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How to Pursue Career as Story Artist

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How to Pursue Career as Story Artist

I really want to be a writer/story artist at an animation studio, but I'm not sure how to get my foot in the door. I have some questions and would really appreciate any advice.

1. What do I include in a portfolio / demoreel for this position?
2. Is story artist an entry level position?
3. Do I have to live in San Francisco or LA before I could get a job there?

Thank you so much for the help!

1. What do I include in a portfolio / demoreel for this position?

Storyboard samples should be in the portfolio--ideally addressing the medium in the work you are applying for. You can have other items, such as some life-drawing, layouts, or other related art, but they all should support the storyboard samples in some way.

2. Is story artist an entry level position?

No, in almost every case it is not entry-level.

A storyboard artist needs to have command of drawing, storytelling and cinematography skills, and some life-experience is an asset. They need to have complete understanding of the medium the 'board is to be used in, be it games, animation or live-action. The oft-seen requisite is someone with some years of storyboarding experience, as problem-solving is a cornerstone part of the job.
Storyboard revisionists can be considered entry-level in some studios, but the positions are often crewed by artists with some drawing ability. revisionists are often just a "hired wrist" job--in that the decisions on WHAT to draw are often called for by someone else ( the director, or 'board supervisor).

3. Do I have to live in San Francisco or LA before I could get a job there?

Do you mean in getting work from studios there?
The answer varies: not always to sometimes to often yes...depending on the studio you apply to. some studios will entertain hiring freelancers from out of town, others insist upon talent working in studio. Experienced 'board artists frequently do work far away from centres like 'Frisco or LA, but that key word is there: "experienced".

Just as an aside, but "writer" and "story artist" are two somewhat different positions in the animation production pipeline. Writers tend to just write scripts/screenplays for a production, whereas a story artist will draw storyboards or beat boards from said scripts. They are two different disciplines that share some commonality, but you will be hired for one or the other.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Thanks so much for the help. If I could continue I have a few further questions.

1. I was referring to full time positions instead of free-lance. Do I have to live in LA before getting an entry level full time position?

2. If story artist is not entry level, what job could I do to get my foot in the door?

3. Should I look for jobs online, or do I have to know someone? Where is a place to look for animation jobs online?

Thank you again!

1

. I was referring to full time positions instead of free-lance. Do I have to live in LA before getting an entry level full time position?

More than likely, yes, if you wish to work full-time for a LA-based studio, you will likely ( but not always) need to be a local resident.
But here's a question: why are you restricting yourself to just LA, there are animation studios all over the place, all over North America, Europe, Asia, etc?
LA is a tough job market to break into, especially for animation work.
Also understand that full-time positions can be difficult to gain if you lack experience.

2. If story artist is not entry level, what job could I do to get my foot in the door?

I do not know what job you could do, as I have no way to gauge your abilities without seeing your portfolio or seeing what your experience is. What has your training been in? 2D, 3D, gaming? There's numerous entry-level positions for each of those mediums.
However, by the nature of the questions you are asking, I'm assuming you are just out of school. Try posting samples of your work on-line for a wide audience to see, that may get you noticed.

3. Should I look for jobs online, or do I have to know someone? Where is a place to look for animation jobs online?

Either.........both. You'll find positions by ads on-line or word-of-mouth.
Have you looked at the AWN front page?
There are links to job boards listed there. There are several dozen (at least) on-line animation job boards covering many different countries and positions. Your best bet is to just start using a search engine and look for work opportunities in your area/region and in the strengths of your talent.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Wow, this is very helpful. I am a student who is just about to graduate from a liberal arts college. I double majored in Art and English. As for a portfolio, I have some large scale drawings which I drew in pen and painted for my senior exhibition, small drawings and sketches, and a few small Flash animation samples. I would really appreciate if you could tell me what kinds of positions I seem fit for with what I have to show. Thank you again. I really appreciate the help.

Wow, this is very helpful. I am a student who is just about to graduate from a liberal arts college. I double majored in Art and English. As for a portfolio, I have some large scale drawings which I drew in pen and painted for my senior exhibition, small drawings and sketches, and a few small Flash animation samples. I would really appreciate if you could tell me what kinds of positions I seem fit for with what I have to show. Thank you again. I really appreciate the help.

Haaaaaa......aaaaaaaaa...............ummmmmm.....well what you want to do?
What kind of art do you do?

