Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 11, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Indie filmmakers and screenwriters will be pleased: Storyteller from Amazon Studios, which is currently still in beta, is intended to create a storyboard quickly and easily from an uploaded screenplay.
Storyteller scans a film script, identifies the scenes, locations and characters in a scene description, and selects matching elements from a library of thousands of characters, probs and backgrounds.
Filmmakers can then swap the locations or add their own images. To bring the right emotions of the film work into the storyboard, there are also pan and zoom tools, and the facial expressions and positions of the characters can be changed. Descriptions or further dialogue can also be added to the storyboard.
Once it is finished and matches the filmmaker’s vision, it can be published on Amazon Studio and other users can provide feedback on the project. For indie filmmakers or smaller productions, the Storyteller tool is a sensational free option. It remains to be seen whether it might tempt some stingy producers and studio bosses to eliminate the storyboard artist entirely. Following the motto: "The intern can scan that…". But let us not paint the devil on the wall.
Amazon Storyteller is available here.
Image: Amazon Studios
