The Exercise

Create a storyboard where the image does not depend on the text and the text adds something new to the narrative.

This exercise is a light-hearted look at the role of image and text. Aim for it to be around 10 frames long. Draw the picture storyboard first and then add the text. Note how the story is affected when the text is added.

Storyboard Without Text

Storyboard with Captions

Learning

As the exercise says, it is a lighthearted story and the sketches illustrate why I am doing a photography course rather than a drawing one! However, even with the light hearted story, there is learning.

• Having to think how to tell the story without text does mean, even with simple sketches, that one puts thought into what objects are shown in the image. This is enhanced further by the fact one has to actually draw then rather than just capture what is in a scene. This generates two observations:
  • When capturing even a single image, particularly a constructed one, there is value in thinking about what should and should not be in the image ahead of capturing the image itself. This could be sketching it in ones mind or actually on a piece of paper.
  • With some thought, and effort in the capture, it may be possible to get enough information or symbology into the image to avoid the need for descriptive text. Again, doing this before constructing the image could be of value. My sketch of the garden centre, I did eventually conclude that I needed to add text into the image to show that the scene was a shop rather than my own greenhouse – but I did spend some time thinking about this.
• When it came to adding captions, it felt like a relief, that I no longer had to rely on the image alone. This is an emotion worth remembering, if I unconsciously did that with photographs, there is a risk that I would put less effort into the construction of the image itself.