DOUBLE TAKE; STORYBOARD ARTISTS MOLD BLOCKBUSTERS, SHOT BY SHOT.

Byline: Heesun Wee Daily News Staff Writer

It's easy to mistake Robert Consing for an arty film school student.

Wearing sneakers, jeans and an untucked dress shirt - all black, naturally - his wardrobe is fall Gap meets funky Los Feliz. His innocent smile and modest height make him look boyishly young. But don't be fooled.

At 27, Consing, a storyboard artist, has worked steadily in the film industry for a decade, collaborating closely, and enviably, with Hollywood heavyweights such as ``The Rock'' director Michael Bay, ``Face/Off'' director John Woo and ``Batman Forever'' director Joel Shumacher.

Since November, Consing has been drawing at Bay's production company in Santa Monica, a large, airy loft-turned-office in which the walls don't hit the ceiling. It's lunchtime and slivers of sunshine slice Consing's drawings, lined up and taped against a wall. In a nearby hallway, Mason, a big English bull mastiff, wades by, his clawed paws clicking against the shiny hardwood floor.

``It's such a blast,'' Consing said, surrounded by his work from ``The Rock.'' ``It's really gratifying to execute (directors') vision on paper. You're communicating with visuals and doing the one thing (drawing) they can't do.''

Consing has come a long way since his first interviews for drawing work at age ``17 or 18'' - he's not quite sure which.

Still in high school and short on cash for the senior prom, he persuaded an agent representing artists to arrange job interviews with directors seeking illustrators. The directors weren't easily convinced of Consing's age, let alone his talent. ``I felt like I was trying to get into a bar,'' he recalled.

But Consing prevailed, landing his first drawing gig for ``Red Surf,'' a low-budget film that was billed as George Clooney's debut as an action-film star and also featured Doug Savant, who now plays a young gay man in ``Melrose Place.''

Consing only does blockbuster flicks nowadays. And he no longer hits the pavement, pleading with Hollywood players for jobs. Consing is a player now, too. Colleagues ask for him by name. After ``The Rock,'' Bay sought Consing to work on the director's latest film ``Armageddon.''

It's a creative and charmed life. Everyday, Consing sits down to a U-shaped collection of tables, hunches over a thick piece of white, notebook-size paper and starts to sketch.

``It's all by hand. That we use computers is the most common misconception,'' Consing said. ``Computers can't do it themselves. They need a thinker and an artist.

His storyboards - shot-by-shot drawings of movie sequences - serve as a road map, usually when filming scenes brimming with action and special effects. Details count, and a good illustrator is a prescient one who can help eliminate trial-and-error shooting.

Each shot or image, usually three to a page, will take as long as 45 minutes to draw. Consing renders an actor down to a collared shirt with sleeves rolled up over a substantial bicep, a scowl completed by furrowed eyebrows, and weapons of specific make and model number grasped by sausagelike fingers.

``You really have to have a strong knowledge of weaponry for this job,'' said Consing, who also illustrated a key shoot-out scene in ``The Game.''

``It's about making a sequence in a real, riveting way that it grabs you off the page. The job is to get everyone excited months ahead'' of shooting, said David Lowery of Woodland Hills. Lowery has been illustrating since the mid-1980s and has worked with director Steven Spielberg for ``Jurassic Park'' and ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park,'' and director Mimi Leder for ``The Peacemaker,'' among others.

The basic challenge of creating a shot not even the likes of Martin Scorsese can top is an illustrator's bread and butter. ``When a director goes, `How about this?' you just go, `Damn. Why didn't I think of that?' Directors are pretty damn clever. ... But when you give them the board and they can't revise it, it's a slam dunk,'' Lowery said.

Back to the drawing board

In the early days of filmmaking, storyboard artists communicated minimally with directors and often were relegated to art departments far removed from sets.

``For the longest time we were ignored as a branch,'' said Consing, one of an estimated 60 free-lance storyboard artists working regularly in Hollywood, only a handful of them women. Then came Alfred Hitchock, who propelled the use of storyboards in ways no one previously had. Hitchock actually began his film career as an illustrator. Later as a director, he used storyboards extensively to carefully plot sequences, wracked with suspense.

But now, as movies get grander, more sophisticated and expensive to make, directors ironically are relying more on the basic drawing skills of illustrators to help them configure a game plan before filming. It's not unusual anymore for illustrators to work side by side with directors.

