Disney Interactive Computer Games Storyboard (Patreon)

I'm not entirely sure how to format these posts, because I realize it might be extremely difficult to read my handwriting and Patreon is not friendly to embedding images.  But basically, after I write the script, the next step is to plan how I'm going to illustrate each point, either through shots that I film or through editing. I started doing these "storyboards" after the PPG Chemical XTraction video because I realized I wasn't filming enough footage to cover everything, and it just got easier as the videos got more complicated to pre-plan every shot.

These aren't traditional storyboards, but more like thumbnail sketches with notes.  If you watch back the Disney Interactive Computer Games video, you might be able to figure out which shots are referenced here, if you can't tell from the drawings and chicken scratch. I sure hope these are ledgible enough that you at least have some idea of what you're looking at.

So the way these are formatted is I'll have a line from the script referenced and numbered so that I know the general length and timeline of each frame, and then a thumbnail sketch to illustrate the frame. Not every single shot is illustrated though, for example if it's just my head talking to the camera I'll usually write "Talking head" or if I'm going to splice in footage of something I'll write that down, like "Clip of logo from said company." For more complicated shots or edits sometimes more descriptive text is needed, like the Tinkerbell animation, but since my handwriting is garbage usually the more important things to reference are just the order of the filmed shots, since usually I edit the video around the voiceover and need to splice in anything with camera audio.

Fun fact, you probably noticed the computer used in the final video is not actually an older machine. I probably got it in around 2008/2009. I tried to track down more authentic looking hardware, but it turns out people recycle old computers and monitors so most of them don't get re-sold at thrift stores. I eventually found a monitor, mouse and keyboard I could borrow from a recycling place, but because computers contain sensitive information I wasn't allowed to take any towers. So for any shots of the tower I just tried to get reeeally tight on it so you couldn't notice a lot of those details. 

This part right here is a deleted scene. Initially I had a bit in there about a hidden clickable object in the Hercules Animated Story Book. It would have this guy scream "THE END IS COMING!" but no animation would play, and it was referenced again several times throughout the game. As a kid I found this alternately terrifying and hilarious, but ultimately I would have had to talk more about the otherwise boring game to fit it in, and I just figured I'd talked enough about things that scared me in the video already.

If I had it to do over, I might have cut the Mahjong joke too. It's a big part of the Mulan game to me, so it's worth talking about, but I feel like the joke slows down the video and isn't all that funny. Just one of those things where if I had a bit more time to work on the video I could have found a funnier way to illustrate it probably, but I made this one in two weeks and then jetted off to Japan, so it was the way it was. 

The original joke I had for the end of the video, instead of a Rickroll, was to actually play the song and "complete strangers" burst in out of nowhere to sing along to it, and illustrate the power of "Be a Man." But it just so happened that a snow storm hit that week so none of my friends could get to my apartment to act as extras for the gag, and I had to cut it. In the end I think the Rickroll is funnier anyway.

This last bit is a way to keep track of which shots I still needed to film. I also filmed a few things for the Educational Games video at the same time because the plan was to get it up immediately after I got back from Japan. Eheheh...

So yeah, now that I know I'm gonna be sharing these eventually, I'll make more of an effort to keep my handwriting neater. But hopefully this gives you a bit of a glimpse into the process of actually making these more complicated videos! Not everyone does storyboards or even takes notes like these, but I found that they really help me get enough footage so I end up with fewer jokes that just don't work.