How to Storyboard a Video

A storyboard exists to answer one question: what will this look like? It does not need to be good art. It needs to be unambiguous.

What each frame needs

• The framing — what is in shot and roughly where
• Any camera movement, shown with an arrow
• What happens in the shot, in a line of text
• The shot number, matching your shot list

If you cannot draw

1. 01Stick figures are genuinely fine. Position and framing are what matter.
2. 02Photograph the location and sketch over the photo.
3. 03Use reference frames — screenshots from films or videos with the framing you want.
4. 04Photograph a rough version with your phone and use those as the board.