Following in the footsteps of Hitchcock, modern filmmakers such as Tim Burton and Scorsese are known for relying on storyboards.

So does Spielberg, creator of some of the biggest movie hits ever, including ``E.T.'' He began using illustrators regularly in the 1980s to plan effects and build a film's full-throttle momentum with every sequence.

``As in `The Lost World: Jurassic Park,' to have a fiscal responsibility like that, storyboards were our key into preparing out the day when we were shooting,'' said Colin Wilson, who helped produce ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' and ``Jurassic Park.'' Wilson also is working on Spielberg's latest film, ``Amistad.''

``Storyboard artists are a great compliment to a director,'' Wilson said. ``And they're a great compliment to the overall creative process.''

Lowery said Spielberg is among the few directors who creates most of his own storyboards, occasionally deferring to another illustrator like Lowery. ``Everybody looks like a pumpkin,'' said Lowery of Spielberg's storyboards.

Spielberg's characters may be round, Simpsons-like figures, but they're never just sitting on a page arbitrarily. They're in the foreground or background, running or falling, moving the story forward. ``He likes to stage it and build the thrill in storyboards,'' Lowery said.

From art table to director's chair

For every Lowery, whose loyalties lie in drawing, there is a Hitchcock. After years of composing shots, some illustrators want to set aside their pencil and paper and do the same with a camera.

Peter Ramsey of Palms did just that. He has been an illustrator for eight years, racking up impressive credits, including ``Backdraft,'' ``Dracula'' and ``Independence Day.'' It was on the set of John Singleton's ``Boyz N the Hood,'' where he helped arrange and shoot environmental sequences without actors, that Ramsey had his first taste of directing.

For Ramsey, who has passion for visuals and storytelling, it was an experience he hopes to repeat. ``Now that people on the creative, visual end are getting a little more attention, I can see more people making the jump to directing,'' Ramsey said. ``It's such a natural thing. We spend years basically designing sequences.''

The similarities between duties of directors and storyboard artists are too tempting to ignore for illustrators who not only have opinions about what a movie should look like, but what it should say as well.

``I've never drawn one form in my entire life without considering the possibility, the intent, of directing eventually,'' Consing said.

But a director's job is much more than arranging shots and selecting camera angles. ``Directors have to think about the great arc of the story and how to massage each actor and actress to arrive at what the story is supposed to be about,'' Lowery said.

Consing agrees, likening his capacity as an illustrator to a lieutenant. ``A director, that's being general.'' Consing admitted he's not quite ready to bark orders at, say, Sean Connery.

And the transition from illustrator to director is rocky at best. There's also plenty of resistance from colleagues. Filmmakers get uneasy when an illustrator, or any specialist, wants to crawl out of their niche, Lowery said. With only several dozen good illustrators, all primarily based in and around Hollywood, filmmakers don't like letting go of talented storyboard artists and searching for replacements.

Whether or not storyboard artists get an opportunity to direct, they won't be brushed aside again.

``Movies will probably go the way of fantastic ends, a combination of every reality we have - computers, miniatures and live action,'' Lowery said. ``If it goes that way, the storyboard will continue to be more important. The staging of it in sketch form will be the crux of putting it all together.''

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12 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) ART OF THE DEAL

Advances in films make illustrators like Robert Consing a Hollywood hot commodity

(2) Storyboard artist Robert Consing: ``It's really gratifying to execute (directors') vision on paper. You're communicating with visuals and doing the one thing (drawing) they can't do.''

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(3--4) (4--Color only) LOW ANGLE - GAMELE'S FEET ARE HIT

Storyboards can mirror final shots remarkably well.

(5--6) (6--Color only) SEAL TEAM PEEL OFF IN SHOWER

Other times, final shots differ slightly from original storyboards.

(7--8) (8--Color only) (no caption) Sean Connery

(9--10) (10--Color only) UNDERWATER, SEALS PASS OVER CAMERA

Storyboards can even reflect ambience and lighting.

(11--12) (11--Color only) SEAL SUB 2 AND SINGLE MAN UNITS READY TO DIVE

Illustrators draw intricate images, and that means detailed costumes and weapons.

Storyboards from ``The Rock'' by Robert Consing