Other than a general shot list and endless location scouts with various members of my talent/crew, I did not create any storyboards for this project. This is something that should change in my directing approach in the near future, but this project was a 3-month process and I could see the thing come together with my eyes closed. I don’t advise this technique, mainly because it’ll confuse the shit out of your crew – however, coming from a documentary background, I tend to let things come together on set basing all references off of my general shot list partially because it allows for spontaneous collaborative ideas to come about as well.
Regardless, I always go into every set up or scene with the knowledge that I need full coverage. Because I generally shoot and edit my own content, this is how I approach documentary filmmaking. I make sure to get all visual assets I would need to construct a proper/stand-alone moment or scene and I understand that if I don’t get an establishing all the way down to a detail, the scene might not fully come together in post. No excuse though, I will storyboard in the future…