No doubt about it: this might be a lot more fun if the process didn’t involve a lot of research and time spent in finding things that, in a classroom setting or even with someone else involved, could be brainstormed and discovered in minutes instead of days. Discovery is also best when shared. Come to think of it, the way I’m working is very much in the Garden of Forking Paths.
Anyway, I’m plodding along here in many different programs and find that Premiere does have a storyboard included. Unfortunately, it appears that its layout is comic-book style, meaning panels. I liked the flow of Windows Movie Maker which was a continuous strip layout. My thinking here is that if WMM’s format were the basis but allowed for several tracks or storyboards, that might be closer to what I’m looking to do with a multi-layered story setup.
On one of the computers I put in an old Expert Software (I really, really love their simplicity in maneuvering) CAD 3-D program. I unfortunately gave away my original 2-D program and can’t get it back–and that one was the greatest. But what I’m thinking now is that even though this doesn’t lend itself to my needs, wouldn’t it be great if the story layers could actually be seen in a 3-D effect, just like the building-a-home layout that allows you to see the floors individually, put together, and from all different angles. Each story would be a layer, and each text box of paragraph could be seen in different ways. Maybe they could be cubes, transparent but readable.
As I said, while this is loads of fun and interesting as all hell, it’s taking a lot of time with questions that, if working along with someone else, could be answered with a turn of the head.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology