Bureau of Vital Statistics

Remember the Bureau of Vital Statistics storyboards done back in November? Matt Keatman, the independent filmmaker who hired me for the storyboard work, has uploaded the entire short film onto YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to watch it there or the embedded video, here.

It's an incredibly surreal feeling, watching what you've illustrated brought to life with real men and women in actual places. Most storyboard and conceptual artists for films must feel this way, I'm sure.

Storyboards: Bureau of Vital Statistics

Bureau of Vital Statistics, by Matt Keatman, is a short film about generic-looking office worker Henry Morten, whose job it is to decide how people die. The project is still underway, but when it's finished I'll post the video here, or at least a link to it. As an additional treat, I've included a couple of videos relative to the project. The Black Hole (note: this short film was not by Keatman) stars Napoleon Ryan, who has been cast for the part of Henry Morten, and musician "Scampi", seen in My Friend, will be composing/performing the musical score. This is a real unique experience since this is an international collaberation, with Keatman and Ryan in England, "Scampi" in France, and myself in the States.



And here, below, are the storyboards.

Storyboards

Sometimes people can take you in directions you wouldn't have gone otherwise. The person responsible for getting me into storyboard illustration would be Jamie Hanks, now Mrs. Jamie Allison, who I knew from my high school years. It was during my first half of art college when she asked, on the behalf of "Team Zulu", a group consisting of two other film students, Scott Lynch and Nicole Davenport, to aid them in creating a short film called "ONE^3". They were in a tight spot, needing the storyboards done very soon and, as far as I know, without any other potential takers. How could I refuse? Needless to say, after a hectic week of school, storyboards, and sleep deprivation, I was tired but quite pleased with the work.

In the end, the unexpected rewards vastly outweighed one stressful week, as it earned us a trip to Japan in Microsoft's 2005 Imagine Cup short film competition. During this time I came to know Scott, who has since then has used my services to illustrate the storyboards for a short film, "Breathe", (it was, unfortunately, never made due to insufficient funds) and a Heinz Ketchup commercial contest entry, "The Artist". And as recently as this month, I've illustrated a storyboard for a short film in the works, "Dangerous", for Cameron Crosson, an acquaintance of Scott's, who wrote and directed "The Artist".

Storyboards:

• ONE^3 (2005)
  
• Breathe (2006?)
• The Artist (2007)
  
• Dangerous (2009)
• Bureau of Vital Statistics (2009)

Storyboards: Dangerous

Dangerous (2009)
Cameron Crosson and his team will be submitting this short film into Microsoft's 2009 Imagine Cup competition. I anticipate seeing the actual film when it is completed and, hopefully, will be able to post it here.

Storyboards: The Artist

The Artist (2007)
After my experience with the first two storyboards, I decided inking was not the way to work for me. For this one, I went with my first love, pencils, which allow me much more detail and forgiveness.

Storyboards: Breathe

Breathe (2006?)
While never making it to film, the storyboards were, however, adapted into a sequential animation of sorts with accompanying music written specifically for this film. It's strange, I find it, that while I personally illustrated these storyboards it wasn't until seeing them put to music that my heartstrings were really tugged by the story it told. To give a general synopsis, it's about a man who receives emergency treatment for polio in an iron lung and, while struggling to breathe, has flashbacks relating to his son's death by drowning.

Watch it here: http://www.cardboardboxfilms.com/fileserver/breathe/BreatheSBConcept.wmv