BDM125 Storyboarding: Story Beat Sheet

Logline:
A lonely monkey artist in an unappreciated painting must rise to the occasion when his best friend, a spunky Graffiti Girl, is threatened with erasure by a snobby museum patron.

Story Beat Sheet by Blake Snyder

1.  Opening image:  A small park square separates an old brick building covered in graffiti and a gleaming art museum filled with million dollar paintings.  A teenager works tirelessly through the night to create a mural of a woman with a palette of spray paint and a canvas.  the next morning, the square comes to life.  The cafe has a small fire which the fire department takes care of, the townspeople walk around, kids play in the park, and a snobby museum patron clearly disapproves of the mural.

2.  Theme stated:  The Graffiti Girl and the Artist Monkey bond over their love of painting.  Art is art, no matter where it's found.

3.  Set-up:  The paintings in the museum are aware of the Graffiti Girl, but it's the Monkey Artist who is really interested.  She's not just another painting, she's an artist, like him.  They compare paintings and share an understanding.  The inhabitants of the paintings can move around, but they see no need to leave their comfortable canvases or exceed the boundaries of their frames.  Only the mischievous Artist Monkey has ever broken the boundaries of the frame when he swipes things from other paintings (like a banana from a bowl of fruit or plays tricks on the Hero painting and his horse) and uses his paints to cover up what he's doing.

4.  Catalyst:  A snobby museum patron who donates lots of money thinks the graffiti makes the museum look bad and calls in a painter to spruce the place up.

5.  Debate:  As she starts getting painted over, like water rising around her legs, Graffiti Girl calls out for help.  Help me!  Help me!  The handsome Hero in the biggest painting sees her!  He's got to DO something!  But... people are here to take his picture, admire his pants, really important stuff.  None of the paintings think they should intervene.

6.  Act Two Plot Point:  The Artist Monkey busts out of his frame, ready to save the day.

7.  B Story:  The painter can be seen in the background valiantly trying to cover up the Graffiti Girl and her wall.  She is able to hold him back for a while using her spray paints, but he pulls out a comic succession of ever larger brushes until he finally turns the tide by using a super power spray gun.  From time to time, he gets paint on the snobby museum patron who is trying to put her oar in to the proceedings.

8.  Fun and Games:  Artist Monkey leaps into action.  He leaps from painting to painting, changing his appearance as he goes through the Picasso, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Matisse paintings, etc.

9.  Midpoint:  He reaches the end of the paintings but can't quite make it to the door... until he sees a patron in a colourful t-shirt with a cartoon on it go by.  He leaps "onto" the shirt and goes through the door.  From there, he jumps into the ad on a delivery van to the horse mascot on a local bank's window and races around the square to get to the Graffiti Girl.

10.  Bad Guys Close In:  The snobby museum patron has decided to not just supervise the whitewashing of the brick building, but to actually grab the super-spray gun and do it herself.

11.  All is Lost:  By now, the Graffiti Girl is up to her neck in white paint.

12.  Dark Night of the Soul:  There is no more paint for the Artist Monkey to jump onto, no way to reach the Graffiti Girl.  He's stuck running frantically back and forth on the yellow line on the curb across the street from her.

13.  Act Three Plot Point:  If only Artist Monkey hadn't left his paints behind in his painting!  A little girl is sitting at a cafe table colouring in her book.  She looks up and offers the monkey a fistful of crayons.  Artist Monkey grabs them with all four paws, and his tail, and busily colours himself across the road like a kid's drawing to where the eye of the Graffiti Girl is being covered over with paint.

14.  Finale:  He's too late!  He's worn the crayons down to nothing.  Dejected, he slumps against a fire hydrant.  But!  Somebody has painted the fire hydrant with a teeny tiny image.  He remembers seeing the fire hydrant being used earlier by the fire department to put out that small fire in the cafe.  He grabs the plug and sets off the spray of water, blowing away the snobby museum patron to the relief of the harassed painter (who is then blow away, himself) and washing off the paint that hasn't dried.  Graffiti Girl is saved!  The painter gives up in disgust.  But is this the end?  Is she safe?

15.  Final Image:  The next day, the painter returns to find the Graffiti Girl has a big fancy frame painted around her which has lots of brass plaques from the museum on it and a crowd of admirers taking photos:  The Graffiti Girl has been joined on the wall by a very happy Artist Monkey.