Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545081
As a filmmaker with a second career in comics, storyboarding Spider-Noir was an amazing opportunity to bring my two creative worlds together. And as a fan of both superhero movies and film noir, when I heard about this job, I campaigned for it—I even drew up a few sample pages to show what I could do, and fortunately, after a Zoom with pilot director Harry Bradbeer, I was able to land the job. What I thought would be a few weeks of work and maybe an action sequence or two, ended up becoming hundreds of drawings, a year of adventures and ringside seats to watch this incredible show come to life. From a film background, Spider-Noir was my first real foray into storyboarding for television, and the speed and volume of work was impressive. The schedule was fast-paced and challenging, the biggest part of the job was breaking down the episodes with the various talented directors —Harry, Nzingha Stewart, Alethea Jones and Greg Yataines, working with cinematographers Darran Tiernan, Peter Deming and also with stunt coordinator Freddy Bouciegues, and VFX supervisor Hnedel Maximore. Often a sequence began with a meeting between me, the director and the cinematographer. We would sit around the conference room, surrounded by images from the great noir films of the 1930s and 1940s: frames from the Third Man, Night of the Hunter, The Maltese Falcon and many more, and I would draw as they described how they saw the scenes being shot. I draw quickly, so I like to sketch thumbnails and get immediate feedback. This is something I always try to do, even if I'm working remotely— I'll share my screen so they can see the drawings as they happen. I find this is one way to limit surprises down the line. T h e J o u r n e y I s t h e D e s t i n a t i o n S T O R Y B O A R D I N G N O I R B Y J AY M A R T I N , S T O R Y B O A R D A R T I S T A. A PAGE FROM MY AUDITION SAMPLES. I DON'T DO THIS OFTEN, BUT I COULDN'T TURN DOWN AN EXCUSE TO DRAW SPIDER-NOIR. DIGITAL INKS AND SHADING. B. DIGITAL BLUE PENCIL, FROM A MEETING WITH THE DIRECTOR AND CINEMATOGRAPHER, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW THE SPIDER TANGLES WITH THE SANDMAN. SKETCHING LIVE IS HELPFUL TO GET EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE. B