I’m so glad you found this helpful! And actually, I’ve been thinking about starting a challenge or a little club for artists who want to study composition and visual storytelling through movie stills. Would that be something you’d be interested in?
That sounds like a great idea, there’s so many resources online for learning about illustration techniques but I haven’t seen as much about how to learn the storytelling part!
I totally agree! I did a whole 5-week course on picture books, and I don’t remember storytelling being emphasized nearly enough. There should definitely be a separate course just for that! Maybe I can create one once I’ve learned it well enough myself 😄
Lovvvvveeeeeee this! I’m going to try this and then I’m also going to try this with my college students. I’ve been particularly blown away by compositions out of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Severance. I’m excited to make this into an assignment and see where it goes!
Ahh, I LOVE those shows. Especially Better Call Saul! It’s probably my top show of all time, and the cinematography is just breathtaking. That sounds like such a fantastic assignment, and I’d love to hear how your students engage with it! Hope you have fun experimenting with it yourself too!
This is excellent advice! I thumbnailed movies for a while on a plane last summer. I think it switched something on in my brain, because now I notice compositional details in nearly everything! Including my favorite reality garbage shows that I love dearly. 😬
This is exactly what happened to me! When I did light studies as part of my painting practice, I started noticing differences in color and contrast everywhere. Ever since I took a closer look at composition in cinematography, I can’t help but analyze every scene and wonder why a shot is framed a certain way. Just a few days ago, I watched a video about different light sources used on set, and now that’s my new hyperfocus! All I can think about is where the lamps were positioned on set.
Oh I bet focusing on light sources might give you some excellent new approaches to how you shoot photographs too. I just love how it's all connected! Might make a fun Substack post to write!
I love this! Sometimes I have an easier time identifying what is “good” and what “works” than creating what works from scratch. Gotta train my brain until it is more automatic! Great idea to use movie stills! Thanks for sharing
I totally get that! Recognizing what works is such a big step, and with enough practice, it definitely starts to feel more natural. Movie stills have been such a great way to train my eye. I hope you have fun experimenting with them too!
This is what makes me love Substack! Article line yours; with depth, honesty and kindness!! The illustrations and the story is awesome! I think you could develop it into a book and work on page turning; and deepens the storytelling part! It would make for a great children’s book about helping others, asking for help…
This means so much. Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I love the idea of exploring page turns. It's something I need to learn next. Definitely something to think about!
Wow! It’s such an interesting approach for learning about composition! And to be honest I’m also a nerd and I just love to learn something new and really get into it 🤭 I think I should try it too!
I also enjoy studying films (particularly animation) for composition. Lately, I've been pausing TV shows I watch to draw the stills. I use it to help me experiment with face shapes, eyes, and backgrounds!
I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have been drawing a lot from the Once Upon a Time TV series. I really like how they reimagined a lot of classic fairy tales, and some of the bad computer graphics aside, they have a variety of different settings to draw from!
No need to be embarrassed at all! That sounds like a fantastic source of inspiration. I'd love to see some of your drawings if you ever feel like sharing!
I love this Milena! I am doing this too and like are turning towards film and animation storyboard techniques to improve my composition work! Your progress so far is awesome and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Ahh, thank you so much! It’s so cool to hear you’re turning towards storyboards too. There’s just so much to learn from them! Have you found any particular techniques helpful? Looking forward to seeing your progress
So when I thought animation was the route for me, I took a storyboard course from an storyboard artist at Pixar. The tips that have stayed with me from that course that I try to keep are the following:
1. It’s some of the older film that have some of the best ‘unusual’ camera angles. Especially Hitchcock films. Although you can try any film, it was ones created in the 50s and 60s films that had the breakthrough angles.
2. Just focus on using black and white rather than colour. Use greyscale and like 2/3 pens or just a pencil max rather than trying to recreate each frame in colour.
3. Just focus on the camera angle, pose of characters and expression. It doesn’t need to look like the characters at all, it’s the essence of the frame you are trying to capture.
4. Focus on key story moments rather than every frame. Most storyboard artists just map out the key story moments first then fill the space with the ‘animation’ frames later. For illustration I think that’s good because otherwise doing every frame takes forever when I’m just trying to practice some story moments!
5. Try and draw the frame in the camera frame size it was filmed in. You can easily google what frame size the film was in so 16:8 or widescreen etc.
I have a list of books on storyboarding too which are very good if you are interested.
This is such a goldmine of advice. Thank you for sharing! I love the idea of studying older films for unusual angles. Using black and white makes so much sense too. I’d definitely be interested in those book recommendations if you don’t mind sharing!
This is such a great approach, thanks for sharing - it’s definitely something I could try myself as I struggle with composition to tell a story
I’m so glad you found this helpful! And actually, I’ve been thinking about starting a challenge or a little club for artists who want to study composition and visual storytelling through movie stills. Would that be something you’d be interested in?
That sounds like a great idea, there’s so many resources online for learning about illustration techniques but I haven’t seen as much about how to learn the storytelling part!
I totally agree! I did a whole 5-week course on picture books, and I don’t remember storytelling being emphasized nearly enough. There should definitely be a separate course just for that! Maybe I can create one once I’ve learned it well enough myself 😄
I love this so much. I struggle with creating good compositions, so I definitely will give this practice a shot.
Thank you! So happy to hear that. Hope you have fun with the practice!
Love this approach, really made me think!
That’s great to hear!