I mean, here's where things get really hard.....and tricky.

Just EXACTLY what kind of art do you do?
Now, answer this more for yourself than for me.....because you'll be the one using the info. You've got some "large scale drawings in pen".....and "small drawings and sketches"...of.....what? Are they cartoon art? Anime? Architectural drawings? Comic book art? Are they concept art designs with marker comp looks?
Now, here's the big question: how close is this stuff to professional looking??
Now, to serve you best........you need to answer this as honestly as possible, and the way to do that is to look at the work and ask yourself if it looks like its ready to be used in a professional production at this moment.
Is it at that level? Does it look like it came from an actual production, in all respects?

Or does it look like student work?

See, what you have described doesn't tell me much at all. You initially asked for a possible storyboard position, but nothing in what you described sounds usable for storyboarding.
How would a recruiter evaluate you for a storyboarding job.....if you have no professional-level storyboards to show??

C'mon...... you already know the answer to that.......do not kid yourself.

What are your FLASH samples? Are they are the level of polish and workmanship of the FLASH/Harmony animated cartoons being shown on TV right now?? Again, answer this more for yourself. What is the level your work is at? What do YOU have to offer the studios??

Look, understand this simple, cold, hard truth about the animation business: you will be hired if you can do the kind of work the studio can do. You will NOT be hired if all you can do is "your stuff". You MUST be able to demonstrate ( and usually in your portfolio) that you can work at the level of ability the studio demands.

If your work is not professional looking......then you need to get it there before applying, or do something else. If you cannot gauge where your own abilities are in relation to that level needed, then either acquire the skills to self-evaluate, or again, go do something else.

Another thing: as I said before, I cannot tell you what positions you are suited for based on what you have described to me.
Animation, in most of the mediums being used these days, isn't a catch-all field, in terms of jobs.
You specialize......have one or two primary skill-sets that sell you.....(or if you are some sort of wunderkind) and you apply for jobs within those specialties.
Talent, these days, tend to be pigeon-holed by studios--that is to say they get hired to do ONE specific job, and they work on that job until the project is completed.
Then, as often is the case, the studio lets you go and you go find another studio to work at and repeat it all over again. It'll depend on the studio, of course, and the job itself.
The WORST thing you can do is apply to a studio and say you'll do anything.
Specialize, not generalize.

Now, some real hard questions for you: why have you not approached your college with these questions?
Certainly your instructor(s) should be able to look over your work and give you an appraisal of where you stand in terms of the industry and likely where you can/should apply.
The guidance counsellors should also be able to answer some of what you have asked here. Take the answers I have given you to both those parties I mentioned and ask them if they agree.....or if they do not, ask them what they suggest.

I will not bullshit you, or give you false-encouragement here. I have not seen any of your art......I cannot gauge your level of ability without seeing it.
It all hinges on your abilities.....what you can demonstrate. If your work is not quite there.......get it there. If you have a long way to go still... either get to work on it, or take up something else.

The WORST thing you can do is to show your stuff to someone who is NOT in the industry and have them patronize you/ pat you on the head and say your stuff is "just fine" ( and them not knowing one way or the other). That will give you the wrong ideas and will waste your time with false hopes.
Show your work to people that actually do the stuff for a living to get an opinion. Ask what your strengths are, your weaknesses and how to fix them. If you do not have those kinds of people in your circle of acquaintances, then get out there and find those kind of people.

There's no magic solution to this......I think its the best that anyone can offer you at this time.
Good luck.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Thank you so much! You really have helped me, and if you could answer one last question, I would really, really appreciate it! What I would really like to do is be a writer at a studio, and I thought working as an artist could help me get a foot in the door. Could you tell me the steps I would take to become a writer at a studio? Again thanks so much for giving me your time.

Bluman, in response to your last question, I would suggest that you start writing. And once you've completed a script, revise it and then show it to people for some feedback. Revise again, and then start on the next script.

I'm sure that there are a number of things you need to do to "get in" but none of that is going to help until you're really comfortable writing. It really doesn't hurt to have a ton of practice under your belt.

