Posted by Jon
A couple of weeks back, I took my son to London’s Science Museum, to their fantastic exhibition about the first 20 years of the Pixar film/animation studio. Benedict was enthralled by the original sketches of from Nemo, Toy Story and more; I was captivated by the descriptions of their storyboarding process.
A couple of weeks back, I took my son to London’s Science Museum, to their fantastic exhibition about the first 20 years of the Pixar film/animation studio. Benedict was enthralled by the original sketches of from Nemo, Toy Story and more; I was captivated by the descriptions of their storyboarding process.
One member of their team takes an element of the overall storyline and works on it in detail. They’ll sketch a page for each scene – with the emphasis on the plot and key activities that move the story on, rather than on the detail or accuracy of the drawing. Once they’ve completed the section, they’ll pitch the material to their colleagues – who’ll throw in bright ideas in a highly energetic session, and deface the storyboard with numerous yellow post-its. The individual then heads back to his or her desk, to rework the material.
Compare and contrast with many proposal teams. Proposal storyboarding is often accomplished via group discussion of a particular section / question; the team’s subsequent ability to stand back from their own work to bring creative new ideas is inevitably inhibited. We need to remember to bring in fresh pairs of eyes if we want to generate those constructively critical comments and to maximise the creative potential from proposal storyboarding.
The other obvious difference is that Pixar’s storyboards are pictorial: after all, their ultimate deliverable is a cartoon. Proposal teams deliver text-heavy documents, and therefore their storyboards are often very textual (even filled in on pre-printed forms). “Draw me a picture” can be an incredibly powerful intervention when you’re trying to get content contributors to design cool answers, even if you’re not going to use the graphic in the final document.
If you’re interested, the exhibition’s only on until the 11 June. It’s well worth a trip across town, if you happen to be in London.
Compare and contrast with many proposal teams. Proposal storyboarding is often accomplished via group discussion of a particular section / question; the team’s subsequent ability to stand back from their own work to bring creative new ideas is inevitably inhibited. We need to remember to bring in fresh pairs of eyes if we want to generate those constructively critical comments and to maximise the creative potential from proposal storyboarding.
The other obvious difference is that Pixar’s storyboards are pictorial: after all, their ultimate deliverable is a cartoon. Proposal teams deliver text-heavy documents, and therefore their storyboards are often very textual (even filled in on pre-printed forms). “Draw me a picture” can be an incredibly powerful intervention when you’re trying to get content contributors to design cool answers, even if you’re not going to use the graphic in the final document.
If you’re interested, the exhibition’s only on until the 11 June. It’s well worth a trip across town, if you happen to be in London.