I completely agree. Filmmaking references are really powerful. They pull out all the stops in story telling.
So true, well-said :)
Lovvvvveeeeeee this! I’m going to try this and then I’m also going to try this with my college students. I’ve been particularly blown away by compositions out of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Severance. I’m excited to make this into an assignment and see where it goes!
Ahh, I LOVE those shows. Especially Better Call Saul! It’s probably my top show of all time, and the cinematography is just breathtaking. That sounds like such a fantastic assignment, and I’d love to hear how your students engage with it! Hope you have fun experimenting with it yourself too!
I totally agree, if is my top too! The humor, emotional depth, the visual story telling…it is just soooo good.
I’ll keep you posted! :)
This is excellent advice! I thumbnailed movies for a while on a plane last summer. I think it switched something on in my brain, because now I notice compositional details in nearly everything! Including my favorite reality garbage shows that I love dearly. 😬
This is exactly what happened to me! When I did light studies as part of my painting practice, I started noticing differences in color and contrast everywhere. Ever since I took a closer look at composition in cinematography, I can’t help but analyze every scene and wonder why a shot is framed a certain way. Just a few days ago, I watched a video about different light sources used on set, and now that’s my new hyperfocus! All I can think about is where the lamps were positioned on set.
Oh I bet focusing on light sources might give you some excellent new approaches to how you shoot photographs too. I just love how it's all connected! Might make a fun Substack post to write!
Yes, great post. Definitely interested!
This is so smart/helpful. Thank you for sharing!
My pleasure!
This was a great read!! Thank you for sharing all your tips and I’m definitely going to try this!!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you found it helpful. Have fun trying it out, and I’d love to hear how it goes for you!
I love this! Sometimes I have an easier time identifying what is “good” and what “works” than creating what works from scratch. Gotta train my brain until it is more automatic! Great idea to use movie stills! Thanks for sharing
I totally get that! Recognizing what works is such a big step, and with enough practice, it definitely starts to feel more natural. Movie stills have been such a great way to train my eye. I hope you have fun experimenting with them too!
This is what makes me love Substack! Article line yours; with depth, honesty and kindness!! The illustrations and the story is awesome! I think you could develop it into a book and work on page turning; and deepens the storytelling part! It would make for a great children’s book about helping others, asking for help…
This means so much. Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I love the idea of exploring page turns. It's something I need to learn next. Definitely something to think about!
Wow! It’s such an interesting approach for learning about composition! And to be honest I’m also a nerd and I just love to learn something new and really get into it 🤭 I think I should try it too!
Yes!! Fellow nerds unite! I’ve found this approach so helpful. You should definitely try it! If you do, I’d love to see what you come up with!
I also enjoy studying films (particularly animation) for composition. Lately, I've been pausing TV shows I watch to draw the stills. I use it to help me experiment with face shapes, eyes, and backgrounds!
That's brilliant. Do you have any favorite shows or movies you’ve been pausing lately? I’d love to know!
I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have been drawing a lot from the Once Upon a Time TV series. I really like how they reimagined a lot of classic fairy tales, and some of the bad computer graphics aside, they have a variety of different settings to draw from!
No need to be embarrassed at all! That sounds like a fantastic source of inspiration. I'd love to see some of your drawings if you ever feel like sharing!
Sure, I'd be happy to send you a few! Warning: I draw them in the dark, so they're no masterpieces 😆 I also like to use them for value studies!
I love this Milena! I am doing this too and like are turning towards film and animation storyboard techniques to improve my composition work! Your progress so far is awesome and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Ahh, thank you so much! It’s so cool to hear you’re turning towards storyboards too. There’s just so much to learn from them! Have you found any particular techniques helpful? Looking forward to seeing your progress
So when I thought animation was the route for me, I took a storyboard course from an storyboard artist at Pixar. The tips that have stayed with me from that course that I try to keep are the following:
1. It’s some of the older film that have some of the best ‘unusual’ camera angles. Especially Hitchcock films. Although you can try any film, it was ones created in the 50s and 60s films that had the breakthrough angles.
2. Just focus on using black and white rather than colour. Use greyscale and like 2/3 pens or just a pencil max rather than trying to recreate each frame in colour.
3. Just focus on the camera angle, pose of characters and expression. It doesn’t need to look like the characters at all, it’s the essence of the frame you are trying to capture.
4. Focus on key story moments rather than every frame. Most storyboard artists just map out the key story moments first then fill the space with the ‘animation’ frames later. For illustration I think that’s good because otherwise doing every frame takes forever when I’m just trying to practice some story moments!
5. Try and draw the frame in the camera frame size it was filmed in. You can easily google what frame size the film was in so 16:8 or widescreen etc.
I have a list of books on storyboarding too which are very good if you are interested.
This is such a goldmine of advice. Thank you for sharing! I love the idea of studying older films for unusual angles. Using black and white makes so much sense too. I’d definitely be interested in those book recommendations if you don’t mind sharing!
Of course! Always happy to share resources with everyone!
So some of the books I was recommended that I bought and loved were:
- Professional Storyboarding by Sergio Paez & Anson Jew
- The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives by Lajos Egri
- Directing the Story by Francis Glebas
- Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald
- On Directing Film by David Mamet
This was also the reading list that was shared with me during the course which has some of the same and some other great books to read:
https://miseenscene101.blogspot.com/2014/01/recommended-reading.html
Buenísimos tips
Gracias!
Love this article! Thank you.