Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
As part of a class assignment for my storyboarding course, I was tasked with creating concepts for Octavia Spencer’s short story Bloodchild. This project challenged me to reimagine and visually interpret the classic narrative, resulting in a series of concepts and boards that bring the story to life through my unique creative vision.
Visualizing the World.
Despite this story’s popularity, it has yet to be translated to visual media. After reading, I put together some images to help me visualize the world I was seeing in my head.
One curiosity was the alien. There were so many adjectives used to describe it that it seemed like everything and nothing at the same time.
Ultimately I landed on the design below because it captured most of what was described in the text and it was easy to draw repeatedly.
Boarding the World.
When I read something my brain instantly visualizes it like a movie. The cinematography and mise-en-scene are crucial to eliciting the correct response from the audience, so experimenting with shots and sequences is my first step to making that happen.
Below are some sketches I drew as a way to brainstorm what the world would look like through the camera lens.
Bloodchild Animatic
Complete with voicework and sound effects, I’ve created this animatic to visualize a sequence in the short story. I enjoyed every moment of making it!
Individual slides
You can check out each frame here!