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A Conversation with Jeremy Simser
(Storyboard Artist)
Q: All right, Jeremy Simser.
A: Yes, that's me (LAUGHTER).
Q: How much time do you have to develop storyboards for each episode?
A: Generally speaking. . . eight days. The first two of which the director tends to sort of familiarize himself with the script and whatnot. So, generally, anywhere between five and and six days of the actual prep to work on them. At which point I'll be going back and forth with the director quite a few times to refine them and revise them and stuff. And then even when the episode goes to shoot. . . the director for the next episode, we'll also have those sort of two days or so of leeway before he actually needs me. So if you wanna break it down it's roughly a week, eight days I guess.
Q: Can you walk us through the whole process from script to completion?
A: Well I get the script and read it through and while I'm doing that, I generally make some notes as to which scenes I think will probably need to be storyboarded. I don't do the whole episode. I just focus on the visual effects, the special effects and the stunt sequences. Plus, anything else that specifically the director has a particular vision for. And once the director's come in and also done the same thing and logged some locations for the various scenes to happen, we'll sit down and there's a couple of ways to go about it at that point. I'm sort of more fond of the director giving me a shot and I'll take notes and then go off and work on my own on it.
Q: You wouldn't need to storyboard a basic dialog scene, right? So really your talent is used for taking those scenes that are more complex and picturing them on paper.
A: Yeah, I guess it's all about coordination and communication, basically. If there are multiple camera angles being used, if there are interesting camera angles being used, if there are stunts involved that everybody involved with really needs to get a good visual handle on how it's gonna work, or the same for a visual effect as well.
Q: Do you have to involve the director of photography in this whole process?
A: Yeah, that's right. The director basically interprets that and then we'll sit down with the DP, the previous day or the day of the thing . .. .as I write out on paper what they'll do from the DP standpoint, based on what I've drawn for the director.
Q: What other shows have you worked on?
A: WITCHBLADE (Season 1) was the first and then I worked on a show called Tracker. . .And that was fun. It was great, but it's nothing like WITCHBLADE. On Tracker I was brought in on a daily basis, as they needed me. Whereas on WITCHBLADE I'm a weekly employee, on salary. I'm here at their disposal twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, roughly.
Q: Did you study art?
A: To a degree, yeah.
Q: And prior to getting into production, what was your medium? What were you doing?
A: Well my big strength has always been working in charcoal, doing life drawing, figure drawing, nudes and stuff like that. But that was really more just to educate myself on the human form, because comic books have always been, since way, way back, my initial interest in getting into the artistic world. So I don't know exactly how it worked out, but I think it was basically kind of a comic book style of art, a nice visualization process and a real love of film that led me in this direction. It's nice to be able to marry the two talents.
Q: Does the production schedule ever make you feel so rushed that you're not able to get the artistic end across as much as you'd like, or is that not a problem?
A: That's a good question. It's not so much the time frame. From my own personal, artistic -- if you wanna call it --expression. . . I'm drawing pictures for other people for a specific purpose.
Q: Do you ever find some scenes boring to draw?
A: What I'm doing is a lot of fun. Because it's the stunts and the effects sequences, I'm always drawing the fun stuff. So it's really great. For myself I like to draw superheroes and stuff like that and just whatever happens to come to my mind. Most of the recreational drawing that I do is based on stories that I'm writing . . .just to kind of visualize the characters in the scene.
Q: There is probably nothing impressionistic about this process, right? You need to be somewhat technical about it.
A: No, it's very specific. I try to get to the locations and stuff just to be as literal as possible in the board that I do. So it's a lot of research and it's pretty much with very specific guidelines.
Q: What kind of research would you do, for example?
A: For example last year, when I did "Parallax." There was a slice of time . . with the motorcycles in the air. And I had never drawn a realistic motorcycle in my life before that (LAUGHTER). So I went on the Internet and I ordered a bunch of pictures of motorcycles and stuff and drew them over and over and over again to what I felt was a pretty decent representation of it. That's one example, and otherwise it's just getting specific location shots.
Q: And finding out exactly where the actors will be. . .
A: Right, which way the action is happening. And to draw the setting as realistically as possible, so there's no guesswork.
Q: You actually have to do some location research right?
A: I do, yeah. Once the location has been nailed down, I'll go to locations to get photographs of the site, bring them to the director and ask him which way he'll be shooting and which way the cameras will be facing and all that stuff. And then go out on the technical surveys. .. .so that I can better visualize the space itself if I haven't already drawn the scene. If I have, then I can always go back and sort of fix it up a little bit too.
Q: Do you have a certain episode in memory that was more challenging than another?
A: I think that, surprisingly, it wasn't the first one (LAUGHTER) that I did, which was the second episode, "Conundrum." I think that a lot of that had to do with Neill Fearnley being such a good director and a good communicator, that he kind of eased me into the process. But "Parallax" was very challenging. A lot of it had to do with the fact that Ralph (Hemecker) is very specific in his vision. And I had to work very hard to get it exactly right. And for Ralph, of course, I wanted to. And also because I drew something like a hundred and fifty panels just for him. I mean it was a lot. He gave me a lot of work. Yeah (LAUGHS).
Q: Well great. Is there anything else about what you do that people would like to know?
A: I don't really know what people want to know about . . .
Q: Well, fans love to hear about the production process and there's not a whole lot of coverage on storyboards.
A: No, it's true actually. I'm saddened to see that, but that's just what I love about DVD. . .so many are including storyboards. And so I think that the public's awareness of what a storyboarder actually does is being broadened a little more. It's just great. But, basically, I'm a communicator. I'm a facilitator in the communication process. And if the director can actually have a physical thing pictured to represent what they're gonna shoot that can help everybody get on the same page. That's my job.
Q: Excellent. Thanks.
A: You're welcome.
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