Storyboard References: The Nightmare Before Christmas

So, personally I feel that Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderfully created piece of stop motion animation. Yes it's stop motion, it's sometimes hard to remember that with how amazing the film is. But that's not the reason I decided to look at the storyboards. For starters I love the range and depth of tone used within the thumbnail sketches, I feel that they really portray that sense of a dark atmosphere that Burton's work occupies. I also really like the detail in the characters and the frames all together, as they really help to make it clear what the scene should look like. This is something I should definitely look at but maybe only in important scenes or frames, as it would take me too long to put that amount of detail into every frames because I draw quite slow. 

 Another thing I really like about these storyboards is the use of camera directions. For the past two storyboards there hasn't been camera directions and I've felt like that has worked and that the camera directions weren't exactly necessary. However, although these storyboards tell the story very clearly I still feel that the camera directions are really useful, which has altered my view on using them even when you think they aren't needed. Having said this they aren't used in every frame so what I need to take from this is that only a select few frames need them if the rest of the frames are detailed enough.

Not only do I find Burton's drawing style beautifully strange and inspiring, but I also really love the sketchy style of these storyboards. Drawing quickly and in a rough style is something that I am struggling with when creating my storyboards and I feel that by adopting the loose lines that these storyboards use I might find it a little easier and become more comfortable with imperfect drawings. In particular I love the subtle colour use in the frame above, I feel that it makes this frame stand out from the rest and as I've mentioned in other storyboard posts, this could be a really useful technique when I have a large storyboard and I want to pick out the more important frames, as I feel that the colour helps to communicate the frame better.

Overall, I feel that these are a really good example of variation within a storyboard and the use of colours and tones. I also feel that they use camera directions effectively but not excessively, which is something I'd like to seriously consider when I create my next storyboard.