I found among my files more Thumbnail sketches used in Manila Kingpin. One of the scenes I enjoyed visualizing was the Assassination Sequence of Asiong Salonga. For a storyboard to be made, one has to know first the physical setup of the place. Since I was not in Pagsanjan when it was shot, the place was just described as rectangular with a long table in it – and that the actors would be seated facing each other. That was enough information. List of sequences are usually forwarded to me, days or a day before the shoot.
Sequence 77 Storyboard_Asiong's Assassination Where some of Important Scene Nuances were Deleted in the Producer's Cut
However, it is most ideal that the artist or visualizer sees the actual setup. Because camera movements [especially track shots] and its/their placements need to be highly considered. As I’ve written before, thumbnail sketches prepared for our films, unlike in advertising, are highly flexible; it is used by the director as guide, and can be discarded anytime, if and when what the storyboard demands cannot possibly be done. Everything is at the discretion of the director. In place of storyboards, a shooting script can be used instead which I did for El Presidente. As Nora Aunor’s scenes were shot while I was at the height of editing Manila Kingpin, and I had no time to doodle, I just forwarded a list of shots indicating the image sizes and the camera movements. In Asiong, drawings and list of shots were mixed when a master shot was already established. In my mind and Tikoy’s mind therefore, our ideas meet when he implements whatever I have visualized. Our collaboration starts before actual film edit.
Page 2_Assassination Scene Storyboard
Exceptions to scene storyboarding are love and fight scenes – all that are Tikoy’s domain. As you would have noticed, in the previous storyboard, I called Erning’s Habulan or Chase Sequence, I stopped when he was put in the sack. Details were thought of and added by the Director. This practice has helped me a lot in editing Tikoy’s films, and mine as well.
I’ll later post the storyboard of ULTIMO ADIOS, 90-95% of what I imagined or visualized before the shoot were used. Storyboards are useless in docu film making as you won’t know what will happen. Actions are not predictable as in narrative filmmaking. You just need a skeleton guide of ideas or direction for a docu. The timeline is most useful. These are the two devices that I have been using.
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