As any good filmmaker knows, storyboards and previsualization are an important part of the process. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to storyboard all of SBD2 because of deadlines and scheduling, but one sequence did see some previsualization.

Co-Director Lou Tambone explains:

The only scene we really had time to storyboard was the convention scene and there was a reason behind that. This was the one shoot that I wasn't going to be present for and I wanted to make sure that Jeff had something to bounce off of, which is usually me. In this case, I had to essentially replace what I'd do on the set with storyboards. Normally, we'd discuss setups and shots and angles and such as we film the scenes - which is a terrible way to do it, but we had little time. I hastily sketched out this series of storyboards for Jeff to follow during the shoot because I knew without the help, all the pressure was on him. These boards would at least take some of the heat off him. The art is crude, I know, but they got the job done. I'll try to take you through some of these shots and explain where things were changed because as you can clearly see, some of these shots don't mimic what's in the final version. Now, here's the convention scene...

Board #1 is just an establishing shot. I didn't know what the actual convention center was going to look like so I just figured Jeff would get an outdoor establishing shot. As it turned out, the outdoor shot didn't look good at all - in fact, I don't think he shot it.

Board #2 is actually very close to what we have in the film. Those of you who know your conventions will notice that this establishing shot we used in the film is actually from some San Diego Comic Con leftover footage Jeff had lying around.

Board #3 is our Star Wars celebrity at the signing table from behind. We shot it that way for a few reasons. We didn't actually know what kind of celebrity we were going to have. We thought of having a major star like Harrison Ford but didn't like that. Then we thought a jawa would work great as a spoof on how fans would get any autograph they could. The jawa thing eventually turned into a "Mos Eisley Panhandler" which was Jeff's idea. I preferred the jawa myself. I have an insert there stating to show the sign from the front but Jeff forgot to film it and had to rig something up later on.

Board #4 is a close up of the celebrity signing his jawa autograph. I think jawas are just funny no matter how you slice 'em, and I'm sorry we couldn't use this. Things were just too hectic to get it all in.

Board #5 is where one of the troopers scopes out the situation. He peeks around the corner, sees what's going on, and formulates his plan - all off screen, of course.

Board #6 is the big distraction. The trooper averts everyone's eyes by yelling, "Look, George Lucas!" That was the only thing that popped into my head when I was drawing these out. We never intended to use it. Jeff and I actually went back and forth with what to use in the final film. It took forever and we ended up with the Trekkie line simply because we were both too tired to think of something better and the film needed to be mailed out soon.

Board #7 shows the big switcheroo. We didn't stray too far from this actually. I think Jeff shot it from another angle, that's about it.

Board #8 is more of my terrible art. As you can see, we were trying to pay a small homage to the cantina scene here. I actually try to include many small homages like this in the films but I'll leave it to you to find them.

Board #9 is a split-storyboard. This is where we see AJ's character coming into the scene. I didn't want to show him right away for some silly reason. It's just more dramatic. I mean, you know who it is but it's was more "spoofy" to do it this way where you see the hand close up, fingering the lightsaber. Of course, there's another subtle homage there to Mace Windu's entrance in the Geonosian arena from Attack of the Clones. It didn't quite work out that way in the film, but the idea was there. Had I been there, I would have probably drove Jeff crazy trying to explain why this shot needs to look this way and he would have probably said to go away and do something productive.

Board #10 is another split-storyboard. This is basically AJ's attack on the line. I was trying to tell Jeff to shoot a lot of these little moments and I think he wanted to but ran out of time. He needed to get the shots we really needed in the can first and when he did, there was no time left. Again, I wasn't there but I understand everyone really came through to organize the shoot and keep it light.

Board #11 is AJ at the table, finally, after wiping out the long line. This is the celebrity's point of view from the table.

Board #12 is the opposite view. This is what AJ sees when he gets to the table. Once again, being the homage man that I am, you can see what I was trying to do with this scene. It's sort of there in the finished product but I'm not sure everyone got the hint. There's a funny outtake to this shot that I hope we can get on the site soon...

Board #13 is back to AJ. This shot was really about his eyes and Jeff got it on the film just the way I wanted to see it. You can see AJ move his eyes up and back and you know he has a plan now.

Board #14 is once again split between shots of the banner itself and shots of AJ slicing the rope, which was actually just being held up by people standing on something. The banner was purchased by Jeff on eBay and was exactly what we were looking for.

Board #15 is the banner falling on the troopers. Jeff got enough footage to cut that together nicely even though this whole scene was a really tough edit and took (I think) the most time to assemble.

Board #16 was an idea that I guess was scrapped in a way. The way it's drawn, is AJ is sort of like one of those old time villains who looks back and laughs at his handywork before running away. In the finished film, he just runs away but it works just the same. We were originally going to go for all the exaggerated moves of a real silent film but we skipped a lot of that.

Board #17 is actually just a recap of the whole scene on one page for Jeff to look at in a hurry. They're just little thumbnails. I think some of these came out better than the actual storyboards.