George Lucas mapped out where he was going in Star Wars with storyboards for everything from the opening credits to the climactic battle between the evil empire and the rebel forces.
Good preparation is part of a director’s job, and storyboards are one of the tools filmmakers use to help plan difficult and complicated shots.
Storyboards by Alex Tavoularis and Tom Wright map out Col. Kilgore’s attack on a beachfront in Vietnam while blasting “Ride of the Valkyries” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Shots for an oil well explosion and rescue are detailed in storyboards by Kevin MacCarthy for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood.
Chris Bonura's storyboards helped director Robert Zemeckis meld archival and new footage in Forrest Gump.
Roger Spottiswoode uses storyboards to plot James Bond's escape from a Bangkok skyscraper in Tomorrow Never Dies.
In storyboards by Chris Buchinsky, Spidey battles Doc Ock on a speeding train in the climax of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2.
CGI dinosaurs came alive for the first time in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park with an assist from storyboard artist David Lowery.
The dreamscape of Christopher Nolan's Inception was filled with odd angles and spinning rooms such as this one. Storyboards helped the director realize his vision for 500 visual effects shots.
Famed title artist Saul Bass’ storyboards for Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus.
Storyboards by William Cameron Menzies detail the burning of Atlanta scene from Gone With the Wind.
Storyboards for Michael Bay’s Transformers visualized the battle between man and machine.
Storyboards for the "Do-Re-Mi" number in The Sound of Music show how Robert Wise carefully orchestrated the scene.
Storyboards by Sylvain Despretz for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator burst through the panels and suggest the intensity the director will ultimately deliver to the action.
In this new column, the Quarterly presents Alfred Hitchcock's original storyboards for the famed shower sequence in Psycho.