Video: “‘Blood Simple’ — Storyboards”

What a beautiful thing. Criterion has just released a DVD of the first Coen brothers movie Blood Simple. This film is like a fine wine, it ages really well. And what’s amazing is how much of who the Coens are as filmmakers is in evidence in their initial cinematic offering.

To wit, one of the Criterion commentary tracks delves into how the Coen brothers do extensive storyboarding on their movies and through the marvel which is the Internet, we can see that track here.

I’ve read almost all of the screenplays written by the Coens for the movies they’ve directed and it has always amazed me how closely the final product is to their written words. The storyboarding helps explain that. They think through every shot before production, indeed, as they write their scripts. As Joel suggests in the above video, this approach is not the only way to go about the filmmaking process, however it works for them.

To check out Blood Simple on the Criterion Collection, go here.