Spielberg on STORYBOARDING

I've found some more footage of Spielberg discussing his 'pre-visualization' phase of storyboarding on 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' for British TV. Plus an old Q&A from the Cinema Dome in 2013 where he discusses the footage that follows- Harrison Ford dismissing his storyboards on the set!
Following that is some 'Jurassic Park' boards then some good footage of Spielberg evolving his process from boarding to CG pre-viz on 'War of the Worlds'.
See my SPIELBERG playlist for more.

[A_RayChan_Joint]

when I saw that ad from werner herzog masterclass saying storyboards takes away the creativity, that filmmaking isn't accounting and it's for cowards. I disagree, this is a great example on how storyboard/previs importance to a film's time, budget and even allows room for creativity. Storyboards are not set in stone, they're a road map, and a foundation to visualize the script. It makes sense since Herzog is a great documentary filmmaker, that type of film making allows spontaneous and natural progression of it's subject.
It still surprises me to find that some big budget films were shot without using storyboarding, and films still goes over time and budget and countless amounts of reshoots without a proper preparation at the start, rather than relying on the editors to work their way out at the end.

nice channel by the way.

[Jer-]

I was a Hollywood storyboard artist. Worked on big ones (like "Titanic", "Independence Day", and "The Game") and more little ones than I can count. Also worked in animation on "Rugrats". Here's the thing though. This video makes it look easy. In fact, it's quite tedious and time consuming. The average script page requires about 20 pictures (and the average script is about 120 pages long). How long would it take you to draw 20 pictures? For me, I could handle about 2 pages of rough sketches a day and half a page of good drawings (like the ones shown in this video) a day. So the length of time it would take for one artist to board out a whole script (in good pictures) would take longer than the time it takes to actually shoot the movie! Fortunately, most directors don't need storyboards for the easy scenes (like conversations around a dinner table), but only for the action scenes or special effects scenes, which cuts the work load down some. Also, most big movies have several storyboard artists, instead of just one - which cuts the workload down even more. Still... it's long, tedious, stay-up-all-night work, and storyboard artists don't even get a mention on the credits. At least, I never did!

[samuelalvarez_art]

Took 5mins in until I realized Spielberg did not draw the finished story board. At the start I was stunned how well he could "draw".

[_tacocat_]

Harrison: I'm gonna get some mustard

[arawn]

Dave Stevens, Master illustrator, storyboarded the truck chase sequences for Raiders. Dave Stevens went on to create "The Rocketeer" comic series (a story that took place in the same 1940's "Raiders" era), which in turn became a famous graphic novel; Which in turn became a film in 1991 produced by Disney starring Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly. I suggest checking both the movie and "The Rocketeer" graphic novel out; They're both Great!

[johnnysciortino]

12:24 Those pre-viz claymation animations for Jurassic park are awesome! Must have been somewhat normal before CGI pre-vis was practical

[Jer-]

One more thing: Every director I worked with was different. Some of them explained exactly what they wanted in each picture. Others just had me read the script and draw whatever I saw fit. When I was done, some directors followed my storyboards almost exactly. Others did something completely different, as though they had never even seen my drawings - which made me wonder why they hired me in the first place! Then, there were those in between, that followed some shots, but disregarded others. Oh well...I got paid either way!

[ericdavidwallace]

This was so informative and helpful (and well Made) thank you so much for creating this video. Steven and George have always been the biggest influence on my film making career. I went to Dream Works as a kid during the making on the film "Small Soldiers" and it blew my mind that this was a job "Grown Up's" did for a living.

[lore_droid]

The mechanical arm that was originally visualized by Spielberg for Toht makes an appearance! Great stuff!

[snapdragon]

6:50 - "Im guna get some mustard..." / "Suspense is really killing you, Harry?!"

[CanonballKryptoTheKryptonautsI]

Awesome vid. I've been thinking of focusing my productivity on the Storyboards... This video convinced me, thanks

[danielog]

it is actually a good lesson from an actor to a storyboard artist, the fact that Harrison Ford walked out on Spielberg... goes to show, that actors are not necessarily visual thinkers, and reviewing the movie like that, is probably very confusing... more complicated than helpfull

[electricden]

Fascinating stuff. For Raiders the comic book artist Jim Steranko did the original post production paintings, which I've seen in making off books, but not so much the storyboards. Apart from being possibly added as an extra feature on a Blu-Ray have these ever been published seperately?

[BigMacIIx]

And this why movies back then was consistent story telling. Nowadays producers have no idea about the end product after multiple reshoots.

[axistiltproductions]

Now I want to watch Raiders and Jurassic and War of the Worlds, where are those DVD's? Love the video and the Director since I was a kid. I still look up to Spielberg and wait for his next movies like i was 10 again.

[RinoaL]

Can't hear half the audio starting near 1/3rd through the video.

[SantsLime]

And here I am after realize that being a director means:

To know how to manage people and money as well as making sure that everything is happening on time.

[Jer-]

Ha! Don't know about that association, but I was a member of I.A.T.S.E. Illustrators and Matte Painters division.

[harrysanders]

Thank you. This was extremely interesting

[JasonHauser]

Harrison Ford was awesome as Han and Indy. Ford was also an asshole and he just gradually turned into an even older and more ornery asshole until we have the man we have today.