Storyboard Panel of the Day

This is scene 44, a short little moment where they find out Oz will see them, but one per day starting tomorrow.

I like the absurdity of going from this big, grandiose tracking shot through the entire city to this one cramped little static shot of our heroes getting totally halted when their goal seemed within reach.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

This was another example of a moment where it was kind of weird to be Mariellen.

I wanted to do this whole big shot tracking with them through the streets of the city and slowly revealing bits and pieces of it. So I'd have her start back on the end of the screen, walk forward, and then look in a certain direction just before she ran out of walking room. The camera would move up off her in that direction, ostensibly focusing on some beautiful piece of scenery. Great, cut.

Then I'd have her step back to the beginning of the screen, start walking again, and I'd move the camera back down onto her from the direction I went in at the end of the last take, and she'd again look up at something imaginary as the camera went up for that. We did four or five of these, the idea being that we'll bridge them all with some cool imagery and have this one long, awesome take until they reach the Wizard's spire.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

I think this contraption is probably the coolest thing I ever thought up. And I've probably peaked already...

Totally and completely impractical, but whatever. It's a fantasy movie, right?

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Whoops, so I ended up being surprise away from home all day yesterday. And I notice the storyboard panel didn't upload itself, unfortunately. Here's a twofer to make up for yesterday.

It's like a Memorial Day miracle or something. Unless you're not in the United States. Or don't have really low standards for miracles...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

When I was about eight my hot babysitter loaned me a tape of her elementary school's Wizard of Oz stageplay. She was a Munchkin who had one line.

I watched the whole thing anyway, and I was super excited when they got to the Emerald City and actually did the stuff with the green glasses. Tickled me that they put that detail in, even though their play was pretty much straight MGM, otherwise.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Sometimes I have fun doing these. It's rare, but it happens.

Also, have you ever taken a moment to really drink in Denslow's Guardian of the Gates? That is one SERIOUSLY creepy dude...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Holy Hell, they've made it ALREADY!

And the Wizard is a level-headed, reasonable old man and in no way a creepy demanding floating head, sexy puppet, terrible monster, or on fire. He selflessly decides to help our heroes out with no thought of his own reward, and Dorothy is home before Aunt Em even has a chance to look at the brochure for cheap replacement children from Vietnam. The end.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Let me be totally clear... NO, Dorothy does NOT randomly get reunited with Aunt Em in the middle of our adaptation...

It's just... I only know how to draw one kind of farmhouse and one kind of matronly period hairdo...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

While going through all the raw footage for these storyboards, I would occasionally find a shot that is startlingly competent, which I had no recollection of filming. I wonder if Sean or Amy were sneaking cool shots while I was in the bathroom or singing the Ting Tings...

This is one such shot, of course its cool factor comes almost entirely from the way the camera moves. Which you are not getting in this format. Dang.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Any time I can do an entire scripted scene in one shot, I'm extraordinarily happy, for some reason. Like the happiest person you've ever seen. I don't know what it is.

This bad boy emerging from the field took five panels. Five continuous panels, though. But this is the only one of them you get to see. Gotta save SOME stuff for the movie, amirite?

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Oh yeah, remember this girl? Sort of an important part of the story, there.

Unless you're Gregory Maguire, I guess.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

I wanted this to be just-barely low angle shot, but it ended up looking like Woodman and Scarecrow are randomly giants.

Guess that means I can't just hand the storyboards over to some effects guys and quit. Damn...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Oh man, you guys. This sequence...

That's really all I have to say.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Oh God, oh God... Totally INCORRECT perspective... This is why I never wanted to do storyboards...

Hopefully I'll be able to get away with having the Bobcat head in there. It'll be out of focus, so... c'mon. Who's even going to know?

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Oh God, oh God... PERSPECTIVE! It hurts...

This was actually way easier to draw than yesterday's. I don't get it either. Nevertheless, weird dialogue scene to wrap your head around.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

I'll be really glad when we've moved on from the fields and forests. Believe it or not, they're harder to wrap your head around and draw than the other environments.

So, today's L. Frank Baum's birthday, as some of you may well know. I didn't have the time to really do something special, but I wanted to somehow at least mark the day and make it a little different. So here's a thing I whipped up earlier in the week that didn't end up being used.

