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:60 B&W Campy Cars Classes / Schools Cleaning Corporate Family Females Humor Internet iOS/Mobile Kids Males Pitch Boards Shoot Boards Software Storyboarding Synergy February 19, 2018

AT&T “Market Mishap” Storyboards!

A while back, I got called in to my good clients at DirecTV (now AT&T) to work on a spot for their Adworks campaign- a commercial about commercials! How funny!  But really, it makes sense to make sure your advertising dollars aren’t going to waste, right?  That’s why you hire ‘Ol Maxy, right? and then you use Adworks to make sure the Ads go in front of your target audience!  Otherwise, well… see below!

Our Hero “Ad Man” runs from setting to setting, doing his best to sell product to the most unmatched of buyers- with very predictable results.  But the laughs are an easy sell! Lol!

Here’s the boards!  I hope you enjoy them, this is some of my finest work!

Here’s the final spot!!

Yup, no matter how hard you try, Gladys at the nursing home isn’t going to buy your reduced price Lamborghini.  You just have to face facts!

This project was a little more extensive than most and we had time to board out some “B-Roll” if you will, with options for other shots to help sell up the humor a bit.  It was all optional and really, at the end of the day, humor depends on the performance of the actors and more, so you do a lot of alternative takes to see what works best.  But I did my part and boarded it out my best, to give it a fair shot at success.  So, next up you’ll see some boards that are disjointed in continuity but will hopefully spur a neuron or two and make you chuckle.  Enjoy!

 

:30 B&W Family Females Humor Kids Males Pitch Boards Samples Storyboarding February 14, 2018

Love, Depicted

I’ll leave out the specifics on what product/company these frames were advertising for; suffice to say, it was a collection of short spots of families and loved ones reflecting on the nature of their relationships (with some product placement tastefully featured in the periphery).  Rather, Let’s consider these boards an example of how I really try to bring a sense of acting and characterization to my drawings- bringing forth a sense of deep human connection when called for.  I think the work speaks for itself.

Just as often as I’m called upon do depict amazing action scenes, or elaborate fantastic worlds, I’m then called upon to draw a tender moment of kindness, or humor.  That’s the world of Storyboarding Commercials- you draw everything and it’s thus I believe it’s the best artistic training ever.  The work demands you never get too comfortable drawing the same thing every day- I draw vehicles, animals, people, places, animation, live action, humor, horror, sci-fi, and even in new media like VR!  It’s a new challenge every day and I love it.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

:30 Action Animation B&W Internet iOS/Mobile Males Storyboarding Vehicles VFX Video Games War February 5, 2018

“War Planet” Storyboards

Hi!  So here’s a fun one, if, I guess, you think war and conquest is fun… just kidding, of course you do!  What could be more fun then kicking your friends’ butts in online multiplayer combat via iOS or Android device? NOTHING #LOL

But seriously, I LOVE DRAWING WAR, something about it just flows out of me, even easier than all the other stuff that I enjoy drawing.  It’s just FUN drawing stuff blowing up!

The spots for this project kind of distilled down from 4 spots, to 2, to 1, so there’s some splicing and melding going on in some of these boards I’m about to show- but it’s helpful (I’m sure) to see how this kind of thing can happen!  In these modern advertising times, client needs and specs have to pivot on a dime! New apps/smartphones are released every day and that’s your ENEMY out there! That’s WAR for you!

My favorite part of this project, aside from the ‘realistic’ treatment of the weaponry and setting- was the emphasis put on the various commanders as CHARACTERS – which always inspires as being a board artist forces you to become part ACTOR as well as ARTIST.  Enough said, let me know what you think of my ‘performance.’

And another ‘take’:

Not bad eh?  Well, you’ll see in the video to follow: They’ve pivoted among other things, the TITLE of this project!  So now we are WAR PLANET.  Good to know! Hey, first thing’s first, right?

I think it turned out great! I’d play, but it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else, you know?  Hey, I’m just being honest.  See you next time!

 

:15 :30 B&W Crime Family Horror Males Pitch Boards Storyboarding February 1, 2018

BATES MOTEL | Promo Pitch Boards

So here’s a riddle:  When are you HAPPY that your favorite binge-able show finally is finally axed?  WHEN IT MEANS YOU CAN FINALLY POST your storyboards for the promos!!!  I’ve been dying to show these off for a while now.  Of course, these were just pitches for promos, and as far as I can tell, none of the concepts I drew were produced, which totally slays me.

I thought these were some really killer concepts, but maybe the client thought we butchered the execution.  Ok, enough pun-ishment.  Wouldn’t want you to get “board.”  Lol!

First board set: Bates’ “Room”; The room seems to close in and crack under in intense psychological pressure:

And second board set: Bates’ “Stairs”; We follow our hero up a set of stairs and meet our horrific fate:

That’s some creepy stuff!  I hope you enjoyed watching these.  BTW, I did all these boards and MORE in a single 8-hour day.  What can I say?  I really do BLEED for this job!  Bwhahahahah!!  See you next time….

2:00 Action Animation B&W Females Males Pitch Boards Shoot Boards Software Storyboarding Vehicles VFX Video Games War September 20, 2017

Xbox “Scorpio” Debut Trailer

Earlier this year I had a blast working with the good people at BLIND on their amazing project:  The Xbox “Scorpio” debut trailer.  This officially introduced the world to the Xbox One X, and it’s always an honor to be included on such high-profile assignments.  I’ve generously been given permission to show some of the storyboards I created for them- I think this is some of my best work!

Here’s a slideshow:

And here’s a link to the final video!

Thanks for checking in!

:60 Action Animation B&W Drink Food Humor Seasonal Shoot Boards Storyboarding VFX February 17, 2017

Aldi “Christmas Carrot” Storyboards

In Los Angeles, Christmas starts in September.  If you work in commercial production, that is!  Indeed it takes a couple of months for projects to get greenlit and produced in time for airing during the holiday season.  So it was that last year I was working on a fun Christmas project for my clients at PSYOP- storyboarding the delightful tale of Kevin the Christmas Carrot- a character conceived for an Aldi holiday commercial.  Aldi, if you don’t know, is a popular European supermarket chain.

The commercial is really sweet and funny- a plucky little carrot just wants to meet Santa, and must brave the dangers of the Christmas dinner table in order to do so.  He dodges hazards of all kinds, and collapses next to Santa’s mince pie and brandy (it’s a UK commercial, so no cookies and milk in this one… in fact, it’s not Santa, it’s Father Christmas!).

It’s all self-explanatory and I’m really excited to show you the boards:

And here’s a link to the final video!

It turned out so great!  Looks like they opted NOT to go with the full widescreen aspect ratio.  I think it might have looked more epic if they did, but I can also see where the 16×9 is a little more suited for a sense of comedy, which was just as important.

There was a lot of brainstorming and tossing out all kinds of ideas that might work as potential hazards for the ‘journey’ montage.  Here’s a few that I thought were really clever (and well-drawn by me!)

What if he had to hop from a soup bowl past a few mugs of hot cider?

I had an idea that when the potato was about to fall on him, he could lay a breadstick across a gap to make a bridge.

It could be a cool action moment as he dashed across! Below, spiky hors d’oeuvres spell certain doom

He could even swing from the chandelier overhead!

It could be funny if he had to hide from a kitty!

Last one- What if we had a fun moment where he was intrigued by his reflection in the glaze of a fruitcake?

What a fun project!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  This campaign tested so well, the client decided to make a sequel!  I storyboarded that one too, so I’ll post that when I have more time.

 

Till then!

 

-Max

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