Filmmaking Basics/Thumbnail Storyboard/Examples/Example 1

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This is an example Thumbnail Storyboard

Start with a wide shot
In this example, we start with a wide shot from behind the people.. In this view we see the two people looking at the movie poster on the wall. Then we dolly in to get a better view of the movie poster.

Thumbnail Storyboard Example #1

The Thumbnail Storyboards for "Seduced by the Dark Side"

EXTERIOR - The local movie theater - NIGHT

Fade In

Dolly In

(1) The Young Person and Old Person stand looking at the movie poster outside the theater.

  • I want to start with an establishing shot which shows two people looking at the poster on the side wall of a local cinema. After two seconds of street sounds, I want to start the "Star Wars" musical theme as the poster becomes larger in the frame as the camera dollies in.
    I want to stretch this out as much as possible so once the camera is close enough to the poster to start the music for the poster, I want the camera to slow down and move steadily inward at the music plays for a full five seconds.
  • Note: This is a wide angle shot to give the feeling of being far apart.
    The camera slowly dollies in. (Example: a 24mm lens in 35mm still camera equivalents)




Pedestal Down

(2) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."

  • I want the young person to begin talking before the audience even sees the young person's face.




Dolly Left

(3) Young Person (continued): "but I do not understand one thing."

  • After the camera dollies in and it dollies left (trucks left), I want to see the face of the boy as he turns toward the old person (and toward the camera.)




Cut To

(4) Old Person: "What's that?"

  • I want to use a wide angle shot to emphasize the emotional distance between the two characters.




Cut To

(5) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"

  • I still want to use a wide angle shot but not as wide as before. I still want the audience to feel that the two people are emotionally very far apart.




Cut To

(6) The old person thinks for a while.

  • Now I want to become more emotionally involved with the old person. Therefore, I will begin using a mild telephoto lens. I want to pause for three seconds as "thinking music" plays. This will build tension.




(7) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"

  • I want to use a mild telephoto (85 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)




Cut To

(8) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"

  • I want to use a mild telephoto (85 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent). Just enough to feel some warmth to the scene but not too much.
  • For music, I just want a single musical note in the background, possibly angelic voices.




Cut To

(9) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"

  • Now I want to use a telephoto lens to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)
  • Before the man speaks, I want about 2 seconds of music to indicate that he knows what he is doing.




Cut To

(10) The young person thinks for a moment.

  • I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)
  • I want to stretch this out as long as possible. Therefore, I want five seconds of "Serious Thinking Music" to fill this gap in the dialog.




(11) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"

  • I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)
  • To emphasize this, once the young person says this, I want a (musical) cord from the "Star Wars" theme.




Cut To

(12) The Old Person smiles.

  • Now I want to use portrait telephoto lense to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent). Again, I want to stretch this out as long as possible so I want really powerful music here which is very warm and happy.




Cut To

(13) Old Person and the Young Person walk toward home together.

  • I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent).
    This is shot full frame of just the old person and the young person. The rest is a matte painting. The dolly out shot will be done simply by compositing this into the matte painting and zooming out.
    Since the actual movie set is just a blank wall and a movie poster, everything else is a matte painting. Threrefore, I can use a 3D animated matte painting with characters from the Star Wars movie walking around the streets in front of the movie cinema. And of course, I want great music to associate the scene with the space port in Star Wars.




(14) Fade to Black.




The End

Point Of Reference:

This scene will be filmed outside the line. (Away from the poster = In the pink area). Therefore, the camera will never cross the line.


The Floor Plan for the Movie

The Next Page

  • Look at the other examples by going to the index at the top of this page.

Contact your instructor

Your instructor for this filmmaking class is Robert Elliott. You can email me by clicking here.