Story animator, head of the Latvian Animation Association Anna Zacha
One of the most important components of the process of making a feature film is the script – it is the basis of everything and it is already clear from it what the film will be. In an animated film, the most important part of the process is the storyboard.
A shot plan is a visual outline of a film’s story that shows exactly how the elements that make up the film will be arranged within each act. It’s reminiscent of comics, but much more detailed and subtle. Marks are made on the shot plan, both for the action taking place and for the soundtrack, camera movement and other details. Some directors of animated films work without a script – first and foremost creating a shot plan.
The superpower of animation is the representation of the story in a visual form, using the possibilities provided by the imagination, therefore the shot plan is one of the most important stages in the preparation of the film.
So, for example, in an animated film, a plate can roll in the sky and turn into a moon, and the moon in the sky can turn into cheese, and all this will seem logical and understandable directly in a visual form, not in written form. It is this ability of visual storytelling in animation that makes the shot plan the “bible of the animated film”, or the document on which all decisions in the making of the film are based.
One of the first to use shot plans in the making of his films was the French silent film director and illusionist Georges Méliès. On the other hand, the animation film studio Disney managed to make shot planning a separate profession in the cinema industry.
The shot plan is usually created by the director or a specially invited artist. Its creation requires not only the abilities of an artist, but also knowledge of the language of cinema. The detail of the shot plan often depends on whether the director is a film artist and animator – in this case, the shot plan is a planning tool. However, if the film is created in a huge team, where each blade of grass has its own animator, then the shot plan also becomes a communication tool in the work process.
In the field of animation and cinema, professional framers work with major directors and film studios, such as Aardman for Shaun the Sheep The Movie and Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. “Grand hotel Budapest” and “French dispatch” are one shot plan artist Jay Clarke.
Today, there is a wide spectrum of shot plans and their derivatives: both in animation and in other fields of cinema, some are technically clear and precise, while others are visually exciting and aesthetically pleasing. Among moviegoers, they are also given the status of a work of art, especially when they are created by the hands of the director himself. Among such works, we can mention the works of feature film directors Ridley Scott, Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa, and in the world of animation – the shot plans made by Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones and Bill Plimpton.
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