I draw stick figures in rectangles. That's all you really need unless you're planning to show them to investors to try to get them to fund the movie.

I've seen Storyboard Artist, ?url? http://www.storyboardartist.com/artist.html?/url?, but it's quite expensive. I have not used it so I have no idea its capability.

Take photos of your actors. Body shots are fine, don't need sides, etc, but you can do that if you want your storyboards to look better. Use photoshop or similar tool to remove background and save.

Shoot some photos of the location from the angles you like. Crop them how you'd like each shot to be.

Use photoshop or similar program to put the actors into the location photos. Size them as appropriate, doesn't matter if resolution looks like crap here. We're talking placement primarily. Indicate if its the front or back of the person by blurring out the face (back) or writing back on the person.

If you are halfway decent with Photoshop they'll look okay and convey the basic composition to your DP.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Wow. That's a lot of work. I just write out a shot list.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Actually I've just been writing out a shotlist as well.

But taking photos of the desired setups at the location can help. Tell the DP to set it up so it matches (more or less). The DP doesn't need to know the rest of the composition so much as long as the director has some idea and is available with a few answers.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

What ever works!

I always hire a DP who's WAY better than me - we work as a team to get my vision across. I love the collaborative aspect of movie making and leave almost all the composition and angles and camera moves to the DP while I work with the actors.

hey guys thanks for all of the suggestions. i thin kim gonna just go with the stick figures and see how it goes

Once a Shotta always a shotta.
Movies are the motion of words.
Flying Buddha Productions, LLC.
flyingbuddhaproduction?gmail.com

Reminds me of American Splendor, when Harvey Pekar has his comics with just dialog and stick figures. Robert Crumb saw the raw potential and redrew it to make it Crumb's longest running comic. Stick figures are completely legit.

Another way is to take ppl (doesn't have to be the actors) and locations and make a snapshot book or even a VHS version like Robert Rodriguez has. Many people don't have the time to coordinate all of this stuff, but if you can - your get a good idea what the camera shots will REALLY look like as a result and you can consider other shots during production.

http://www.evestudios.com/