I just wanted to get a look at the two of them together. It's sorta cute.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Poor Mare even had to lower herself gently to the ground. Steve and Sean and their hammock would only get in the way.

Like actually. One of them would be in front of the camera.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

SPOILER ALERT: The Lion did not make it out of the poppy field.

On the plus side, he finally gets his turn in extreme foreground...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Oh God, Scarecrow's pointing again. And in foreground, this time.

Somebody put an END to the MADNESS!

Storyboard Panel of the Day

"I'd like to craft a scenario which would give somebody carpal tunnel should they ever attempt to illustrate it in tiny rectangles." -L. Frank Baum, November, 1888

"I'd like to abet!" -Sean Gates, November, 2003

It's going to be difficult to get the audience rooting for Scarecrow and Woodman to wake Toto up. Terriers look so precious while they're sleeping.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Sometimes you've just gotta go Dutch.

Some of you are going to be terrified, thinking this movie is mostly Dutch angles... But despite the fact that you've only seen about a third of the shots so far, I think you have seen EVERY Dutch angle shot...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

And all of a sudden it's turned into Sin City. This is actually the very first shot of the poppy field sequence, and you may notice half a "Cont." up the right side. The continuation of this move is sort of all about the increasing density of poppies, and so I needed some way to differentiate them from the rest of the flowers in the field. All the ink shading options felt... ugly, so I went for digital color instead.

That said, once the poppies have been established their presence is taken as a given, so all the poppy shots will not have red coloration. This was just a special case where some additional info needed to be communicated.

Storyboard Panel of the Day... And Also A Dog

While this is only the third to last shot in the Stork sequence, this is the last panel YOU all are going to see. So say goodbye to the river, tomorrow it's all poppies all the time!

In other, more interesting news, Sean announced a little something on the Facebook last night, about the casting of a certain Cairn terrier whose name is Wiley. I figured I'd mention it here for those of you who do not check the Facebook with any sort of regularity. There will be some more information on the website sometime in the near future.

Is that not the cutest thing ever? Think about it, that adorable little face answers to the name "Wiley." That's better than anything else I can think of.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

And finally the moment is here, the stork to the rescue! Scarecrow of course, having not been present at the development stage of this whole scenario, finds himself a little perplexed by all this.

I missed having that guy around. Anyone else?

Storyboard Panel of the Day

I may not have been able to find reference for Lion's feet swimming underwater, but there were a SURPRISING number of stork feet images available for my reference.

The internet is so weird...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

It's not often I show you a shot and then its reverse!

In this case they're not consecutive. Silly Lion and his interjections.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

The stork's pretty nervous about that lion guy.

Is that racism? I mean she's assuming that he's dangerous based solely on his species... That seems not okay, Ms. Stork.

Storyboard Panel of the Day

So yeah, this is why I was doing stork puns yesterday, in case you've never read the book and didn't know.

But if you HAVEN'T read the book... You're kind of spoiling the movie for yourself by looking at this stuff...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

With Scarecrow temporarily missing from the group, somebody had to step up and take the role of "person who points at things." Dorothy drew the short straw.

Whoa, we're exactly halfway through the script! And it only took exactly 100 posts.... Too drawn out? Maybe. But you guys should stork around and see what happens next! Get it? I said stork. Because... Y'know... Somebody get my back on this one...

Storyboard Panel of the Day

Sean wrote a very description-heavy script. He was concerned that anybody reading it would be unable to remove themselves from the MGM film when imagining these scenarios, so he was very careful to highlight distinct differences wherever they arose. He's bemoaned this fact to me in the past, saying that if he'd known he was going to be working with another book fan he would have backed off a little, but it's actually kind of nice. Specifically, Sean's a cat guy, so he's really good at making you remember that the lion is... y'know... a lion, and not, say... a heavy-set guy in a costume. "The Lion is shivering, his teeth chattering, and he looks oddly thin and pathetic, his fur matted and wet." That's what the script said in this instance. But generally there's a lot of back-arching and chop-licking.

Plus robot-guys stuck upside down in the sand is funny. Ask Walter Murch. Guy knows...