Given that the thread originally started with a "becoming a story artist" topic, I also thought it would be fitting to ask a couple of additional questions that I have:

[LIST]Does anyone have a list of gaming industry or animation industry companies that would hire story artists?[/LIST]

[LIST]Does anyone have suggestions on "how" to find the contact info of any given recruiter at any given company? Example: How would I find the name/email address of the recruiter at Disney Feature Films so I could send a portfolio directly to them?
[/LIST]

[LIST]Are companies averse to "cold mailings" of portfolios? Is it best to blanket the market with your work? Is it better to do these cold mailings to features? Or TV? Or to gaming industry companies?
[/LIST]

[LIST]How clean does your clean-up work need to be? Can you have construction lines in your clean-up work? How do you get better at drawing characters "on model"?
[/LIST]

[LIST]Should your portfolio have storyboard samples that are only clean? Will it hurt you to have rough work in your portfolio?
[/LIST]

[LIST]What types of board should you have in your portfolio? Example: fight scene, dance sequence, comedy, conversation, montage, etc.
[/LIST]

Hi Tony-- here's some answers that might work for you--feel free to keep asking and do not feel obligated to take them as gospel. I have been a pro storyboard artist since 1991, working most on TV cartoons, and occasionally some features and game productions. I have taught storyboard at VFS, and a few other art colleges as well.

Does anyone have a list of gaming industry or animation industry companies that would hire story artists?

AWN.com has a link to a studio database on its main page that can get you started on such a search.

Does anyone have suggestions on "how" to find the contact info of any given recruiter at any given company? Example: How would I find the name/email address of the recruiter at Disney Feature Films so I could send a portfolio directly to them?

That can be a bit tricky, if the job posting doesn't have a direct contact link to a living, breathing person. Sometimes the studio job board will post the name of a contact person, sometimes it takes a bit more digging.
The rule of thumb is that unless you know someone who can forward you the contact's name ( that is your acquaintance works at the studio etc) then stick by the contact info the studio provides on its job board. They may want a sort of arm's length approach with talent soliciting for work. This is where some networking, personal contacts in the biz and the "ol' boys network" can come in handy.

Are companies averse to "cold mailings" of portfolios? Is it best to blanket the market with your work? Is it better to do these cold mailings to features? Or TV? Or to gaming industry companies?

It depends on the studio and the jobs they are hiring for. There's numerous strategies one can undertake here in approaching the studios.
Example: a cold mailing with a intro letter/resume' , some drawing samples and a couple of 'board pages AND a clear on-line link to a good selection of samples on a personal web-page portfolio site. This way, you send them a tidbit, and then if it sparks their interest, they can look at your on-line material to see if you are suitable for them.

The other thing is you'd want to tailor your samples to each medium. Its going to do you no favours if you send a TV sample 'board to a gaming company, as its not their thing. This is why following the prompts/cues they have on their job boards ends up being the suggested course of action.

How clean does your clean-up work need to be? Can you have construction lines in your clean-up work? How do you get better at drawing characters "on model"?

Here's an example from a 'board I did for a recent pre-school show:

Its not especially clean--a kind of tight rough drawing, but it shows everything it needs to show. The storyboard is a tool to communicate ideas from the script.....so anything that visualizes the story in a key way, should be on the board. You don't need a lot of noodling drawing, a lot of elaborate rendering/shading. The drawings should be expressive, supple and close to on-model--everything should be clear and easy to understand.

Should your portfolio have storyboard samples that are only clean? Will it hurt you to have rough work in your portfolio?

Ruffs should your thinking process, and your underlying drawing strengths. Strong ruffs will mean strong cleans. Rough life-drawing samples are fine, for some subjects, and a mix of "clean" and ruff is a good idea. 'Board samples should NOT look too preliminary though, they should have enough drawing and detail to clearly understand what is going on in the panels.

What types of board should you have in your portfolio? Example: fight scene, dance sequence, comedy, conversation, montage, etc.

What type of work are you applying for? Rule of thumb for 'boards samples: 15 to 25 pages to.....ideally less than 35 pages of continuity ( preferably 2-panel page format) to give a sense of how you tell a story. 2-3 sets of samples for the genre you are applying for. It makes no sense to send samples containing action/adventure or adult comedy to a job posting for a pre-school show.
My strategy has always been to find a way to show a range of competence in genres.
Show some drama, some pathos, action, some "cutes" where needed.....'boards that have some feeling as well as technical merit. By that I mean, samples that are properly labelled, that show clear camera work and can be easily understood, by even a layman if necessary.
That's just the start...........there's proper staging, dramatic use of camera angles, interplay between characters, effective cutting, smart camera moves....no jump cuts, adherence to the 180-degree rule etc....and making it all entertaining.

