Who knew all this storytelling coolness would one day fit in your pocket?

I’m a big fan of mobile tools for working on set, and drumming up camera/ set blocking/ storyboards are key to getting from concept to concrete in everyone’s mind. Communication is key, so I’ll use whatever I can to get the visuals out to all involved.

That said, I use OmniGraffle and Celtx Studio to do the voodoo I do in those departments and dare I say, with much aplomb. I’ve not to be failed yet with these app’s in my digital toolbox.

Not ones to rest on their laurels, the fine folks at Celtx HQ have been busy bee’s indeed, the fruit of their labors proving second to none. Much app alchemy is drummed up in the Celtx Lab of Awesome; the latest release is called Celtx Shots.

Celtx Shots is a storyboarding and set-blocking app transfigured to work alongside the basic Celtx & Celtx Script platforms on the desktop as well as on your iPad. Fear not, ye of little storyboard producing acumen; this app will  light your way to enlightenment. No need to draw a thing (you can add diagrams, photos, etc) and yet relish in the fact you’ve got clear, concise plans produced in a short time. A few hours with Celtx Shots, and you ‘ll be flying thru the stuff that may have taken days, prior. Clean, practical and downloadable.  Nice.  Mobile mastery of your set blocking and storyboards is at hand.

Keeping it real.   Simple.

Simple tools abound, enabling scale-able geometric shapes, lines, and whatnot; augmented with standard directional arrows, camera icons, dolly track (straight & curved), lighting rigs, etc. Many of these come with both side and birds’ eye views to accommodate your perspective and placement needs for blocking descriptions. Handy!

Buy the additional Celtx Art Pack, and you’ll have a plethora of images to play with (There are people, too). If you need to add some photo’s or images previously created on your desktop, load them in thru iPad’s Gallery or snap a shot on the fly with your iPad 2’s on-board camera. Nice to have while doing a simple layout, or working out some blocking on a location scout. Got your stuff loaded up? Drop your images into your storyboards or script. Very cool.

Some good things in life are Free

To get started, you’ll want to grab Celtx online for your desktop. The basic set up is free (as in, no cash money need change hands) so have at it. Be sure to get hold of the CeltX Sync Plugin, too – enabling export of your script to both Celtx Shots and CeltX Script.  A must have. Once this is up and running, away you go!

Celtx has a viewer/ player to roll thru your storyboards/ images/ sketches & layouts much like an animatic, or Leica reel. Sync this stuff to your laptop / desktop and iPad, and your off to the races. You can even share the images thru CeltX via either Celtx Studio, or shoot the images / pages/ storyboards off as separate files to share digitally or print and hand around.

“Your Creativity Knows No Bounds”.  Indeed. Intuitive, inexpensive, and super practical. I like it.

As for storyboards, check this gem from yesteryear The Art of Storyboards. Campy, timeless, wonderful stuff. Enjoy!