STORYBOARD
In Film and Animation, the role of storyboard is similar to the skeleton of human because without it, the whole structure of the work will be collapsed. The main function of the storyboard is to help the filmmakers visualize the story line and how it will express in frames. Honestly, storyboarding is my most favorite part in the whole process of making animation. During this stage, I can express and experiment with different types of story, camera view and staging so that I can have decision about what need to put in the final work and this also is my biggest strength in my Animation making. About my style of making storyboarding and storytelling, I often focus on creating content scripts that reflect social realities in historical or fictional settings through the stories, perspectives and movement of characters. Therefore, my camera views and composition of images must emphasize the artistry and emotion of the story like the live-action movie with different experimental cinematography. Overall, these storyboards are still the great sources for me and I hope that with my innovation now (I will also keep developing) and working experience in the future, I will develop better my storyboard and make a big step to create my own great project in the future.
Below is my Storyboard portfolio. Scroll down to see more storyboards and Click to the image to see full image.
Hope you enjoy it ;)
"The Assassin" (2022) Storyboard
Taking place in Chicago city during the 50s, “The Assassin” follows the story of character who is a cold hearted and extremely skillful assassin. He murders anyone follow the order of his Boss. One day, he receives the mission from him to murder a guy who is his old friend in The Great War. Although there are some internal struggles at first, The Assassin still works on the mission and plans to assassinate him when he and his daughter go shopping during the Christmas. From there, the images of this guy’s daughter interspersed with the reveal of the assassin’s past that change his belief in what is the true value of life. This creates his irresolution in choosing between sticking to the criminal path or getting rid of this sinfulness to find the light of humanity at the end of tunnel
"Get Outside"(2020) Storyboard
"Get Outside" is the animation music video for children collaborating with Wendy & DB during the time the Chicago city started reopening after the pandemic. Taking place in America suburb, the narrative of this project is set as a cute little girl and a boy who live next door who all wake up in the morning and soon realize the beautiful sunshine outside that for everyone to go outside and enjoy. During the early scenes of the story, the screen will be split into two that represent the morning activities of these two characters (brushes teeth, taking shower, change clothes or taking breakfast) before they go outside and meet others. When they go outside, the split screen will be change into normal screen and these kids will start singing and dancing together. Their singing also encourages other kids to realize and also go outside to join with them to sing and dance along the song and rhythm.
"The Moments"(2022) Storyboard
This is my first ever complete storytelling I have ever made for a short animation about the nostalgia. With the setting in the Northern Vietnam, I want to depict the story about the nostalgia of man when he first come back to the land where he grew up and met his first love before he left this place. In this animation, I decided to focus on the movement of character and how the natural things surround impact to his nostalgia through different camera views and compositions. As an international student in America and study in a place very far from home, nostalgia is my common emotion. When I go into making the story, I have related my actual feeling to the real story of the Vietnamese people after 1954 when the country was divided into two sides and many North Vietnamese had left their hometown to the South and then after 1975, they had to left the country to seek asylum in other countries. They never had a chance to come back to their hometown until 33 years later when the country finally reformed. "The Moments" (2019) is the harmony combination between my experience, the real historical story and humanity value that express the nostalgia of people about their motherlands when have to leave because of any reasons they never want.
"The Drawing" (2021) Storyboard
With Vietnamese students and also me, the horror stories about the ghost in school always attract us. Therefore, we always try to find opportunity to discover our school at night to see if we can see the ghost. Although not much students see any supernatural thing, this always is an interesting experience in our school years. Eventually, it becomes the great inspiration for me to making this cut-out animation project "The Drawing". All of the scenes and thrilling aspect in this project have been created from my real experience, oral story and observation during the time I studied in Vietnam. Therefore, with the Old French Colonization architectural school and traditional Vietnamese scary features combined with the using of dark and narrow space, "The Drawing" is my memorable experiment in applying the Vietnamese style horror to animation.
"THE INTERROGATION"(2019) STORYBOARD
Inspired from the German Expressionism, "The Interrogation"(2019) is the animation project that focus on applying the Additive / Subtractive material (white chalk and ink) in creating the unique movement of character and the contrast between dark and bright space. This is my first animation project have dialogue so I have carefully written down the script and have an experienced voice actor to record it. Moreover, beside it artistry, "The Interrogation" (2019) also is the story that emphasizes strongly to the human's psychology through the view of the suspect about the Rorschach test from the inspector. The key point in this project is that the suspect is unknown and audience actually is the suspect and also is joining the interrogation. Since that, the audience will be a part of the psychological illusion and each person will have different guess about what they see and that reflect how we think of this world. There is no right or wrong answer; it is just about the feeling from characteristic. What will happen to the suspect will be base on what you feel in these Rorschach inkblot test
