Anyone want a storyboarding mini-contest?

[Tenori Tejima]

I'm curious to see the difference in our paneling choices given one, same story scenario to draw. One scene, or one conversation, or one internal monologue—same story context given to all of us, but we choose our own camera angles, panel sizes, which objects to draw/focus on, what panel to end the page on, etc... It doesn't have to be a finished drawing, just a presentable draft will do. I'm just curious in what ways our choices would be different.

I often get this situation where I have two alternative ways to storyboard the same page, and I can't choose which I prefer better. Maybe seeing everyone's ways to storyboard the same scenario will help me figure out what my own tastes are...

[Suuper-san]

That would be quite fun actually, if we're given the dialogue/actions then it certainly would be interesting to see differences in composition.
I've always been planning to do this with my favourite film scripts to see how I would compose a comic given a good quality script.

Draft pages are also super quick to draw up, so it isn't a massive time investment as well.

I have two alternative ways to storyboard the same page, and I can't choose which I prefer better.

I have this all the time, on all sorts of design levels.
I would say just flip a coin in those situations. If one idea doesn't stand out above another then it probably doesn't matter which way you do it. You'll always have regrets over the idea that doesn't get chosen so might as well get over it quickly :P
And in the event you chose "wrongly", you'll probably notice quite quickly if it doesn't gel with the rest of your project.

[Coryn]

It's a neat idea! I'm no artist, but I'm curious what you should use as your source material. Borrow a scene from someone's story here on the forum, or perhaps redo a famous scene from a movie based only on the script? Both options sound fun to me, since you could crank these out relatively quickly, it might be a good idea to do multiple scenes from different sources to get some practice in.

[Suuper-san]

I think the major annoyance with doing a film you have seen is that you are probably influenced by the camera angles etc used in the film, so the result is something not quite original. Working from a novel might be an interesting challenge.

[Tenori Tejima]

I've heard somewhere that long shots should be more frequently used than close-up shots. Wondering if this has some bearing on what you should choose... A.k.a. given a fixed staring panel and a fixed ending panel for the page, the middle should go the layout with best-looking longshots.

[Suuper-san]

I personally don't have a method currently, I just cram whatever I can fit into the page and randomly choose panel sizes, as long as the panels flow alright and the scene doesn't cut to the next page awkwardly then it works for now. I'll probably improve my methods with experience though :P
From what I have seen of other works, there is a lot of flexibility in layouts, with some artists preferring more long shots, and others using more close shots.

But if your manga is action or romance or fantasy there will be a different focus. Romance will have a lot of close ups for facial expressions etc, whereas action will be mid to long shots, and fantasy might have more even larger shots to show the world and buildings etc.

[I wasn't thinking]

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