Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504681
5 0 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 Christmas 2022 marked one year from the debut of the Disney +/Marvel Productions streaming mini- series Hawkeye. Almost a year before the show aired, I was getting sporadic calls from the Marvel offices asking about my availability. I was available at the time of all the calls, but one PA knew the show was months away from starting to hire. New PAs take note that being available is temporary and not a promise to wait. Anyway, I was hired for Hawkeye. Me in Glendale, California, and the production office in Atlanta. A secure website was established for materials to be passed back-and-forth and we were ready to roll. I have worked in TV series production before so working with different directors for different episodes was not unusual. Even working remotely with Zoom meetings was beginning to be routine. I was surprised that the shows were being filmed in 2:39 aspect ration, even wider than the normal anamorphic ratio for movie screens and this was going to be on TV. Okay, why not? I got to business. I was happy that the directors were being so collaborative. I started with Rhys Thomas and then did most of my work with Bert and Bertie (no last names given or even listed on IMDb Pro). Apparently, there was wiggle room in the script drafts I was being fed although keeping track of which version I was working from began to get tricky. I was asked to quickly lay out action sequences based on the set reference and it was good that they were happy with roughs because I went through so many versions of the script, I ran out of time for cleaning anything up before moving on to the next episode. I'm proud of how much of the scenes were worked out visually and the frames that didn't get shot contributed to the boarded scenes that were. Near the middle of the show, I was hitting a stride and the communication between the directors and myself became more precise. The flashback of Hawkeye as Ronin done as an extended shot and the action in the abandoned toy factory were my high points and the drawing became more defined as the complexity of the shots grew. So much took place in the dark that I did need to spend more rendering time to get the lighting right. I love to show that work. Near the end when I thought I was done, they did call me back for some scenes for the finale with the Kingpin (a big secret I had to keep for months) that were quick blueline roughs and a family Christmas anticlimax that revealed a secret about Hawkeye's wife. A wonderful fanboy ending to the job. When Secret Invasion comes out in 2023, maybe I'll share some more boards and tales from the trenches. H a w k e y e : T h e S t o r y b o a r d s D R AW I N G O U T T H E A C T I O N B Y T I M B U R G A R D , S T O R Y B O A R D A R T I S T