It ends up being little wonder why storyboarding is one of the toughest jobs in the animation production pipeline, demanding one of the more extensive skill-sets of the entire animation process.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Hi Ken, thanks for taking the time to compose such a good response. It's great to get some solid feedback.

To answer your question about the work I am applying for: I am currently trying to get into TV animation as a revisionist. While I try to send out a portfolio to ANY opening that appears, the ideal show would have some kind of comedic element to it. I really love drawing the action/adventure stuff (think Marvel characters) but I think that starting out with comedy will help me build the skills and a good sense of timing for the "dream job" in feature animation someday. But this does not mean that I'd pass up the opportunity to work with some action show like in KungFu Panda...beggers can be choosers. Gaming sounds good too, but I really have no clue what they're looking for. My strategy is to learn as much about acting, story flow, technical drawing, cinematography, directing while in TV and then those skills can easily be transferred over to some gaming company or on a feature film.

Thanks for posting up an example of your work. I really like the screne direction/camera information that you included with the tracking shot. It's good to see that tight rough is acceptable because creating drawings that are 100% on-model happens to be very time-consuming for me. The characters I draw look "close enough" and have good expression/gesture/silhouette/volumes however they're nowhere nearly as perfect as what an inbetweener can produce. And I'm finding that there's a balance between how much time I have to make it pretty and how much time I have to plan/think out a board to make it good.

Incidentally, I have been learning about all of the aspects of film that you have mentioned (180 rule, staging, composition, camera angles, psychology of a shot, script analysis, add infinitum). I almost feel like a director at times when thinking up all of the elements needed in a story beat!

Can I get your thoughts on including acting into your drawings? And by acting, I mean all of the subtle facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language changes that can correspond to one line of dialogue from the script. There are times where I am working with one line of dialogue where I can easily include 3-4 drawings to express the complexity of emotion that a character is feeling, but when doing this I feel like I'm setting up key-frames as opposed to concisely telling a story. In your experience, do you think it necessary to "pose out" characters that much? BTW, my gut tells me that I should include as many drawings as is necessary to convey a story point.

And finally (sorry, I just love talking about storyboard stuff), I liked your last comment about storyboarding being a tough job to get into. It is tough work because there is just so much thinking involved before you can even start drawing. It seems like there's 80% thinking/planning and then 20% drawing and that doesn't include the changes that need to happen. It's funny because my storyboard teacher says he can tell who's a "real" storyboard artist when he sees the pain in their eyes. :D

Gaming sounds good too, but I really have no clue what they're looking for.

Sure ya do.

Look at the games. :rolleyes:

There's your big clue.
What are they going to need storyboarding for in a game? Cinematics, of course.

The characters I draw look "close enough" and have good expression/gesture/silhouette/volumes however they're nowhere nearly as perfect as what an inbetweener can produce. And I'm finding that there's a balance between how much time I have to make it pretty and how much time I have to plan/think out a board to make it good.

There will NEVER be enough time to make it look both pretty and on-model, certainly not enough hours in the waking day unless you are very confident in drawing, or very fast. There will always be compromises. The thinking time is most important, because the board HAS TO READ CLEARLY.
That's its purpose.
Its not intended to be a work of art in itself, its a blueprint for other stages in the production, and the ASSUMPTION is that those following steps will plus the shots as they come to them.

Can I get your thoughts on including acting into your drawings? And by acting, I mean all of the subtle facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language changes that can correspond to one line of dialogue from the script. There are times where I am working with one line of dialogue where I can easily include 3-4 drawings to express the complexity of emotion that a character is feeling, but when doing this I feel like I'm setting up key-frames as opposed to concisely telling a story. In your experience, do you think it necessary to "pose out" characters that much? BTW, my gut tells me that I should include as many drawings as is necessary to convey a story point.

