An Artist’s Magic

The goal of this project was to create a storyboard and screenplay for a shortfilm.

The story is about an enslaved artist that’s trying to escape his abusive captor. The entirety of story takes place in a single room.

Act I sets up the captor, Fisheye, who burns any painting with a mistake and threatens the artist. In Act II the artist tries to paint his way out: a key and a rifle break in his hands, until he uses his own blood to finish a painting he can hide inside.

The opening is cut to a thumping sound: with every thump, the shot changes, building tension before Fisheye enters.

Solo project. I wrote the story and screenplay and drew the storyboard.

• Celtx: for the screenplay
• Paper: for the storyboard

1. 01Story: a simple setting, characters and story
2. 02Screenplay in two acts, written in Celtx
3. 03Storyboard on paper, 62 pages

The biggest challenge was the scale. I had never made such a long storyboard, so it was a fun challenge to finally make something that big, keep a consistent look, and handle lots of camera shots and action scenes.

Asset-wise the story was very simple: only two characters and one setting. That was planned well. It was taken into account for the deadline and for the work that would still be needed if I wanted to turn this into a full short film.

I wanted a full story with a beginning, a conflict, a high-stakes climax and a clear ending. That made the animatic 10 minutes long, which was unattainable for the deadline. Afterwards I realised you do not need a full conflict to make an interesting short film. Either you keep the conflict much simpler — two toddlers fighting over a toy can be engaging if it is done right — or you tell it more creatively and let the viewer connect the dots.

I learned about time management, setting realistic goals at the start of a project, and short-film storytelling.