Slightly Secret Story Work…🤫

Each episode of this animated sprawling epic fantasy was driven by the core character’s journey. With a runtime of 25 minutes per episode, we produced 16 episodes spread over 2 seasons, and allocated 2 board artists per episode.
My job as supervisor was to guide this vast and intricate story and keep the Director’s vision on track through story production, whilst offering input on ‘plussing’ and advancing the storytelling to try and make the show as entertaining, and enthralling, as possible.

As the plot and world we find the characters in was a intricate and often times nuanced one, we would always aim to drive forward the story through the character relationships. How their arcs developed and unfolded would be the core anchor for everything we tried to achieve on the show.
Alongside guiding and directing the storyboard artists, I would also sit with the director (during boarding and during edit) to see if there was ever opportunities to enhance the story. Whether with the pacing and intensity of an action scene, the foreboding and sense of dread in moments tinged with horror, or the delicate balancing act of figuring out the best way to put the audience ‘in’ with the characters in emotional moments within a large, fantastical world – I would often be tasked with figuring out how to make the shot and scene as appealing as it can be.

On this large, animated undertaking – we had a big production and a sizable team to keep inspired. So producing sequences like the one below would often time help inspire the tone and specificity we were going for with our storyboard artists, and thus help the story production on the show hopefully achieve everything we set out to do.

Based off of a script, each episode is boarded out over several versions, between a small team of story artists working directly with the show director.
With the director based in Montreal, Canada – good communication combined with confident independent boarding was essential to be able to deliver the episodes across a multi-national, remote pipeline.

In this show, the ‘line mileage’ was extremely high – with 5 main characters on screen at all times (plus a litany of secondary characters and antagonists), and each episode jam-packed with constant action-action-action (after the initial setup), it required you to be thoroughly clear and prepared with what you wanted to achieve in the sequences, plotting out all the angles and avenues to mine the fun, intensity, and of course (as always), the character.
As ever, I tried to find moments to bring in the comedy, often driven by the characters and their unique traits and friendships. Because of the snappiness of the action, this was often sought out in the boards with characters reacting to others, and moments they encounter, sight gags and gags embedded into the mechanism of the action itself.

Based off of a script, each episode is boarded out over several versions, where I try and hone in on and craft the elements of the story and character moments. I’ll add gag ideas, try and push and enhance the entertainment of the scene – which can include coming up with ideas to help pacing and intensity if it’s an action scene, figuring out the best way to put the audience ‘in’ with the characters in emotional moments, or figuring out how to make the shot and scene as appealing as it can from a comedic standpoint.

Because the show is really focused on the characters, and the bond they have – it was really up my street in terms of the type of moments I like to try and establish in storytelling for TV. I love all that stuff, and had such a blast working on bringing that out in the most entertaining way we could possibly do.

The season was booked for 52 x 11min episodes, of which I boarded on a bunch alongside supervising a team of story artists, where my principle goal was to ensure a throughline of focus on the characters and their performance was paramount across the show’s story production, and how that would help serve bring our show’s world to life and ‘jump off the screen’ in the most entertaining way possible for our audience. I worked closely with the Directors to ensure our vision for the show was consitent across a quite speedy and efficient production timeline, working on episodes and guiding our enthusiastic storyteam to achieve everything we could with the show’s hopefully enduring and engaging aesthetic, characters and adventures. I got to work with the Directors very early on in production in developing and crafting our characters and world, where we could build a love and understanding for the show’s ensemble cast. Ultimately, we worked very hard to make the show have that love ‘shine through’ so that our audience can equally have the same experience and make connections and love the characters of the world too.

Below is a sample of some shots, scenes or moments from a variety of episodes I boarded alongside my supervisory duties.

Based off of a script, each episode is boarded out over several versions, between a team of story artists working directly with the show director. We would allocate certain sequences, or entire episodes, dependent on the team’s story skill-sets, and of course the old master of all on production – scheduling.

In this show, I tried to hone in on the individuality of the characters in a heightened sci-fi setting, and use their particular character quirks and thought processes unique to their character, to try and draw out the comedy and action in each moment.
Being driven by character – I’ll add gag ideas, try and push and enhance the entertainment of the scene – which can include coming up with ideas to help pacing and intensity if it’s an action scene, figuring out the best way to put the audience ‘in’ with the characters in emotional moments, or figuring out how to make the shot and scene as appealing as it can from a comedic standpoint.

In this unique show – the musical and group dynamic of the band was at the heart of each step – often used to help craft the moments in each episode and try and ‘plus’ the script for the visual medium.