Here's some insight into modern storyboarding;
In most cases, 20 years ago 'boards for a 22 minute TV cartoon would have averaged out about 500 2-panel pages (at about the top end). Today, the average is about 600-1000+ 2-panel pages. I've seen of 11 minute sections topping out at 800 hundred pages--half a show only.
The reason for the increase is posing.
And the reason for all that posing is control.
Nowadays, storyboarding is akin to what layout used to be. Most of the key poses and expressions are in the 'board--but storyboarding is NOT layout.
Adding those poses is spelling out SPECIFICALLY what the actions are, a vital aspect if the animation is out-sourced overseas.
The storyboard, in essence, becomes a legal contract, a literal blueprint for the cartoon.
If the business is in the 'board, then its required to have that translated onto the screen--that is what the foreign studios have to do.
So, to that end, fleshing out the poses and action to fit the style and pace of the show, and the business conveyed in the script is usually a requisite. The more complication the action, the more poses it will take to explain it, same with with specific emotions or gestures.
If a character is emoting or gesticulating in a peculiar or specific way, then the poses will have to be there because no-one down the line is likely to be a mind-reader. Leaving this up to interpretation will always......always have a foreign studio take the "easy" path......meaning the one that involves less work.
For example; if you want a character to say a line with a funny expression on their face, you have to draw that expression on the board. The foreign studios.......heck, even most domestic studios these days will not show the wherewithal to plus the expression. They will plug in one of the A-B-C-D mouth positions onto a Happy/Sad/Mad stock face from the model pack and leave it at that.
That's a recipe for shitty cartoons, which we have all seen before.

If you want to see it funny, dramatic or cute, you HAVE TO draw it in the 'board first. You have control of the 'board while drawing it, so make sure the clarity of your drawing maintains that control. The term I use is called "idiot-proofing"-wherein the storyboard is SO CLEAR that a near-complete nincompoop can look at it and understand clearly what is going on. that is no denigrating to anyone else working on the show.......its a safety net.
I say that because you can never account for the competency of the next person down the production line. Take custody, responsibility of the material while you have custody of it--subject to the guidelines and notes from the director/producer.

So, yes, you need to add those poses....AND to address the story-points of the script. You have to juggle salient bits of business for time, and to address whether or not something will be entertaining or not.
My personal thing.....be ambitious with the ideas. If something is supposed to be grandiose in the script, make it epic. Push the grandeur, or the cutes, or the laughs. The end result is in the impact is has with the audience. All you have to do is please the director, and if they sign off on your work, then your job is done. If the foreign studios scream at how tough the drawing is.........well, c'est la vie.
You job IS several-fold......to entertain, to make things clear and easy to follow......to plus the work/bring something to it.........and to follow the guideline of the director(s)/producer(s).
Do your job right, as a storyboard artist and YOUR ideas are up on the screen.......which is really something kind of neat.

And finally (sorry, I just love talking about storyboard stuff), I liked your last comment about storyboarding being a tough job to get into. It is tough work because there is just so much thinking involved before you can even start drawing. It seems like there's 80% thinking/planning and then 20% drawing and that doesn't include the changes that need to happen. It's funny because my storyboard teacher says he can tell who's a "real" storyboard artist when he sees the pain in their eyes.

Pain??

Mere pain??
Peh, more like exquisite agony and torment.:rolleyes::D;)

Here's a secret: I routinely have less than 10% corrections on my 'boards. That is less than 10 pages to correct anything on out of 100 pages--which are considerably less than the 50% corrections average seen with most storyboards ( so I'm told).
Its not a boast, but rather the use of a specific method that gets me those results.
The trick is two-fold: one-- I take the time to visualize the show in my head, as if I were watching the completed cartoon on TV. Then I just reverse-engineer what I "see" into the storyboard. Its easier if I have a template to follow, a previous episode or footage to take my measure off of. Then everything from actions, to tempo, to business can be extrapolated and reverse-engineered as needed.
The second thing is that I KISS it......rather I "Keep It Simple, Silly"!
I try to stage shots effectively, move the camera only when necessary, linger on shots to slow time down, cut quicker to speed the pace up....and this address the needs of the story. Its not complicated........the script provides all the clues and cues, i just have to make the moments work.

A good story is made up of good moments--that is all we, as an audience, react to.....not the syntax or structure of a story......but to the moments. So I identify the key moments in the script and make sure they get the TLC they need--and sell those moments harder.

Alex Toth said that not every shot is going to be a keeper, that some are merely bridging scenes between key moments. With that in mind, not every scene needs to knock it out of the park--only the key moments really need that attention. There's other strategies that support these two ideas, but the core method I use is just that--and its worked well over the past 20+ years.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Back again! So I was hoping that we could examine the differences between feature and TV boards in regards to “what” an aspiring story artist should put in a portfolio. Moreover, I am curious as to which type of formatting is perceived to better show off storyboarding skills.

