Reading Material

So, as i progress through my course it is only natural to be reading up on some of the differnt areas. At the moment we are in the narratives stage of the course, for our first year. So time to get some books out.

Off i trot to the boots library in nottingham to go and explore. I enter through the doors with ease, walk up the steps, and into the main lobby. Heres where the fun starts. I first get stuck at the gates, looking like a numpty not knowing how to get in. Which way does the card go!! After dodgy looks from others and 2 minutes later, i manage to get through. I find a computer and look up 4 of the books on the reading list. I then venture round in hope of finding them. Luckly they all happend to be on the first floor, however unfortunatly, i could only find one of the 4 books, sigh.
This happend to be: the art of storyboard by john hart. Probaly the last one i wanted to read but hey, i was gonna read it anyway.

It basicaly does what it sais on the tin. It gives an introduction and history to storyboarding. Telling you the facts and details, which artists did what when and how for starters. Which is all quite straight forward. Further on you start to grasp the concepts of what is trying to be said. The author john hart explains why it is so important to have storyboards for the narrative and continuity of a film. Storyboarding is the exoskelton of the narrative, this can then be used by others to work with. Without this aid of preplanning, continuity and the narrative itself can be lost, which in turn creates a poor finished piece of work. It gives structure to the whole operation of creating a piece of work, whether that be a film, animation or an advert for example.
This makes me reflect on my first peice of work, did we think about the narrative enough? could we have done a shot differnetly for better results? After reading some of this book, i can see that the narrative is the foundation of the finished piece. It is important to see what you have done and evaluate it, before it gets to far in, otherwize it could be wrong.
But i shall continue! The book carrys forward the same concepts of storyboarding, but delves into art, and how to draw. Although this is handy as you pick up minor tips, it is just showing you basic art skills. This said, it does however open your eyes to important aspects of drawing for this kind of thing. Such as lighting, motion, framing, shots etc.
Overall this book is fairly good. It gives relevant and important concepts of storyboarding and how they relate to film and media. ^_^