In a matter of weeks, the movie materialized. There
were almost no notes or revisions. A remarkable
feat from director and storyboard artists alike. In
my fifteen years or so of storyboarding, I've never
seen the process advance so steadily and smoothly
before. It was a really exciting way to build out a
story with a sense of continuity and urgency—as
though our team of artists was under the same
pressures as the main character.
A few weeks after the first pass of the movie was
finished, Zach shared a story with me. He had
printed out all the storyboards—more or less the
entire film from FADE IN to FADE OUT—and lined
them on the walls of the hallway outside his office.
When his department heads were coming to him
with questions, they would literally walk through
the movie to get to his door—and many of their
questions were answered before they could reach it.
The precision and completeness of the storyboard
process reaped massive rewards in terms of time,
money and clarity of vision.
