In the last sketch, numbered "61.6," I used the base sketch as starting point, if, for no other reason, because the portrait fits the frame's design. Unfortunately, much time is lost trying to make the subject matter fit in the space you are allotted.

It can become quite frustrating to have the client say, after the piece is completed, that it needs to be more to the right, or reduced, or enlarged. That's where Photoshop can come to the rescue.

Anyway, I've been lucky to be able to use this original sketch on more than one scene with only slight changes to satisfy the client.

Copyright 2015/ Ben Bensen III