Film & TV Storyboards
Night School
YA Pitch Pre-Production
Location
London, UK
Director
Jack Jewers
Release
2020
Brief
Create storyboards to assist the director in visualising his Night School series, which was under option by US television network. The series is an adaptation of CJ Dougherty's Night School young adult book series centring around Cimerria boarding school and a conspiracy plot that weave around the school and it's pupils.
Rory made storyboards for adapting Night School into a TV series. This came about because a US network expressed interest in producing an adaptation, so the goal was to create pitch materials that could move things forward.
The story follows Allie Sheridan, a 16-year-old from Brixton who gets sent away to boarding school after a string of arrests. Cimmeria Academy is an exclusive private school for the children of the elite. At its heart is Night School, a secret society in the Bullingdon Club style—members are groomed to run the country and mentored by powerful figures. But Allie soon discovers their glamorous world is laced with deception and danger. Everyone lies. Everyone hides secrets. Some secrets can kill. The web series presented new stories within the Night School universe rather than a straight book adaptation. (You can watch the original Youtube web series here, and The Guardian covered it too).
The storyboards were built with episodic pacing in mind, meant for directors and producers to review as part of the pitch. Each frame shows how the visuals can carry the story, giving production teams something concrete to work with from script to screen. Basically, proof that storyboards still matter when adapting books for TV, if a network's willing to look.
...The series is focused on Allie Sheridan who discovers herself when she’s sent to Cimmeria Academy...
This comprehensive storyboard project for the Night School television adaptation captures the story of Allie, distressed by her brother's death and acting out through destructive behavior, culminating in breaking into school with friend Mark and getting caught by police. This incident convinces her parents to send her to boarding school for stability, where the seemingly strict Cimmeria Academy harbors hidden secrets. As a professional storyboard artist specializing in YA television development, I developed detailed pre-production visuals that showcase the transformation from personal drama to supernatural thriller, creating compelling network pitch materials for this young adult series adaptation.
My detailed television storyboarding approach focused on conveying tone, pacing, and character dynamics essential for major network presentations. The storyboard frames were designed to communicate narrative structure and visual storytelling potential of the YA novel adaptation, providing production teams with screen-ready presentation materials. This television development project demonstrates how thorough pre-production storyboard work serves as a bridge between concept and final production, ensuring clear and compelling visual development for directors and producers evaluating TV series adaptations.