{"id":58824,"date":"2025-10-03T21:07:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58824\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:07:22","slug":"brave-director-mark-andrews-storyboarding-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58824\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Brave’ Director Mark Andrews Storyboarding Masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Master story artist and director Mark Andrews was in M\u00e1laga this past weekend for the first-ever San Diego Comic-Con held outside of the U.S. There, he hosted two sold-out storyboarding masterclasses that were part improv comedy, part learning experience, and part career retrospective.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-winning director of Brave \u2014 whose credits also include The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, tons of iconic TV shows, and several live-action blockbusters \u2014 didn\u2019t just talk about storyboarding. He did it, right there in front of the audience, stylus flying across his tablet while answering rapid-fire questions from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, for the next 40 minutes, I\u2019m just going to storyboard for you,\u201d Andrews started. \u201cAnd you guys feel free to ask me any questions about what I\u2019m doing. Sound good?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a return to a format Andrews first pioneered at Pixar when he taught the studio\u2019s internal storyboarding courses. \u201cOne time I was really behind on my work,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSo instead of teaching that day, I just sat down and started storyboarding. I said, \u2018Ask me any question you want, guys, as I\u2019m storyboarding.\u2019 They were blown away seeing the process live and in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story From Nothing<\/p>\n

The audience helped Andrews improvise a scenario as he called out requests like a comedian would. One person suggested a \u201chalf-dragon, half-dwarf woman,\u201d and another shouted out \u201cBaby Jack-Jack\u201d from The Incredibles. Andrews grinned: \u201cAll right \u2014 half-dragon, half-dwarf woman dealing with Baby Jack-Jack. I have no idea how that\u2019s going to work\u2026 but let\u2019s find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began sketching an opening scene on the screen \u2014 a wide shot of a volcano leading down to a forest trail where the dragon-woman trudges along with an axe on her shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, what we start with is an exposition shot,\u201d he explained. \u201cWho, what, where, when \u2014 that\u2019s the baggage before the story begins. The why and how is the story. So right now I\u2019m thinking, where do we usually find half-dragons? Fantasy. Maybe a tavern, but that\u2019s a lot of pencil mileage. Let\u2019s do a volcano.\u201d<\/p>\n

The room laughed as Andrews narrated every stroke, thinking out loud: \u201cI\u2019m moving the camera down through the trees\u2026 putting a ground plane in so I know where my character sits\u2026 visual storytelling is everything in the shot. Not just character, but background, light, space.\u201d<\/p>\n

He worked fast, talking about composition, perspective, and emotional beats. \u201cI\u2019m not animating this thing, for Christ\u2019s sake,\u201d he said at one point, to big laughs. \u201cI\u2019m telling the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visual Storytelling<\/p>\n

After getting over initial nerves, the audience warmed up and began peppering Andrews with questions. One asked how his boards translate to live-action filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisual storytelling is visual storytelling,\u201d Andrews replied. \u201cWhen I worked with Sam Raimi on Spider-Man, his motto was: \u2018You draw it, I shoot it.\u2019 He didn\u2019t want to think about setting up the shots. All the cinematography happened up front. In live action, backgrounds are often left out of storyboards. I think that\u2019s a mistake. I always drew them in so the layouts and camera team knew exactly what I was thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Another asked about modern storyboarding trends, specifically, the rise of highly detailed, almost animated boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a waste of time,\u201d Andrews said bluntly, to murmurs of agreement. \u201cEditorial tools are so fast now that people put in blinks and acting and anticipation because they can\u2019t project ahead what it\u2019s going to look like. But that\u2019s the last 5%. The more time you spend animating your boards, the less time you have to think about story. That\u2019s why 90% of storyboards I see today suck; they\u2019re not telling a story, just using the same five shots over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advice for Aspiring Artists<\/p>\n

One of the most practical moments came when a young attendee asked how to apply for Pixar\u2019s storied internships.<\/p>\n

\u201cApply,\u201d Andrews said with a grin, before getting serious. \u201cFor visual development, they want to see range. Characters, environments, castles in many different styles. Thousands of drawings. Thousands. You have to show you can deliver variations and switch styles. And you have to love drawing. If you\u2019re not happy drawing all day, this isn\u2019t for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Another asked whether he always follows the script. Andrews didn\u2019t hesitate:<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend not to. No offense to screenwriters, but a lot of scripts aren\u2019t visual. Sometimes what\u2019s written doesn\u2019t work when you put it in a physical location. My job is to tell the best story I can. Brad Bird once gave me this for The Iron Giant\u2019s finale: \u2018The biggest, most expensive, epic action scene ever seen in animation.\u2019 That was the whole script description. So I pulled out my military encyclopedia and just went nuts; 2,400 panels on my first pass. Brad looked at it and said, \u2018Cut it in half.\u2019 That\u2019s the process. Trial, error, and cutting down until only the best remains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Embrace the Chaos\u2019<\/p>\n

Andrews\u2019 central theme was that storyboarding, and storytelling itself, is messy and intuitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cStory is alchemy. It\u2019s not mechanical. If it were, Spielberg would win every Oscar. But he doesn\u2019t. You can plan and still fail. You can improvise and succeed. You have to embrace the chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged artists not to fear mistakes. \u201cMy job is to close doors, not open them,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the start, there are infinite doors. You have to keep shutting them until what\u2019s left feels true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The session wrapped with laughter and applause as Andrews promised to continue the Jack-Jack vs. dragon-woman saga the next day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Master story artist and director Mark Andrews was in M\u00e1laga this past weekend for the first-ever San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-58824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}