From DGA Quarterly (Spring 2009), this interview with writer-director Nancy Meyers. Meyers’ credits include Private Benjamin (1980), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The Parent Trap (1998), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), and It’s Complicated (2009). Here’s an excerpt from the interview in which Meyers talks about the importance she places on storyboards:

Q: The storyboards I saw were very exact, down to the lines of dialogue spoken in each frame. Do you always storyboard your movies?

A: Yes, it’s the very first thing I do, it’s pre-prep. I work on the storyboards for two hours daily, and it’s the one thing I try not to let them take out of my schedule. And I’m on my third draft [of storyboards], since we revise them as we find the locations. Everybody gets copies of the boards, and everybody gets copies of the revised boards. Every Sunday I send a mass e-mail to every department about anything that’s changed, so everybody knows everything. I bet there are fabulous movies that don’t storyboard, and don’t do the research and this kind of prep. But I don’t think I’d be good at doing one of those. For me, and for my personality, this is the way I like to do it. People do their work the way it works for them.

I would think that storyboards have a special meaning for writer-directors, as opposed to just directors, a sort of mid-step between the screenplay and the start of production, and the first step really visualizing the story.

For a 2004 interview with Meyers, go here.

UPDATE: In comments, J makes it known they didn’t like the new Nancy Meyers movie It’s Complicated. Seems J is not alone as Ken Levine provides a lengthy list of “Movies I Would See Before IT’S COMPLICATED”. A few of those movies:

GIGLI
HOWARD THE DUCK
BATTLEFIELD EARTH

KAZAAM
STAYING ALIVE
NORTH

So clearly Levine isn’t a fan of Meyers either. How about you? Did you see It’s Complicated? What’s your reaction to the movie?