From what I gather, feature boards are drawn loosely, typically do not have that much notation regarding camera movements/timing/slugging, and have multiple panels drawn out with different backgrounds as a function of camera movements. Also, feature boards will probably NOT have the expanded panels of tracking shots and truck out shots, rather they will have a sequence of shots that have the same aspect ratio.
ex.

Notice that each image has a different BG.

Conversely, TV boards WILL have all of the notations included as well as the expanded panels that almost look like layout work. Also, TV boards are a bit tighter and more on-model (but still not “perfect” in referring to comments from a couple of posts back). In order to understand this next image, it would be wise to have start/stop bubbles drawn in along with some information regarding how the camera will move.
ex.

Notice only 1 drawing with 1 BG, but information is missing.

**pardon the lack of technical quality in the images; these are ruffs

In how this relates to the topic of the thread, I’m wondering what types of images recruiters and directors more interested in seeing. I'd like to know what "reads" better when looking at both of these sets. Do TV recruiters expect aspiring artists to know all of the camera movements and notation? What about feature recruiters? Is it better to have storyboards as images sequences? Should we have all of the camera notation? (these are rhetorical questions)

I am starting to wonder if it would be best to only include one continuity board (all the camera movements, expanded panels, notation) in my portfolio. And perhaps all of the other storyboard samples should include a selection of images that only show the main story-points from your board. I suspect that recruiters will look at whatever you give them, but a small sampling of strong imagery would better help them decide if you're the right artist for the job. The rationalization for this is that recruiters do not have time to read all of the notes about hook-ups/(IN)(OUT) notations/BG references/etc. Instead, if you bombard them with your best images that show good staging, composition, technical drawing, etc. they’ll be able to ascertain if the aspiring artist is capable of studio quality work.

Ken, do you have any thoughts on this? I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to dwindle down an 80 page storyboard to the best 12 images that tell the story. What do you think? Potential for disaster? Or perhaps a really concise way to show off your talent?

In how this relates to the topic of the thread, I’m wondering what types of images recruiters and directors more interested in seeing. I'd like to know what "reads" better when looking at both of these sets. Do TV recruiters expect aspiring artists to know all of the camera movements and notation?

Yes, you'd better know your stuff backwards and forwards because your work could likely be forwarded to a director--who WILL know all of that stuff.
Idiot-proof the storyboard---its a never-fail method.

What about feature recruiters?

See above.

Is it better to have storyboards as images sequences? Should we have all of the camera notation? (these are rhetorical questions)

Show the storyboard as if you were doing the storyboard for pay. Notations, camera directions, etc. Without that stuff the 'board is just a series of images, and its worth shit.

I am starting to wonder if it would be best to only include one continuity board (all the camera movements, expanded panels, notation) in my portfolio. And perhaps all of the other storyboard samples should include a selection of images that only show the main story-points from your board. I suspect that recruiters will look at whatever you give them, but a small sampling of strong imagery would better help them decide if you're the right artist for the job.

A pretty board can sell better, but a CLEAR board sells best of all. ALWAYS go for clarity.

The rationalization for this is that recruiters do not have time to read all of the notes about hook-ups/(IN)(OUT) notations/BG references/etc. Instead, if you bombard them with your best images that show good staging, composition, technical drawing, etc. they’ll be able to ascertain if the aspiring artist is capable of studio quality work.

Recruiters can be idiots. Never forget that. They can just be a lower level executive hired to screen people.....they may have minimal experience in film production. The person you want to gear the storyboard for is a DIRECTOR. Impress them. The recruiter is just a person on the way to the director, and if your work is good enough, it'll end up under the directors nose.

Ken, do you have any thoughts on this? I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to dwindle down an 80 page storyboard to the best 12 images that tell the story. What do you think? Potential for disaster? Or perhaps a really concise way to show off your talent?

Show continuity.
About 25 to 50 consecutive pages. Try to start with a good shot, and establishing shot....need not be the opening fame of the film. Something that showcases your drawing abilities. Then tell the story from there. Can be a vignette, a sequence from the film, but it MUST be sequential panels. 12 images, with no real continuity will not sell the story. Show the storyboard samples as if you are showing the completed storyboard itself to the director.
Short-change the 'board samples and you short-change your chances.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Thanks Ken--dynamite advice.